Firstly, for all of those who have never seen an Audi R8, or don’t even know what it is, have a look here. Audi’s already have a sterling reputation, whether it’s their new or used cars, and the Audi R8 certainly adheres to this. The Audi badge may not represent glitz and glamour as much as most supercar makes, but the R8 more than belongs in this class of car. With rugged good looks and performance that equals, if not surpasses, that of many current established supercar models, the Audi R8 should certainly be taken into consideration for any well-off car enthusiast.
History
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A nice looking Audi R8. License: Creative Commons image credit: sndiffusion Flickr
The name Audi R8 stretches right back as far December 1998; this is when the Audi LeMans racecar was unveiled. Off the back of numerous successful track races, Audi decided to unveil an R8 road-car in the September of 2006. The car went on to capture the attention and imagination of everyone at the Paris Motor Show through it’s stylish good looks and impressive performance.
Such was the company’s belief in the car, it lined up numerous times beside Audi’s iconic Auto Union Type C, both for motor shows and show drives. Since then, the Audi R8 has gone on to win numerous track races and get plenty of exposure through films such as Iron Man. The Audi E-Tron, the electric version of the R8, continues to be under development, although it did appear in Iron Man 3 as Tony Stark’s personal car.
Style
The styling of the Audi R8 pretty much speaks for itself. Sleek, smooth and classy; aerodynamically balanced to perfection; a mouth-watering finish. All of these elements make the Audi R8 an incredibly desirable car. The now instantly recognizable headlights of the R8 are being introduced across the whole Audi range. Not only do they look both elegant yet terrifying, they also provide a safety feature as the row of LED lights are clearly visible.
photo: Creative Commons / Niyathy
With the primary function of a car’s grill being to cool the engine down, Audi have included the R8’s grill purely from an aesthetic point of view seeing as the engine is at the back of the car. It sure seems to be a spot of designing-genius.
Performance
Simply by looking at the Audi R8 you can tell that it has a performance to match the appearance. Equipped with a 4.2 V8 or 5.2 V10, either option are staggeringly fast, yet somewhat composed and elegant. Each engine provide plenty of pull and acceleration at both low and high revs, but the V10 is truly a phenomenal engine. You’ll very rarely (or never) get it up to its top speed of 318 kp/h. Even if you do manage to find somewhere to reach top speed, you may not even want to, as it proves to be an utterly terrifying experience.
Overall, the Audi R8 ticks all the supercar boxes in performance, appearance and ownership, while proving to everyone that it is more than capable of keeping pace with the big boys.
