2008 Audi R8 4.2 V8
Discussion
Hi All,
Thought I'd make a quick thread for my recently acquired R8.
To start off with a bit of ownership history, previous cars to this were a 2013 C63 AMG Coupe and then a 2016 Lotus Exige V6S. I sold the Lotus in October last year as I didn't fancy another Winter with it sitting in the garage doing nothing. I owned it for about 18 months - paid 44k retail and ended up selling for 39k privately. It was a fantastic car which felt genuinely special to take out and was very strong (upto about 100) in the performance stakes. It was however a little compromised in the usability department - in some respects this added to the 'specialness' but also meant it only got used purely as a toy when I felt like a drive.
Rewind forward to May this year, I'd just broken up with my girlfriend and inevitably got the itch for another special car again. I'm quite lucky as my work role means I get company AMG Mercs (43 and 53 not 63s) as my daily drivers. With everything going on in the world I didn’t want to expose myself to any massive depreciation and therefore set a budget of around 40k for something a bit unique.
I actually bid on a number of cars on collecting cars ranging from 996 Turbos to Z4MCs. I didn’t win any of those and got a bit fed up with losing every auction I entered so decided to head to the classifieds.
I’ve always had a hankering for an R8. I remember very clearly reading the launch review back in 2007 in evo magazine sat in the school library. Prices had seemed to be stable at about 40k for a nice V8 example with anything below looking a bit ex-rental.
However, when I started looking there were some nice examples for around 37k. Slightly more challenging was that I only wanted a manual one, which ruled out the majority of advertised cars. One day in May I had another look and found what I thought was the right car advertised by Top Gear Specialist cars in Scotland. This presented some challenges as due to the lockdown there was no chance of me really being able to go up and look at the car in person.
After some comforting research on the dealer in question and a number of conversations with the owner Carlo I decided to just go for it and placed a deposit over the phone. The car had done 39,000 miles, 2008, Phantom Black with Carbon blades and most of the desirable options (B&O, mag ride etc). My accepted offer was 34,500 delivered. To my surprise, Carlo said he would be delivering the car himself. Because of the high end nature of the dealership (they mostly sell Ferrari and Lamborghini), the car would be delivered in a covered trailer. I just had to get myself to a service station north of Birmingham to enable Carlo to get back up to Scotland the same day.
It was a bit of a strange experience collecting the car from a service station! When I arrived I had to cross the bridge over the M6 and when I descended into the car park on the southbound side I saw the car parked up looking immaculate. As promised, it had been driven down on a covered, branded trailer pulled by a lovely Maserati Levante.
The preparation standard was very high and the exterior looked immaculate with very nicely redone diamond cut wheels. Interior condition was good with some minor wear on the seats and the driver’s side exterior door spear (expected for the age and easy to sort).
Happy with the car’s condition, I said my goodbyes to Carlo and embarked on the journey home – this being the first time I had ever driven an R8!
My initial impressions are as follows:
Despite being an Audi the car feels special being mid-engined and very low. It got a remarkable amount of attention for an old girl on the drive back South. I took the opportunity to get of the motorways and drive some amazing country roads basked in sunshine from the recent nice weather we had.
Performance is good but it does need a lot of revs to really feel fast – this was something that I expected and I am really enjoying being able to work the engine and not be going stupid speeds. Engine noise is a bit quieter than I would like and I will be fitting a Top Gear (not the same company as the dealer) valved exhaust to sort this.
Grip levels are very high with a lot more front end grip generated vs my Exige which I always felt was under tired and too understeery for its track car reputation. Brakes also seem very strong but obviously this would only be really tested on track.
Plans for the car are lots of drives out with my car nut mates who all have some pretty special stuff. Two of them have 458 Spiders and the R8 seemed able to keep up fine on the twistys on a recent drive.
If I decide the car is a long term keeper I will likely do an interior re-trim with some contrast stitching to liven up the interior a bit. My exige was black with yellow calipers and stitching which I’m tempted to replicate here.
This had ended up longer than I expected so apologies for the waffling! All in all a very good start to R8 ownership. Pictures to follow.
Thought I'd make a quick thread for my recently acquired R8.
To start off with a bit of ownership history, previous cars to this were a 2013 C63 AMG Coupe and then a 2016 Lotus Exige V6S. I sold the Lotus in October last year as I didn't fancy another Winter with it sitting in the garage doing nothing. I owned it for about 18 months - paid 44k retail and ended up selling for 39k privately. It was a fantastic car which felt genuinely special to take out and was very strong (upto about 100) in the performance stakes. It was however a little compromised in the usability department - in some respects this added to the 'specialness' but also meant it only got used purely as a toy when I felt like a drive.
Rewind forward to May this year, I'd just broken up with my girlfriend and inevitably got the itch for another special car again. I'm quite lucky as my work role means I get company AMG Mercs (43 and 53 not 63s) as my daily drivers. With everything going on in the world I didn’t want to expose myself to any massive depreciation and therefore set a budget of around 40k for something a bit unique.
