German Sport Auto-R8 and Gallardo SL

[Kreso]

R8 / Superleggra

Tires: Pirelli P Zero corsa (semi-R-tires, both cars)

0-100km/h: 4.7 / 4.0 sec
0-160km/h: 10,5 / 8,9 sec
0-200km/h: 16,2 / 13,6 sec

Slalom: 68,6 / 70,7 km/h
Hockenheim: 1.12,7 / 1.10,9 min

The Audi R8 jumps into the world of sports cars like a bomb, a car not just for a Concours d´Elegance but also for the track with outstandig driving dynamics, a new entry the others have to look after, but also a perfect daily drive.

The Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera raises the standard for all sports cars, best performance in all disciplines but not as good as a daily drive as the R8, a bit more extreme and much more expensive.

R8 is IMHO the best allround sportscar on the market-period!

Few extra infos-R8 is manual. R-Tronic is a tad slower on the track-this info is accurate!
Also R8 used in the article(and for Supertest-next issue!) is with normal suspension-not Magnetic Ride!! Why? Standard chassis is the SPORTY one! R8 with Magnetic Ride is little bit slower on the track-again accurate info!
Ceramic brakes(8820 Euro in Germany with Mwst) are amazing and they are a MUST. Bucket seats(in test car as well) saves you around 15kg's... Also a must IMHO.

So, if you want the most sporty allaround sportscar order your R8 in this specs(like mine!):

Manual
Standard suspension
19"(you can add Corsa's as well)
Ceramic Brakes
Bucket seats(in full leather)

Just a clue for Supertest-as fast as F430 or 997 Turbo on the Ring... Faster in wet then most other sportscars...

Gallardo SL... The best car in its class IMHO. Even F430 LP will not ba able to touch him! Why? Some spies measured some sector times on the Ring.

BTW, in this issue they also tested Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster with Sportshift... Car is slow-on the road and on the track. Also manual is far better choice then undeveloped Sportsshift...

[R8chris]

hello Kreso

nice seeing you back with good info.. already started to miss your posts
and thanks for the hints on spec, but i wont change mine as first i am satisfied and second, i want to have the car in july!!!
got standard breaks and seats, magnetic ride and manual.. I wont beat schumi, but thats not my goal anyway

hope press is continuing with good articles

[SFR8]

Good to hear from you Kreso. I think the ceramic brakes and bucket seat also make your car a little lighter. I agreed that R8 is the best all around naturally aspirated sportscar in the market right now.

[L3MAN]

hello Kreso

nice seeing you back with good info.. already started to miss your posts
and thanks for the hints on spec, but i wont change mine as first i am satisfied and second, i want to have the car in july!!!
got standard breaks and seats, magnetic ride and manual.. I wont beat schumi, but thats not my goal anyway

hope press is continuing with good articles

Nicely put, as much as I would like buckets I would not want to wait until next year for them. July / August delivery for me outways the few 1/10th I would save in time.

Nice to see you back Kresol, the site has been a bit quite of late.

[wanabe]

kreso- wondering why not magnetic ride?? other than that, i get it!!

[Guilty]

kreso- wondering why not magnetic ride?? other than that, i get it!!

Yes me too. Now it's maybe a bit slower on the track but I'm not every day on the track. On the road the ride is much better.

And as far as Kreso told me the roads in Croatia are not always that good, so Magnetic Ride is a must then?

And Audi told me that they will improve the magnetic ride software. So it can be tweaked!

[Kreso]

Here is my point guys:

-standard suspension saves some weight-Magneti Ride suspension elements brings around 5kg's of additional weight
-did any of you actually drive R8 with standard suspension? It is very, very good indeed. Much more composed then Magnetic Ride, at least in its current stage of development
-standard suspension will be trouble free as possible! Magnetic Ride very reliable? We need to see... But, service cost of replacing Magnetic Ride elements are MUCH higher then the one on standard(and you can bet trouble free!) suspension
-call me purist but, I like to know my car as much as possible! With standard suspension you have only one car character. With Magnetic Ride you have two...
-Magnetic Ride is originally developed with COMFORT as a first priority, NOT drive dynamics...
-R8 is a true sportscar not GT-ish combo so, let it be sportscar!
-what if I told you that R8 with Magnetic Ride is too soft in normal(comfort) mode and too stiff in Sport mode? Standard suspension is just perfect IMHO...
-why did Audi send then R8 with Standard suspension to Sport Auto for Supertest? Supertest features track test's at both Hockenheim and Nordschleife... Since we all know that Nordschleife is far from smooth and flat-we got pretty good answer here about choice of suspension... At least IMHO.

Also about Ceramic Brakes-they need to improve its feeling a lot... They are almost non responsive at first and then they bite as hell! Modulation is far from perfect at the moment... They need to replace pads with softer ones and recalibrate ABS before Ceramics come to price list and become officially available...

[BSR]

All the ones at Arizona training were standard, and those cars were unbelieveable on the track! (of course, not driving the car w/ the magnet dealio doesnt really help with a comparison )

RB

[RS4-Junkie]

I just know the Standard suspension on the R8 and its just simple to use it alldays and on track in a fast way. I tested a TT with Magnetic ride and dont really like the feeling. It was great on fast tracks, like the Autobahn. But on sharp corners with low speed you miss the direct feedback front your steering wheel. I'd order w/o Mag.Ride
CISC are great, no doubt. But you can save the money, when you dont use the car in the track. Otheriwse, I love my CISC on the RS4 ... ok, I'd order them Interieur should be reduced to a useful level of comfort & sport, maybe like http://www.hbdk.de/r8/r8_Konfig_1.pdf (German version)

[Marrelius]

I presume you all know this one. Still, it is always nice to re-read how the R8 thrashed the 911 Turbo.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/auto...81.html?page=1