2016 Audi R8
The software makes the difference.
Jun 2015 By MIKE DUFF
Hardware matters, but often it’s the
software that tells the hardware how to
operate that makes the difference. That’s
true for smartphones that tech websites
tear down to reveal $40 worth of parts,
but increasingly also for cars—even the
ones that don’t drive themselves around
racetracks. The new Audi R8 is perhaps
the greatest example of tuning through
1s and 0s. There’s no question the
hardware here is superb. The Audi is the
Lamborghini Huracán’s twin sister, and
mechanically the two cars are as closely
related as any two GM J-bodies. They
share the same engine, transmission,
partially carbon-fiber floor and bulkhead,
chassis hard points, steering system,
and electronic architecture. Meaning it’s
the software that gives each of those
components a very different character in
the two supercars. The Audi is, as you
would expect, dowdier and marginally
less exciting, yet on first acquaintance
we suspect it is destined to be seen as
the higher achiever.
V-10 or V-10?
Buyers of this R8 will have far less
choosing to do than before. The V-8 of
the original has gone, along with the
little-ticked option of the manual
transmission and its glorious, gated gear
lever. We mourn the passing of both, not
least because it means the new car will
be considerably more expensive in base
form than its predecessor, even if far
more powerful. A roadster version is a
future certainty, and there eventually will
be a smaller, turbocharged engine . For
now, though, the decision is between the
standard V10 coupe with 540
horsepower and the V10 Plus with 610
horses, both sharing the same 5.2-liter
displacement and heady, 8700-rpm
redline. There’s no official word on
pricing, but we’re told to anticipate both
sticking close to the market position of
their predecessors. In other words, you
can be fairly certain that, without at least
$170,000 to spend, there won’t be an R8
for you.
Value always is a subjective call, but it’s
hard not to feel shortchanged by the
styling, which is familiar to the point of
being almost identical to the first-gen
R8’s. To reference Darwinian selection,
and to risk yet another crop of
threatening letters in green crayon and
comments rendered in ALL CAPS, the
R8’s design has undergone about as
much evolution as you would find taking
place in a small pond during a winter’s
afternoon. The styling is edgier, the lines
of the trapezoidal front grille sharper, but
from more than 20 yards away it still
looks more like a facelift than a new car
(the telltale is that the “blade” behind the
doors is now divided into two). LED
headlights will be standard, but
according to Audi USA we won’t be
getting the snazzy, optional laser lights
any time soon, and possibly not ever—
such are the hurdles of getting them
through federal certification.
The cabin tries harder and works better.
The old R8 had started to feel short of
both finesse and toys compared with
newer rivals, and this one delivers both
smart, functional design and quality
materials. Like the new TT (and
upcoming A4), the R8 features Audi’s
“Virtual Cockpit,” a configurable screen
behind the steering wheel. This combines
instrumentation with everything that
would normally be done by a central
display screen, and it can be switched
among a conventional speedometer-and-
tachometer combo, a performance
readout that includes the seemingly
mandatory g-meter, and Google satellite
mapping that zooms close enough to let
you see if the neighbors sunbathe
topless.
As we noted after being allowed a single
lap of the Le Mans circuit in the car
, the R8’s steering wheel now contains
most of its dynamic controls. There’s a
Drive Select button, cycling among
Comfort, Auto, and Dynamic modes, but
there’s also a new Performance mode—
standard on the Plus, optional on the
V10—that unlocks three additional
settings via a wheel button depicting a
checkered flag. These are Dry, Wet, and
Snow—for those who want to hoon their
R8 when it’s 10 below. The other major
driving option is ratio-varying Dynamic
Steering. This will be strictly optional in
the U.S., although the fact it was fitted
to every single car on the press drive in
Portugal suggests that Audi is
determined to make us like it.
Familiar Favorite
Despite the almost countless man-years
that Quattro GmbH’s engineers put into
the new R8, its starring attraction
remains the part that has been changed
least, the V-10 engine. It’s worth the
considerable price of admission in its
own right, a high-revving masterpiece
that stands as a glorious anachronism in
a world where even Ferrari is downsizing
and strapping on turbochargers
. As in the Lamborghini, it has gained
both port and direct injection and
selective cylinder deactivation, but it is
almost unchanged in character.
Revs are what the V-10 does best, but
it’s no anemic weakling at lower rpm.