I actually bid on a number of cars on collecting cars ranging from 996 Turbos to Z4MCs. I didn’t win any of those and got a bit fed up with losing every auction I entered so decided to head to the classifieds.
I’ve always had a hankering for an R8. I remember very clearly reading the launch review back in 2007 in evo magazine sat in the school library. Prices had seemed to be stable at about 40k for a nice V8 example with anything below looking a bit ex-rental.
However, when I started looking there were some nice examples for around 37k. Slightly more challenging was that I only wanted a manual one, which ruled out the majority of advertised cars. One day in May I had another look and found what I thought was the right car advertised by Top Gear Specialist cars in Scotland. This presented some challenges as due to the lockdown there was no chance of me really being able to go up and look at the car in person.
After some comforting research on the dealer in question and a number of conversations with the owner Carlo I decided to just go for it and placed a deposit over the phone. The car had done 39,000 miles, 2008, Phantom Black with Carbon blades and most of the desirable options (B&O, mag ride etc). My accepted offer was 34,500 delivered. To my surprise, Carlo said he would be delivering the car himself. Because of the high end nature of the dealership (they mostly sell Ferrari and Lamborghini), the car would be delivered in a covered trailer. I just had to get myself to a service station north of Birmingham to enable Carlo to get back up to Scotland the same day.
It was a bit of a strange experience collecting the car from a service station! When I arrived I had to cross the bridge over the M6 and when I descended into the car park on the southbound side I saw the car parked up looking immaculate. As promised, it had been driven down on a covered, branded trailer pulled by a lovely Maserati Levante.
The preparation standard was very high and the exterior looked immaculate with very nicely redone diamond cut wheels. Interior condition was good with some minor wear on the seats and the driver’s side exterior door spear (expected for the age and easy to sort).
Happy with the car’s condition, I said my goodbyes to Carlo and embarked on the journey home – this being the first time I had ever driven an R8!
My initial impressions are as follows:
Despite being an Audi the car feels special being mid-engined and very low. It got a remarkable amount of attention for an old girl on the drive back South. I took the opportunity to get of the motorways and drive some amazing country roads basked in sunshine from the recent nice weather we had.
Performance is good but it does need a lot of revs to really feel fast – this was something that I expected and I am really enjoying being able to work the engine and not be going stupid speeds. Engine noise is a bit quieter than I would like and I will be fitting a Top Gear (not the same company as the dealer) valved exhaust to sort this.
Grip levels are very high with a lot more front end grip generated vs my Exige which I always felt was under tired and too understeery for its track car reputation. Brakes also seem very strong but obviously this would only be really tested on track.
Plans for the car are lots of drives out with my car nut mates who all have some pretty special stuff. Two of them have 458 Spiders and the R8 seemed able to keep up fine on the twistys on a recent drive.
If I decide the car is a long term keeper I will likely do an interior re-trim with some contrast stitching to liven up the interior a bit. My exige was black with yellow calipers and stitching which I’m tempted to replicate here.
This had ended up longer than I expected so apologies for the waffling! All in all a very good start to R8 ownership. Pictures to follow.
Dave Hedgehog said:
I'm very excited. All booked in at REPerformance in Swindon. The car will have a full carbon clean done at the same time as these are usually required at this mileage.I don't think that is the exact exhaust i'm getting. As far as I know there are two variants - one more muscle car sounding and one much more F1 scream/exotic. I've gone for the F1 sounding example. I've seen a few tunnel clips from one that had it fitted and it sounded incredible. Much like a Capristo'd 355.
Hi all,
Car has been in for a detail this week. I collect it tonight but some pictures from my detailer below:
And a final image taken pre-detail...
Tomorrow the car goes in to REP for a carbon clean and top gear performance exhaust. After that I will be done spending money for a while!
Car has been in for a detail this week. I collect it tonight but some pictures from my detailer below:
And a final image taken pre-detail...
Tomorrow the car goes in to REP for a carbon clean and top gear performance exhaust. After that I will be done spending money for a while!
Update:
Collected car today from having the exhaust fitted and carbon clean done.
Carbon clean first - there was lots of build up apparently. I do feel a notice improvement in low down torque and it feels like the car revs more cleanly. Difficult to tell to be honest but engine just feels happier.
Exhaust: oh..my..god. The best money I have ever spent on a car. Driving experience transformed and it sounds properly exotic. Valves open it is crazy crazy loud but also a lovely exhaust tone that builds to a howl (think capristo 355) at about 6k rpm. The engine literally becomes a musical instrument and I'm over the moon with it.
Collected car today from having the exhaust fitted and carbon clean done.
Carbon clean first - there was lots of build up apparently. I do feel a notice improvement in low down torque and it feels like the car revs more cleanly. Difficult to tell to be honest but engine just feels happier.
Exhaust: oh..my..god. The best money I have ever spent on a car. Driving experience transformed and it sounds properly exotic. Valves open it is crazy crazy loud but also a lovely exhaust tone that builds to a howl (think capristo 355) at about 6k rpm. The engine literally becomes a musical instrument and I'm over the moon with it.
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