Plays Well By Itself
Audi R8 is a superbly balanced, classically styled, high-powered sports car
By DUTCH MANDEL
6:00 am, January 25, 2007
What is a supercar and how do you qualify it? Is that moniker bestowed because of the money spent, its performance or the expectation of exclusivity? Do all these determine supercar status?
For now, we make that decision, and while there are vastly more expensive rides, some slightly quicker cars and others that will sell in fewer numbers than Audi’s R8, this clearly qualifies for such class ranking. Interestingly enough, it does not suffer from the traditional concerns that carmakers have in terms of targeting competition, because there was no target for Audi engineers; they were to craft a flagship without regard to competition. Besides which, the VW Audi Group has the Lamborghini Gallardo, an all-purpose sports car whose unbridled performance aims squarely at Stuttgart and Porsche, as well as Maranello and Ferrari.
No, Audi had the ability—and the charge—of crafting its own target. As best as we will tell, the R8 is more refined than a Porsche and has better balance and on-road manners; it is clearly more sophisticated than a Ferrari F430 or a Ford GT; it has creditable performance on par with others in class (0-62 in a conservative 4.6 seconds), with all-wheel drive to boot; its style is unmatched, except perhaps by something from Mercedes or McLaren, but if those are its competitors it blows one away on its tactile experience and the other on price-value relationship.
Simply, the Audi R8 is in a class by itself. Yeah, those are robust words—and to faithful followers of other marques, too often fighting words—but Audi isn’t spoiling for a fight. The R8 has no competition; there should be no cross-shopping, no head-to-head comparison that is either fair or appropriate. (Number weenies will say it’s all about who gets to 60 mph faster or which car is lighter or what the top speed might be; those numbers are tales of the tape. In a heavyweight title bout the numbers are facts, but rarely do they crown a champion.) This is about how the R8 behaves, how it makes you feel, how it will elevate you in standing with the rest of your car-crazed friends that is most important.
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