Well chaps, here are my impressions, balanced and hopefully interesting


Summary
I moved the test drive to today from yesterday as it was raining cats and dogs whilst today is a beautiful sunny day.

The expectations were high, as ever , given the great rep the car's got, the performance statistcs on paper and the fact it's a quasi Lambo.

Again, the venues were the streets of Tokyo, so nowhere to give it a proper go but I've tried to give a few scares to the salesguy! He was also kind enough to suggest a nip down the highway, which I readily took up and off we went booming down the Shuto Expressway (or whatever it's called!).

The R8 is still a rare beast here in Tokyo. I am yet to see one on the road and since its launch in Japan in July last year, only 25 vehicles have been sold in Tokyo, so in terms of rarity value it probably beats just about any car.

The car had 2,500 km on the clock, so not quite run in yet apparently, and came with the Rtronic gear (similar to the Lambo's e-gear). The Japan spec'd car is about 80kgs heavier than its European cousin, according to the salesguy mostly due to the 19'' standard wheels (vs 18''), SatNav and … well, he didn't say anything else, which tells me he needs to do some homework.

Here are my thoughts on specific points about the car.


Exteriors
The car came in my favourite combo: dark metallic grey with carbon fibre side panels.

Yet, come push to shove, I don't like the look of it. When you look at the front, it's like a bigger TT, which is actually not bad at all. And the rear is quite attractive, but put together, the fluid front and the sharp lines of the back don't mesh together well.

The different colour on the side panels make the car look longer and more squashed, which I find quite unattractive all in all. I know you can order the side panels of the same colour of the rest of the car, but given there is a gap in the panels, it's probably even worse looking.

I guess if you like the way Audis look, you'll love the R8. I find the current Audi set pleasant to look at but nothing to shout home about and the R8 sort of missed the chance to make itself a bit more special with some bolder design of the front.

My 2 ¥ as usual


Interiors
The interiors are high end Audi. A little sterile but very well put together and with a very solid feel. I testdrove a car with basic interiors, which have alcantara inserts in the leather seats and some sort of hard plastic material for the rest of the cabin, with optional carbon trim. I also sat in one with the full leather pack (where the whole thing is made of leather) with carbon fibre and to be honest, it's not worth shelling out another £4,500 or so for the full leather. It's not that the full leather spec is not good, but the basic spec is really good enough.

The seats are sporty and would hold you perfectly if you had a slim figure, which I don't have. As such, I can't give it full marks, though thinner people will certainly love them.

Visibility is rather good, with large rear view mirrors and an ok rear glass, though the rear window was creaking throughout the testdrive . I mean, Audi quality and all and I get a creaky rear window on an R8??? Puzzling.

The steering wheel's shape is sporty, with the bottom bit flat. It offers a nice grip and feel though I think it should have been a bit thicker, to give you a feel you are holding on a mean car. The Rtronic has paddles stuck to the back of the steering wheel, which I found less than optimal when you want to change gear upon turning. You can use the gear shift too, to shift up and down, so no big issue, but they should have made them fixed, just like my GranSport.

Still, the overall driving position is very good and I couldn't fault it much (beside the need to be on a diet!).

The aircon had an odd knocking sound coming from it, noticeable if driving at low speed, which I don't know if it is a quality issue or it's meant to have that.

Finally, the cabin is very, very quiet at low speed and almost … well … ."wrong". I wouldn't buy a supercar to be sitting comfortably inside it listening to music. I wanna listen to the engine screaming, but then again there may be loads of other people who'd rather be listening to Celine Dion whilst driving their 300kmh car


Engine
The engine is a great piece of work. It's a powerful V8 which really comes alive at over 4k RPMs. The car has a lot of poke, no doubt about it.

In the right gear, the throttle response is immediate, linear and felt awesome!

The sound of the engine is a bit whiney, it actually feels/sounds it's supercharged.

Yet, when you go down to it, this is a great engine, no doubt about it.


Handling
Mixing city driving with highway driving, I think I got a decent understanding of the car, though clearly not about its out-and-out performance given I wasn't on a track.

The steering is lightish though very precise, I honestly think Audi have got a great combination of comfort vs accuracy, though it's not as engaging as an Italian car, if you know what I mean. Still, I wouldn't mind having a car with that set up at all!

This car came with the optional magnetic ride adjustable suspensions, which offer two modes: normal and stiff (the latter best to be mated with the car's "sport" mode). In normal mode, the car felt very comfortable and we went over some quite rough roads, and in stiff mode, I felt it added more composure under braking though at a price, as the car was quite bouncy.

The brakes are amazing, simply amazing. Much sharper than any other set of brakes I tried so far. It took a bit to adjust to that super grip but once I got the hang of it, they were fabulous.


Gearbox
The Rtronic gearbox is a clutchless manual that doesn't quite kick and scream like the CambioCorsa in my GranSport but it is very good.

According to the salesguy, the sport button in this car opens some valve on the exhaust to make the car sound louder and it quickens the shifts in auto mode. In essence, when driving in auto with sport mode on, the lower possible RPM for a shift change is upped to 4k RPMs, whilst it's 3k RPMs or less in auto mode without the sport button pressed.

The auto mode is good, rather adaptive to the way you're driving but a bit sluggish, the one I tried in the M6 is much better.

The manual mode is the one I prefer and it works well. Not as engaging as I'd like it and not as flawless as the one in the M6, but works well and well enough for you not to notice it.

I guess, having had a go in a few cars with this type of clutchless manual transmission, a lot depends on your driving style and how you can adapt it to the way the gearbox works. Probably because the CC on the GranSport is a bit idiosyncratic, I found the R8's gearbox easier to live with, compared to the M6's, despite being probably less "perfect".


Conclusion
All in all, an everyday supercar that delivers great performance at a decent price, compared to exotica. Yet, if price is the main driver, one cannot but help think the Nissan GT-R, an even faster machine, is the best option, right?

We don't think about these supercars using our brains, but our hearts and a supercar need to tick all the boxes: looks, sound, performance, interiors, rarity value and whatnot.

The R8 ticks a lot of boxes, just not all of them. Though if I were in the market for a supercar, the R8 would be very difficult not to make it into my shortlist. It just isnt' as earth shattering engaging as the Gallardo.


Post Scriptum
The salesguy was very helpful all in all, let me drive the car on the highway and for a long while and in the end, he gave me a carbon fibre "R8" pen, which is quite nice!

Still, not as good as the lady translator at the Lambo dealer


Post Scriptum 2
Salesguy told me that a new RS6 is coming up soon with 580hp and priced more expensive than the R8.


That's all folks!

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1934 - 1938 - 1982 - 2006

Thank you for the interesting review, the car isnt rare at all in germany though, you can see it all the time here. But thanks for the insights