Coincidentally ran into 7 R8s on my way to Vermont...

[soho]

Early Saturday morning, I left Tribeca and headed north on the West Side Highway. Surprisingly, I caught eye of an R8 -- only the second one I had ever seen outside of a dealership. I followed it for a brief moment, and realized it was going too slow for my liking and went onward.

Ten minutes later, by some luck, I managed to miss my exit for the George Washington Bridge and was instead headed north on 95. Getting back to the GW Bridge and eventually onto the Palisades Interstate Parkway took 15 minutes longer than I had intended it to. Well, a few minutes later, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw not one, not two, but seven R8s in the distance. Naturally, I slowed down and let them catch up.

A few minutes later, the lead of the trailing R8s flashed his lights at me a few hundred yards ahead of a scenic overlook on the PIP. I pulled into it and three of the seven R8s followed me. A gentleman got out of his car, ran over to my window and handed me a radio, and said, "Follow us to the next outlook." Without even giving me a minute to reply, he jumped back into his silver V10 coupe, and I followed them over to the next post.

As it turns out, Audi of America coordinated a drive for potential buyers in the Manhattan area (and apparently there will be more of these in the near future -- I will report back when I get more information). It was a great experience to see all of these beautiful machines and for once not feel a bit self-conscience about the car I was driving. I was asked a lot of questions by the drivers since no one owned an R8 or knew anyone that did and I enjoyed giving them as much information as I could. Even the Audi representatives were a bit impressed.

Here's a quick photo and video of the group. When I have a minute, I'll upload more of the R8s together, and of my weekend trip to Vermont.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the best part. Since the group was testing out the R8s, many drivers elected to switch up cars at the mid-way point. One driver, who must not have been paying attention to me when I was being asked questions as an owner, was apparently keen on taking my R8 back to Manhattan with him. He got in, started her up, and was all buckled in before one of the other drivers reminded him that it wasn't going back with them



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0iHYAci-Bw&hd=1"]Eight Audi R8s on the Palisades Interstate Parkway - YouTube[/ame]

[the_buch]

Great story. I'm just back from a San Fran/Sonoma vacation and didn't see a single R8 in ten days. Did see a few other exotics but got the continuing sense of how rare our cars are?

[NVRL8R8]

That's pretty cool!

[hblocal]

What are the odds of that! Great story and thanks for posting vid/pics and sharing. Did they only bring V10's? Surprised they didn't have V8's to compare. This is another reason I like the ownership of the R8, they make the car accessible to potential customers and let the proof in the pudding so to speak do the rest...unlike other exotic brands. Did they tell you who and why the lucky participants were selected?

[Newspyderv10man]

Thanks for sharing. Like a dream having a drive with so many R8s.

[technomania]

cool cool..we should do that on a bigger scale!!
How about an R8 meet in 2012????

[g-force]

drove for 15 days around all of europe saw only 1 4.2 coupe in Munich on my last day.
2500 miles of driving saw dozens of F cars few L cars numerous P cars.

[mmaturo]

Ha! Audi of NA was just in Chicago doing this the weekend before with the same cars "R8 Experience"...I drove one of the red spyders...the last one in your video. They did have a mix of V8s and V10s and mine was actually a V8 spyder that i did not know was in the US already. Great event to get a chance to play with it as certainly a future buyer. Looks like their drive was way more fun. Ours was about 45 minutes on Lake Shore Drive with a long stop to talk in a random parking lot. Got to floor it a few times so did get to feel it.

[SebringSilver]

When I first read the thread title, I thought you got into a gigantic car accident.