Hi everyone,

I attended the Los Angeles event last night and sat in the car (a few times) as well as chatted with some of the Audi representatives. Here's my impressions (first) and what I came away with regarding Audi's plans (towards the end).


Exterior Appearance:
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- Pictures don't do the car justice. The car has a very strong presence in person. It may not have an "exotic" engine when it launches next year, but the car looks like an exotic. There will be no comparison in the visual interest and attention the car will receive vs. any non-exotic sports car (911, Vette, etc). It's simply in a whole different class.

- It has that same "Wow, that car is wide!" feeling you may have gotten when first driving behind certain other exotics. In other words, the proportions of the car again go towards that "exotic" feeling rather than the feeling you get from an "every day" sports car.

- I wouldn't worry too much about concerns people have had about proportions and height of the cockpit. Overall the lines work well together. There are too many other aspects of the car that steal attention away from just focusing on the cockpit area.

- The engine is very visible through the rear glass hatch even from quite a few feet away (vs. some other exotics where you need to be standing over the car's rear hatch to really see in). The carbon fiber treatment makes it an impressive experience. I think opting for the carbon fiber treatment is a must for those who buy the car in the first 2+ years given all the folks that are going to want to look at the car :)


Interior Appearance and Ergonomics:
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Everyone's seen plenty of pictures and knows Audi well enough that saying the interior looks great and uses good materials is nothing new. Here are my thoughts in addition to that:

- Steering wheel: The flat-bottom wheel is great. Easy to grip, looks good, etc. A huge positive for me was the adjustability of the wheel. The tilt was as you'd expect, but the pleasant surprise was that you could telescope the wheel further back than typically found in a lot of other cars. This is a huge boon to those of us who are taller and tend to sit further back, and don't want to have to stretch their arms forward to hold the wheel and give up turning-leverage. I like the wheel as close to my chest as possible for the best leverage during spirited driving and the R8 delivers (within reason).

- Steering wheel, shift paddles: The shifting paddles for the R-tronic equipped cars are very easy to miss because they are same-color black plastic and are entirely behind the steering wheel's left/right spokes (they are square shaped and more like a "button" than the long vertical "paddles" folks are used to that can usually be seen poking out above the spokes).

- Headroom: There is plenty of it. I'm 6'2" and had about 1.5" of additional space between the top of my head and the headliner. For comparison with a more mainstream car, I would say there is 1.5 - 2"+ more headroom than sitting in an E46 M3 that has a sunroof installed.

- Legroom: I felt there was plenty for everyone except I guess 6'5" "Jet" who posted a little earlier. I was kinda surprised by his post to be honest. I think perhaps he should say there may be space constraints for the "super tall" :) since a lot of folks like myself would consider 6'1" through 6'3" to be the more typical definition of "tall". For those 6'3" and under I don't think there will be a fit issue.

- Footroom and Pedal Arrangement: Dead-pedal is full sized. Located maybe a little too close to the driver, I would have preferred it to be a little further away so my left leg could be extended further. For a mid-engined exotic the footspace is great; for those with front-engined cars it will seem less spacious than what you are used to. (Mid-engine cars usually have a very narrow area for pedals/feet, since the cockpit is placed closer to the front wheel well, which intrudes into the cabin where the driver's feet are). For those who care about left-foot braking: The brake pedal is very close to the gas pedal and I would think is the same brake pedal as on the 6-speed manual. Personally, I would have liked to see a wider brake pedal for the R-tronic car to make left-foot braking more comfortable.

- Seats: Very comfortable. Note that these are the more "conservative" looking seats and not those great-looking race-buckets that the car was initially shown with. Good adjustability, and I liked how low to the ground the seat was able to sink. I didn't notice adjustable side-bolsters though and would have liked to have seen that.

- Visibility, "feel" of the Cockpit: The Good. Visibility of your surroundings is good; you can easily see out the rear and over your shoulder for lane changes. The car doesn't have the nasty blind spots more typical of mid-engined cars/exotics.

