2008 Audi R8

Say you’re a fine, upscale German car company sick of operating in the long shadows of larger rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz. You long to show them up and stick a finger in the eye of haughty sports car maven Porsche in the process. What to do?

If you’re a member of the vast Volkswagen Group, which also owns Italian exoticar maker Lamborghini, you might decide to design and build a German mid-engine supercar on the bones of an exotic Italian one and sell it for a bunch less money. That is exactly what Audi has done, and the happy result is this marvelous new R8—named for Audi’s multi-Le Mans-winning racecars of recent years.


Swept-back headlamps over vaned, blackout fighter-plane air intakes flanking its bold Audi “single-frame” grille send a message of serious performance. Arrays of pinpoint LED running lights (a recent Audi signature touch)—an even dozen rimming each headlamp’s lower edge—predict higher-cylinder-count models to come.


The rear look echoes the front, with large horizontal taillamps over vaned blackout air outlets and twin pairs of chromed exhausts faired into the lower fascia. The profile is dominated by huge, sweeping “sideblades” (available in body color or a contrasting shade) over swept-back scoops, and deeply sculpted doors channeling air into them. The coup de gras: the sensuously naked 4.2-liter V-8 under the rear window between cockpit and rear axle.

Road Trip

Shortly after its U.S. debut, Audi loaned us a six-speed manual R8 to pilot from Los Angeles to the Motor Press Guild (MPG) annual media Track Days at Willow Springs Raceway on California’s high desert, near Edwards Air Force base north of Los Angeles. That trip could involve either a slow slog on overloaded freeways or an adrenalin-pumping run over the San Gabriel Mountains on delightfully challenging two-lanes: up Angeles Crest Highway, across county road N3, and down Aliso Canyon Road. Not a difficult decision!