There’s enough torque to keep it
tractable when asked to trundle, and it’s
quiet and refined even at the sort of
rapid highway cruising speeds we hope
the Portuguese Polícia will indulge a
visiting supercar in. In the hills, it takes a
good while to build up to using the full
allocation of revs; even upshifting at
6500 rpm it feels sports-car fast, with a
good two grand still to go before
reaching the limiter. Cross the 7000-rpm
line and you’re in definite supercar
territory, the V-10 practically popping a
can of spinach as it snarls its way to
redline. Under hard use it feels almost
as exciting as the Huracán, yet it’s
equally adept when asked to be a well-
mannered boulevard cruiser or a
polished autobahn-stormer.
The transmission plays a vital part in this
Jekyll-and-Hyde trick, with the seven-
speed dual-clutch ’box having been
tweaked—digitally, of course—to deliver
faster and more forceful upshifts under
hard use, along with some nifty rev-
matching when you downshift. Yet left in
drive in Comfort mode, it’s practically a
1970s-style waft-o-matic, shuffling its
ratios both intelligently and seamlessly.
The chassis coped with everything
Portugal could throw at it with something
close to disdain—the biggest bumps
didn’t unsettle it, even with the
adjustable dampers in their firmest
setting—and yet it also was completely
unruffled by both the low-quality urban
streets and some high-speed cruising on
the Autoestrada.
The biggest mechanical change between
the first R8 and this one is the arrival of
an electronically controlled clutch to
divert torque to the front axle, in place of
the previous viscous coupling. This is
much faster-acting; Audi engineers claim
it can go from fully free to locked in just
a tenth of a second, and it is set up to
divert torque to maximize traction and
stability. The result is more adhesion—
much more—but far less of the rear-
driven feeling the first R8’s slower
responses gave it, especially at low
speed. Grip, like bacon, is something
that some people earnestly believe you
can’t have too much of, but at the sort
of speeds you’re ever likely to see on
public roads the R8 just grasps and
goes, the driveline working to maximize
traction all the time. It’s blisteringly fast
—but definitely not as playful as its
sometimes-wayward predecessor.
With the generosity that comes from
having a PR budget to rival Greece’s
national debt, Audi also booked exclusive
use of the excellent Autódromo
Internacional Algarve near Portimão—a
circuit that, although little used for
actual racing, can claim to be one of
Europe’s finest for driving. Audi inhibits
the stability-control switches of its cars
on media launches, so we can’t regale
you with stories of generous doses of
opposite lock and heroic drifting, but the
Performance mode’s most aggressive
“Dry” setting allows enough slip to prove
the chassis remains neutral even under
heavier track loadings. It’s possible to
make the rear slide under power, but the
car will immediately divert torque to the
front wheels to try to pull itself straight;
it’s prepared to tighten its line a little on
an eased throttle, like a Porsche, but the
governing motto is always to keep
everything on a tight leash.
The steering dealt with Portugal’s roads
far better than it did the track at Le
Mans. There’s never an abundance of
feedback, but responses are keen and
the ratio-tweaking is rarely noticeable.
That said, we did spend most of our
time in Dynamic mode, which we later
found out locks the steering ratio at a
fixed 13:1. Yet the steering is accurate
and delivers instant response, whichever
mode it’s in. It’s just a shame it has lost
the voluble communication that made the
first R8 such a chatty companion.
A final point: Don’t automatically assume
that the Plus’s extra 70 horsepower
makes it the one to plow your next
lottery win into. After driving both the
Plus and the standard car on the road,
we really didn’t notice any significant
performance advantage from the
additional power. The Plus also brings
fixed-back shell sports seats that will be
too tight for many and has a fixed
carbon-fiber rear wing in place of the
standard V10’s more subtle pop-up one.
Siblings, But Not Rivals
Even knowing how similar the R8 and
Huracán are beneath the surface, they
don’t feel like rivals, a clever trick pulled
off by their respective engineering teams.
The Lamborghini is the more exciting
car, no question—harder, angrier, and
(we suspect) slightly faster, even though
the engine in the R8 V10 Plus is in an
identical state of tune. From an
outsider’s perspective, the fact the Audi
will do pretty much the same for what
we’re estimating to be a $60,000 to $
70,000 discount might look like a big
problem, but Lamborghini’s marketing
department is probably more concerned
by the fact that the $241,000 Huracán
has the legs on the $404,000 Aventador.
The R8 is definitely the better all-
arounder, with a far greater range of
talents than its Italian sister. It’s a viable
everyday cruiser, as civilized at lower
speeds as a TT or A5 coupe, yet it’s also
a thrilling supercar-humbler in its own
right. And it’s one with an engine that,
somewhere in the electron-driven future
that awaits us all, we likely will look
back on as one of the all-time greats. If
you’re looking for a do-anything sports
car, the R8 is going to be hard to beat.
Source
http://m.caranddriver.com/audi/r8
No comments:
Post a Comment