London Unveil Event

[Paul]

Well ... I've finally woken up properly ... although I've been up since just after five to get back home and to work for a few hours this morning.

What a night!

Met up with 'TTej', 'jampoTT' and their partners ... always nice to put faces to names when you normally only interact on line with other forum members. Both the guys and their partners were friendly and it was great to meet them.

Anyway, before I get sidetracked too much ... back to the event itself!

I arrived just before 7pm and enjoyed my first walk up a 'red carpet' ... all the meeting and greeting people were very nice and there was an ample supply of champagne for all to enjoy ... along with various other drinks, including some rather nice 'cherry vodka' shots ... mmmm

It was nice to chat with the other guys from the site and other people there who had an interest in the R8. It was also nice to meet the external design chief ... I duly shook his hand and thanked him for his work ... yes the car is just as impressive in the flesh as it is in the photos you'll all have been looking at on the internet.

It's going to be a tough call between the phantom black and the dark blue to be seen on the German configuration site ... although there will be a rather rapid bright yellow Audi flying round next year if 'jampoTT' gets his way with the colour selection process!

A little gutted I didn't get to try the food merrily moving round the conveyor belt on the sushi style food area ... with all the bubbly I was drinking I could have done with something to soak it up ... but by the time I'd finished chatting to everyone and my thoughts turned to food ... they'd stopped serving ... or had run out!

The atmosphere was pretty good to start with ... but once the formal speech, video previews and the unveiling itself had finished ... it went a little flat ... imho ... sure everyone was buzzing round the car and people were chatting to whoever they ended up standing next to while they were getting a close up look round and in the car itself ... but ... again imho ... I think the background music was a little loud ... sure it was great hearing Beverly Knight belt out some of her songs, she sounded really good live ... but after she'd finished her performance the background music was too loud for talking to the person next to you ... unless you shouted at them, or spoke directly into their ear. A minor criticism, but not having been to anything like this before, these are the thoughts of someone following their first car unveiling education.

All in all a very good evening ... the 'item of jewellery' ... in the goody bag that we got to take away was ... imho ... not the best idea that Audi have had ... sure its got a link to the R8 ... as it is a silver coloured 8 on a leather lace ... mine is already discoloured where there is presumably still some kind of moisture in the leather, or from something the leather has been treated with. Needless to say, I don't think myself, or my other half, will be wearing it! Not being a Manchester United fan ... I'm not overly impressed about having two photos of the R8 with five players all grinning away at the camera ... I'd much rather have had them airbrushed out of the photos and been able to enjoy the line of the car, rather than their ugly mugs! Some of the photos on the CD are quite good ... although many, if not all of them, have been seen before ... so not really worth posting them up here.

From what I can gather the waiting list will be worked through as closely as possible ... i.e. first come first served, as it were ... however, if you want something on the car that isn't a current option, i.e. ceramic brakes, you will slip down the delivery line until ceramic brakes are available and if you're the first person on the list to request them presumably you'll get the first car with ceramic brakes ... but obviously not before many people further down the list have got their cars without ceramic brakes.

Poor 'TTej' looks like he'll have to wait till almost this time next year to get his R8 ... if he insists on red leather seats ... something that he was most upset about last night ... whilst at the same time arguing quite reasonably that why can't Audi just send a couple of red cows waiting to cover some seats for a TT over to the R8 team so they could cover his seats in May, rather than September? After all, the red cows are already available, so why should he have to wait another four months before the red cows can be used to cover his seats?

Anyway, I think I've waffled and rambled on far to much, so I'll finish off here ... if I've said anything above which someone is upset about then I apologise now ... the above is just my thoughts and recollection from an evening where I drank too much Champagne, had too many Cherry Vodka shots ... and didn’t eat anywhere near enough food to compensate!

Don't give up your deposits ... you'll not be disappointed ... now where is my survey about Manual or R-Tronic ... I need to vote!

[Paul]

Oh yes ... whilst speaking to one of the men wearing a badge of four rings ... he confirmed that the V10 will find it's way into the engine bay ... although it probably won't be in one that will leave a showroom in the hands of a customer ... until 2008.