- Visibility, "feel" of the Cockpit: THE BAD. Sitting in the car gives you a very "insulated" feeling. The most specific culprit is that the roofline/headliner extends many, many more inches forward before hitting the windshield than is typical. This, plus a mix of contributing factors that range from side window lines that are a little higher rather than a little lower, a dash that's a little more forward, a driver's gauge pod that is a little taller, a domed ceiling, etc, tend to make you feel like you are in your own little dark cave looking out. It's the polar opposite of sitting in an NSX. Regardless of how much each person is disposed to notice this overall feeling more or less than someone else, I think everyone is going to notice it to some degree. I don't think it's a reason not to buy the car, but I do think that I would gladly pay more money and take the performance hit to at least get a moonroof on the car to help make it feel a little more `open'. Please note that my comments are related specifically to line of vision - the line where the headliner meets the top of the windshield, where the windows meet the doors, and angles of vision. It has nothing to do with the feeling of spaciousness inside. The interior is totally fine with regards to spaciousness and overall feeling of "volume". Also note that it's hard to gauge where the 4 outside corners of the car are. I think this car is going to take a good amount of driving before the driver feels comfortable they have a full feel for the car's outer dimensions.

- General ergonomics: I found it was comfortable to rest my left arm on top of the door sill, to reach and actuate the shifter with my right hand, etc. Controls were well placed, though it will be a little difficult to actuate the lowest set of controls on the center dash (climate controls?) as the shifter is in the way.

- Shifter: Plenty of folks have commented about how nice it was for the 6-speed manual. It also feels great for the R-tronic. Great drive-selection layout that is far more intuitive than SMG, a very heavy, solid feeling shift knob, and just a feeling of crispness that makes you want to quickly slap the shifter to change gears up & down. I like the feeling way better than the SMG shifter on the M3, which feels less "direct", more "spring loaded", and more of a "nub" than looking and feeling like a real shifter.


Driveability / Utility / Storage:
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- Audi may make various claims about the amount of storage space being practical, but I think this is an area the R8 is weak in when it comes to overall carrying capacity. The storage space in the front trunk area is very small - smaller than expected. How comparable it is vs. the 911 I don't know, but what I do know is that the 911 also has a rear seat where a lot more can be stowed and the R8 obviously does not, so it would have been nice to see more space up front. Audi claims you can get 2 golf bags behind the seats. They had a single golf bag back there and that seemed like all it would really handle. That golf bag appeared to be resting on a special shelf or something, which I'm not sure would be as practical for storing other everyday things. As the golf bag that was there hid a lot (including what exactly it was resting on), I'd just say this is a "to be determined" item but I'm fairly confident I can say that storage space/trunk space is an aspect of the car that hurts it a little with regards to the "daily driver" aspect. Score one for Porsche in this regard.

- As far as small interior storage items go - cell phones, sunglasses, misc small materials, etc, the R8 is just fine. The glovebox is small but functional (It's also where a plastic sunglass case holder appears to be located). There are 2 molded plastic cupholders in the center console, where a small ashtray & lighter are also located. At the back of the center console is a flip-up panel for additional storage. The CD changer is located in the rear firewall area directly above & behind where the center console ends. This is a good location as far as keeping it in-cockpit and out of the glovebox where it would steal all the space.

- At least initially, difficulty in seeing/sensing the outer corners of the car will probably contribute to drivers not feeling quite as comfortable about their driving experience in traffic or in parking (vs. smaller cars or more mainstream cars with better visibility.)

- Daily drivability: It was very clear at the event that the R8 being a "daily driver" is very important to Audi. They generally seem to have succeeded. The cockpit is comfortable and roomy enough. There is luxury where it counts, while still keeping as minimalist a look & feel as possible to allow the driver to focus on the driving experience. I noticed the small circular punch-outs on the rear bumper indicative of backup proximity sensors. My memory is a little fuzzy bit it seemed like there is a lower-lip a few inches back and under the nose of the car that appears to be the lowest point at the front of the car, and it also seemed to be a flexible black material. I'm thinking this could be Audi following in the NSX's footsteps of having a replaceable, non-painted surface that a driver can accidentally scrape on which can be cheaply thrown away and replaced. I could be wrong about this lip though as I only took a couple seconds to place my hand under the car's nose. Anyways, overall impression: The car seems to have what it takes to hit Audi's drivability goals.


