R8 Test Drive
I had the good fortune of being invited to Las Vegas for two days of driving the R8. We spent the first several hours running the car through the area outside of Vegas. Canyon area? Anyway, great roads, great views, high speeds and a great car. The R8 lacks the brute force of the GT and other cars, but is very refined in the way it applies the power. Cornering and road handling were excellent. I thought it felt comparable to my 996TT, but again more refined in the way it handled the curves and applied the power.
The second session was at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where we ran the car on a short road course. Again, very impressive, but lacked power in my opinion. The car is wicked fast through the turns as someone already mentioned.
This is a great car. They told us that there would be a very small number in the US this year, one or two per dealer that was authorized at the announcement. They said that would make the US shipments in 2007 around
70 +/-. At the time of announce, many dealers had not signed up for the added requirements for the R8. Dedicated showroom, dedicated service space and people. Hard to justify for a small number of cars.
Their plan was to run the V8 this year. Expect Lambo to announce a bigger
V10 in 2008 and the current Lambo V10 to move to the Audi. I am on the list now for that car. Speculation from the Audi build team that they will also put the Audi racing diesel in the car as well in later years.
Some of the color combos are really striking. When we got there they had 50 of them lined up outside the hotel. They told you to pick your car and have fun. Personal preference is interesting, everyone walked to a different car, color combination. There was not a bad color in the lot. Half the cars were manual shift and half had the paddle shift. We switched between these halfway through.
Nice car, will be a rare car for the moment. They think the exotic market will decline over the next couple of years and then come back very strong. They definition of exotic market is Porsche, BMW, Mercedes.
Don:thumbsup