Numbers wise ... it seems that the UK are due to get around 450 cars in the first year of production ... then a similar number, maybe a few more though, in the second year of production ... after that they are hoping to double the number of cars built for the UK in the third year of production ... then in the fourth year of production the numbers will be scaled down over a couple of years ... therefore the R8 might only be built for six years.

The number of R8s due to be built for the UK market during the first four years of production seem to be fairly certain ... although it must be stressed that the length of time that the R8 will be built ... is purely my impression.

However, I get the feeling that ... unlike the 911 ... the R8 will not be built for anywhere near the same lenght of time ... or more importantly it won't be built in anywhere near the numbers that the 911 is.

I suspect there will be fewer R8s than Aston Martins ... although obviously there is more than one model in the Aston range ... and we're only looking at the numbers for one of Audi's model types.

[Paul]

Who else was there from the site that we didn't manage to spot and say hello to ... ... and more importantly ... what did you think of the event ... and the R8 itself ...

[jampoTT]

I agree pretty much with your entire write-up - much the same happened to me regarding the food, but I fear the Passion Fruit ****tails on top of the champers were my downfall, and I only have the vaguest recollection of the journey home, and a cracking hangover this morning

Still, I remember the car though... and it was every bit as good in the flesh as I'd hoped. I love the placement of the rings on the bonnet, and the LED running lights are simply stunning.

The car really does look like nothing else on the road. Of course it has some strong Audi styling influences, but (for me) its as groundbreaking as the TT was all those years ago in terms of being "unique".

I actually did like it in black (and I'm not usually a fan of black cars) but my heart yearns for yellow. I spent 2.5 years driving a TT which I did really like, but ALWAYS wished I'd had a stronger, more individual colour (than silver) - and my last 2 cars have been a bright orange 350z followed by a stunning Nogaro Blue S4... So I do think I need to keep the theme of opting for a bold / strong colour choice.

Imola Yellow, a carbon blade and black leather should give me what I need.

Good to meet Tej again (I'll try and make the 13th!) and good to meet you for the first time, Paul...

Can't believe we now have to wait 6 months to get behind the wheel properly, but at least it'll give me chance to save up some cash so I can afford it!

[jet]

Must be nice! I guess I will just have to wait accross the pond here for our chance. Hopefully one or more of you get them to put out yellow and maybe also red seats (not on the yellow) so it is a regular option choice over here when we get to order.

[TTej]

What a night! firstly great to meet you Paul, and JampoTT always a pleasue, make sure you and Lisa make it on the 13th.

The night was very interesting and not having been to an event like this before was really enjoyable.

I had far too much champagne with not enough food, the result waking up at 11 without any chance of me making the office.

The gift packs were great, better without man u but hey they only go tot see the car with 18 inch wheels where we had the full fat 19's.

Fantasic car, looks amazing in the metal and real shame about the red seats, but lets see what happens.

Its very funny what girls get away with, my girlfriend asked one of the Audi guys if she could take some pics, and to my surprise he said yes!

Here is a couple.








Manual is the ONLY choice in my eyes!

[ekool]

Wow, I love the interior shot. The gauge cluster looks awesome!

[Paul]

Looks like you were there to the very end by judging by the number of people in the background of those pictures ... and I have to agree ... manual is now the only choice for me too ... fabulous box to look at and use!

[ekool]

I actually hope the shifter is not gated, makes power shifting from 2 to 3 near impossible

[Paul]

I actually hope the shifter is not gated, makes power shifting from 2 to 3 near impossible

I've not been fortunate enough to actually drive a car with a gated shift ... but the R8 gated box simply flew from 2nd to 3rd if you kept your hand open on the side of the stick and caressed it through the shift ... if you hold the stick tightly with your fingers wrapped round it quick shifts are not what you're going to get ... or at least that's how I see it ... time will tell thoguh I suppose.

If you look closely at TTej's photo of the gated box ... you can see the tops of the bars that form the gate openings are slightly curved in favour of gear shifts when you are going ... 'up through the box'.

Maybe I'll have to see if I can find some snaps of Ferrari/Lambo/Maserati gated boxes ... just to compare them of course ... I'll not be going off and buying any of them you understand.