Anyway I digress, the 3 main choices boiled down to Ferrari 458, McLaren 12c and Audi R8 and it fast became clear that the first 2 were still outside my budget, this time
. Both the 458 and 12C start at £170K and head north from there, and Lamborghini was out as everyone knew the replacement for the Gallardo was on the horizon . For my first supercar I wasn't entirely happy going used either. The warranty issue not withstanding there is a whole different set of figures when you compare new and user cars. Porsche was out as well, have had a couple of them over the years and as the GT3 had just been launched with a waiting list as long as your left leg the wait was to much.
The R8 however ticked all the boxes with the added benefit of bullet proof reliability, which is no bad thing when it comes to cars like these. After test driving a V8 version from Aberdeen Audi a deal was struck for a brand new V10 but due to the savings being offered it was to be a V10 Plus rather than the standard car.
So, it's not a Lotus, but I am still Scottish, and you will still see it knocking about at SE runs etc.......
Interior on the V10 plus comes with the full carbon package as standard so the only options that were added were full leather, reverse camera, contrast stitching, cruise control oh and S tronic gearbox (more on it later)
The engine bay gets the full carbon pack also ............
And carbon ceramic brakes as standard..............
First off the brakes, the difference is phenomenal. I can't express in words how different they are. Initially, and occasionally even now, they feel grabby and you have to retrain your right foot to use so much less pressure especially at low speed. But the initial bite and feel is just amazing. How the feel when properly warmed up is more of the same and it feels like they could quite easily over come the available grip from the Pirelli P Zero's which are this cars Achilles heel TBH. Very good as an all round tyre but limited when pushed.
I can hear everyone saying it now, OOOOOH carbon ceramic, the cost for pads and disc's. Well yes and no. The disc'c are murderously expensive but the pads not so much. They should last significantly longer than standard steel items, disc's that is and the pads are £350 for fronts and £265 for rears.
S0 1100 miles in to the run in schedule and I have only broken the 6000rpm limit once (ish) and this thing is quick, very quick. It will be interesting to see if the extra 2500rpm makes that much of a difference but the one time I past the 6k limit it feels like it will although it pretty constant pull all the way from 1k and not much evidence of a power step anywhere.
Be a busy year for our new steed, firts we have the Classic Car tours run in March, Spazz in June closely followed by GFOS with a sprinkling of trackdays around that. Already had it to Glasgow for TG and a quick blast up through the mountains in some pretty horrendous weather TBH and she hasn't put a foot wrong. Not sure Audi would be to happy at the way a new owner is treating their flagship model but it was bought to use not look at.
It is unfair to compare this to any Lotus, the only thing I have driven that is anywhere near it's pace is the 2-11 or the Elise 260 I built and then only to about 60-80 tuts after that the Audi is gone. The R8 is heavy though and I guess it will show up more on track but time will tell as we have an R8 experience day at Silverstone courtesy of Audi once the weather improves.
Someone accused me of spec'ing the car with resale in mind with regard to the S Tronic gearbox. Sorry to admit it but that wasn't the case, the car is spec'd with that gearbox deliberately. the speed of shift and in sport mode the auto blip on down shift is incredible. Don't get me wrong it's not perfect when you are just driving normally and be quite easy to catch the box out with it staying in to high or low a gear but it does a vey good imitation of a full auto box when you can't be bothered doing it yourself. Pushing on in Sport mode manual however is a completely different kettle of fish. The changes are precise, quick and seamless, up or down the box. If you haven't tried on then you should they are brilliant and most likely the future.
So to sum up things are looking good for the R8, given that if I don't take to a car it tends not to stay on my driveway very long, I think this might be around a while ...............
