Pacific Audi

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Driving Impressions

We got about a dozen laps in the Audi R8 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, and despite what we said about the interior being designed for gentlemen rather than drivers, we have to say that the R8 might feel better on the track than it does on the road, at least with the R-Tronic sequential manual gearbox. Not that it doesn't feel good on the road, because this supercar is totally civilized, except for the rough R-Tronic. And it's versatile, with shock absorbers (and the R-Tronic) that have two electronic settings, for Sport and not Sport. We also got about 200 wonderful miles on northern California freeways and uncrowded winding roads.

The engine is eminently drivable at around-town speeds, and understated at cruising speeds. Yet it's a racing-bred engine, aluminum block and heads, and a dry-sump oil system that only racing engines have. Above cruising speeds, redline is a fantastic 8250 rpm, where the rev limiter makes a gentle sputter.

But the Ferrari F430 has a better howl, and the Corvette Z06 a better rumble. Even the Audi RS4, using the same engine as the R8, has a better growl. That's a letdown. Maybe it's because you hear so much intake noise from the R8 engine, located behind your ears.

And it's not just from the driver's seat; when the R8 is being revved across a parking lot, it might not even catch your ear as something exotic. It's got almost a whizz, as if there were fans in the exhaust pipes. There are actual valves in the exhaust system that only open up under full throttle, which explains its understated rumble. When cruising, there's a slight hiss in your left ear from wind noise, but it's forgotten.

The R8 does roar when you floor it, and it takes off like a rocket. It will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in about 4.4 seconds. That's slower than a Porsche 911 Turbo, Lamborghini Gallardo or Corvette Z06, but faster than almost anything else you could name. And besides, who's counting. Not Audi. They're boasting about the incredible aluminum space frame, and rightly so.

This engine is a high revver. We can't believe we're about to quibble with the torque, when there are 317 pound-feet of it, but if you want to pass a car going uphill at 3000 rpm in fifth gear and feel too lazy to downshift, the R8 won't take off like a rocket. That's because those full 317 pounds aren't reached until 4500 rpm. We don't know how much torque is available at 3000 rpm, but even 4000 rpm isn't quite enough; we floored it at 4000 rpm in third gear, and then 5000 rpm in third, and there's a big difference.

The R-Tronic transmission works better on the track than it does on the street, because the faster it shifts, the better it feels. Around town, the shifts aren't very smooth, whether you're making them yourself or leaving it in the automatic mode. There's rocking with each shift, because of the pause and grab. Audi's similar DSG, or Direct Shift Gearbox, as used in the A3 (and VW GTI and R32) is beautifully smooth; but it won't hold up against this much horsepower. Hence, the R-Tronic.

The shifts are smoother when it's not in Sport mode, but not smooth enough to solve the problem. And in fact, to set the transmission in automatic and sport is incompatible. It contradicts the car's senses (sensors), and doesn't complement any rational driving style. If you're going for sport mode, you want to be in manual.

In automatic, the program reads your alleged driving style at any given moment, but not very well. It's impossible to say here when the shifts take place, because they keep changing. We watched once, between redlights, and the R8 upshifted at 12 mph, 18 mph, 26, 34 and into sixth gear at 45 mph. Not what we would have chosen. Another time it hit sixth gear before 40 mph. And then it wouldn't kick down when more gas was applied.

When it kicks down in automatic, it sounds an

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