MonkeyBoy GT Adventure

[ianerrid]

[Garyhun]

That interior does look rather scrummy!!!!

[Monkey boy UK]

What a fantastic experience, Audi picked me up in an A8 limo, took me to Manchester airport, business class to Frankfurt, Limo to the GP circuit hotel in Nurburg, i met 7 other lucky UK GT customers, there were also about 8 from Germany and 8 from France, then drinks, dinner & an intro into what lay ahead for the next day and the instructors.

After breakfast we went over to the Audi pits hospitality suite, the usual briefing and then at 9am out to the cars, they had about 30 R8s, mainly V10s and 4 GTs, we had been allocated a co pilot and spent all day until about 4.30pm doing the usual tasks, slalom, cornering, racing line broken up into 4 areas of the GP circuit changing cars and sharing with the co driver, all in all about 5 hours of driving inc about 2 hours of continual gp laps.

Now, the juicy bits! what do i think of the GT?

I can’t put across how good this car is on track, the V10 is amazing on track but the GT is just another league, the road holding is astounding, much firmer ride with no mag ride, there is more torque & the car pulls effortlessly, the 85/15 rear biased quattro set up means you can take corners much quicker with little under steer / over steer.

Now i have never owned an r tronic and hardly ever driven one so this was a concern, i have to say it was very easy to use in manual sport and my fears where soon forgotten on day to day ownership with R-T, the exhaust note was a little disappointing, i had hoped it would be much louder than the V10, it was different but i would say it was not much louder, when questioning Audi bigwigs on this they blame this on EU noise level regs, sod that, i think i will tinker with this element when mine arrives, but i would not change anything else, the bucket seats made a huge difference too giving you more control and comfort in high speed cornering as did the carbon brakes, most of the V10s had standard brakes and juddered in varying degrees, very off-putting when you’re driving at the limit.

To sum up, i am now more than happy to spec my car up and proceed, the various cars had different interior features which made selection allot easier as there is no real brochure for this car and the dealership have not got much of an idea of what can or cannot be done,

So, Samoa orange it is for me, the alcantara interior with orange stitching, and the orange body colour to the centre control and doors, seat back and so on, carbon brakes and a few other touches, all in all about £152k on the road, well worth every penny in my opinion.

Talking to the various other future owners from UK a large amount of them are buying the car as a future investment, some to move on with a few months for profit & some to track and very few such as myself as a day to day car, will i keep it? i don’t know at this stage, i would like to think so but no doubt something new will come along, on that note, i was invited last week to register my interest in the Quattro sport which of course i did, the inside info on this is that it will very likely go into production, they are looking at sites for producing this and interest has been overwhelming, Audi say between 300 and 500 would be built as a special celebration of the original car, get your name down, that will be one future classic indeed!

Colin

[mngolfer]

Colin,
Does the car come with 4 or 5 point seat belts? I think this would be a must for any track car.

[Monkey boy UK]

Colin,
Does the car come with 4 or 5 point seat belts? I think this would be a must for any track car.

You can speck it with normal 3 point for ever day use or 4 point ones as in the pics above, i agree, for track the 4 point are good but not for every day use as its a bit of a pain getting them fastened, also, these have heavy metal bits which clang about the trim, i can see that with every day use the trim would get chipped ans scratched from them, for me its the 3 point as i will use the car on the road.

[Bodhii]

Great write up. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a most wonderful trip, that was both great fun and very informative. I'm sure the GT model is a considerable step up. Can't wait to see one perform on a track near me.

[FiftyPence]

Sounds great Colin, when do we get to see 'that' video?

[the_buch]

Sounds like a super experience ... kudos to Audi for treating you right! I'm loving the Samoa Orange!!

[Monkey boy UK]

Videos of the cars in the pits, close up details of engine bay and interior / exterior of the white and orange GTs, sorry for the heavy breathing! it was bloody cold.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox8sXQHBcm8"]YouTube - New Audi R8 GT at the Ring[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa0wSvmCyWQ"]YouTube - Audi R8 GT in Samoa orange & matt white[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRDJzxRSTzg"]YouTube - R8 GT at the Nurburgring[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPn4n7SQKYQ"]YouTube - R8 GT wheel and detail close up[/ame]

[MikeB]

And wet. What was it like to drive on a slippery track?

Can't wait to see it. Planning a wee trip in it next summer? I have just the support car.