Information about Audi's R8 plan, options, and Specs:
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The following information came from chats with various Audi personnel. In many cases the personnel would not confirm or deny some of this information, but would give body language or certain "hypothetical" statements to help give an answer without truly committing to the answer since among other things they are prohibited from revealing certain information until closer to launch.

While you can therefore not bank on this information, it none-the-less represents what I personally feel will prove to be accurate at this point. I'm sorry if any of this preamble makes you think I'm going to tell you anything too juicy though. These are mostly smaller details and "confirmations" of what lots of folks have previously been suspecting or seeing in magazines articles.

Competition: Audi sees the competition for the R8 as being the Porsche 911. Among other things, all references to "the competition" were aimed at the 911.

V8: The V8 is very likely to have more than 420hp. Logically we've been speculating on this, since between the new intake manifold with dual-throttle bodies, dry-sump lubrication, and at least the ability to make tweaks to the exhaust vs. the RS4, the R8 has the potential to end up with somewhere between 15 - 30 more hp. I offered the range of 435 - 450 and this seemed to be accepted as "in the ballpark".

V10: The V10 is obviously confirmed, and it will not appear until at least 1 year after the V8 debuts. As far as power goes, the Audi reps say that Audi has a totally different brand and image than Lamborghini and that the Gallardo's power/performance does not factor into their thinking on how they approach the "R10". In their minds, the Audi R8/R10 is about building an "every day" sportscar. Lamborghini's/the Gallardo are "weekend cars" which are more uncompromising in performance and are true "supercars".

Targa/Convertible: Confirmed that this is in the works. Also won't debut until at least 1 year after the R8, probably much longer.

Production Numbers: Audi does not plan on mass-producing this car like the 911. Full-year (Year 2) Production numbers are unlikely to noticeably increase in subsequent years. However, as new models of the R8 are introduced, additional output will be gained for those units. In other words, if 3,500 R8's are to be produced each year and then the targa/convertible model is introduced, there would be 3,500 R8's + X targa's made for that year. Or 3,500 R8's + X targa's + Y V10's.

Lifecycle: Audi plans a long lifecycle for the R8 platform (5++ years), and will continue to evolve it over those years by adding new options (engine choices, open top, potentially tranny choices (like DSG?), etc).

US Launch date: The first R8's are scheduled to arrive September 2007. One of the Audi speakers said that if you placed a deposit today, you would probably get the car in 1.5, maybe 1.4 years.

The Timing of US Pricing: I heard a couple conflicting pieces of information but it sounded like they aren't planning on announcing US pricing until ~Feb-March 2007. They don't want to show their hand too early to competitors. Feb-March would therefore be the timeframe when US dealers would officially take orders (rather than deposits for a place in line) and the options would be announced.

Ceramic brakes: Will not be an option when the car launches; will become an option later.

Carbon fiber sideblade: Audi is currently deciding whether or not to offer this on the initial R8's, or to make it an option for the V10 version only.

US Pricing: Audi debated US pricing based on 2 arguments: 1) the pricing of comparable cars like the 911 C4S, and 2) supply and demand. The former would make a stronger case for a starting price in the low to mid 90's, the latter for around $100k given the low production numbers. The indications are that the latter is winning the argument. The thing that scared me a bit: they spoke about a "115k price for an R8 configured with a variety of options", to which I asked if R-tronic was one of those options. The response was "probably not". Considering that the R-tronic tranny is likely the most expensive option on the car, we could indeed be looking at $120k for a well-configured R8. Let's hope that's not the case.

That's all I remember offhand. Again, please keep in mind that I'm not claiming any of the information to be "fact", only that these are the impressions I walked away with after discussions with some of the key Audi staff.

I think the R8 is going to be a real breath of fresh air in the sports car market and I only wish I had put my deposit down sooner so I'd have a #1 or #2 spot on a list.


If anyone has any questions just let me know.

SpeedMonger

P.S. I have some pictures and digital movies, but as it was an outdoor, night event and lots of people were usually clustered around the car, I didn't get that many good shots that would really provide more than what existing shots already show. As such and due to workload I'm not going to take the time to edit & find a place to put them up, but if someone wants to do so let me know and I'll provide the images/movies.