Audi R8 V8 Test Drive since 2007 compartment
The secret of his speed
Build a supercar? Not difficult! Take the engine of enormous power and bite something around it in a straight line will drive quickly. Otherwise, Audi's company approached the case, Anatoly Fomin testifies.
No worthy motor? But do you want V12 with a capacity of 2000 hp. (two thousand!) At 2800 rpm: four valves per cylinder, mechanical supercharger, direct injection, dry crankcase. Like? 35.7 liters of a working volume, 730 kg of weight and 2.3 m long, but it works great on gasoline with an octane number 87. The torque is unremarkable, I think, not lower than 3200 N.M! The engine was made in Germany in 1944, stood at Messerschmiti-BF109G. A ticket to life
But the motor from Messerschmitt is useless. Modern supercar is not so much gigantic power as absolute control, reliability, comfort, ease of management and reasonable price. After all, there are not enough eccentric rich for all manufacturers today. Of course, Supercar cannot be cheap, but the cost at the level of the representative sedan is a reasonable ceiling. In this case, the characteristics should be serious. Nowadays, this is a maximum speed over 300 km/h and acceleration to 100 km/h
Pepper with cream
Acute, but soft taste is guaranteed. How to go along a thin line between an uncompromising racing car and a comfortable roadway, especially if all technical solutions are defined in advance? Who is he, Audi-R8? Luxurious sybarite or fanatical athlete? They say there is only one way to find out the taste of the pie The picturesque roads of the National Park in the vicinity of Las Vegas seemed to be created for fanatics of speed. But the pace of two dozen R8 is set by the machine of the organizers. Local authorities are categorically against the armada of road predators flattened along the asphalt, capable of skipping a 200-kilometer mark on the speedometer in 15 seconds, frolic among leisurely tourists.
Ahead is a dirt road. Smooth, of course, but soil. They went crazy about this R8, not Q7! Maybe not by chance? I’ve been driving for fifteen minutes and only now I understand that there is not enough dental stiffness of suspensions! Going in a sports car, you can usually feel a coin lying on the asphalt, and here are stones, cracks, joints. It is only necessary that the 19-inch wheels of the 35 percent profile in front and 30 percent behind are displeased by unevenness, but the body does not move, as if suspended above the road. One movement with a small steering wheel and the car follows the drawn -drawn line. Where are the departments, delay, rolls? With such a comfortable suspension, they should be. Now I’ll leave out of the leader and accelerate a little in this pretty hollow. The third gear, gas until it, and hundreds of four meters of distance disappear before our eyes. Before the excess of several waves on the asphalt: it was necessary to slow down, but it's too late. Now we’ll fly a little! Where is there! Without tearing off the wheels from the pierbate asphalt, the R8 strictly copies the profile of the road, and only the stretched seat belt signals that the body no longer concerns the seat. Of course, there is no question of the suspension of suspension filled with magnetic liquid shock absorbers in hundredths of a second. 
What if you try a sports regime? Everything fell into place: tires, small cracks in the asphalt began to respond on the seat pillow, and the profile of the road became extremely uneven. The difference in the settings is evoked. Now all the racing sensations are in full. It would be where to accelerate. A small ring track inside the profiled oval track in Las Vegas is prepared for us. For warm -up, a spacious snake, then a circle along the highway. Slalla only at first seems slow: an understanding of how quickly Audi-R8 can go here, comes only on the third attempt. The main thing is not to get very carried away before the next turn. However, ESP will correct the trajectory, and there is enough space. With each new attempt, self -confidence and car is growing stronger, and now the right hand stretches to turn off the stabilization system.
I’m still cautious on the snake, but at the output I already twist the second to the limiter. Will it break now? Guessed wrong!. Audi, scrolling all four wheels, shoots with a noticeable demolition from a turn, like from a sling. The next bunch of drift should already be taken into account when entering the turn, and in a S-shaped turn I make a gross error, pressing the gas a little earlier than the release. I vouch, any average engineer car would not forgive such unceremoniality, breaking into uncontrollable rotation. But the R8 spared it in a deep skid, gave a chance to catch one and a half tons of aluminum and direct them to the next turn. The R-Tronic automated transmission is very fast and in a sports mode remarkably works out the excesses when switching to a reduced gear (this acts unearthly to the public!), But something elusive is still lost. Only with a pen you begin to understand the nature of the champion motor in all its diversity. It can be pulled from 1000 revolutions in sixth gear, and it can unwind to the maximum 8000 rpm in a matter of moments. Bassovito mumble with lazy acceleration or roar at full speed at the end of the starting line. It can help R8 compete with a limousine in the smoothness of acceleration, but if you need to masterfully follow the sharpest movement of the right leg.
Are you still not impressive 4.2 liters and only 420 hp? Indeed, today many business sedans under the hood are more. But even with all-wheel drive Audi-R8 is not a few! And the point is not in absolute values, not even 4.6 from acceleration to 100 km/h and 14.9 s to 200 km/h. The strength of the R8 in the record simplicity of driving a powerful machine. Having parked, I made another discovery: from the stop to the stop, the steering wheel of the most sports audi makes more than three revolutions. But he is also not round! Unfinished, slow? Stop! Neither on the snake or on the racing highway I did not have to turn it by more than 90 degrees. Is it worth it to explain that the wheels of a 30 percent profile break off in a skid sharply, and it is necessary to compensate for at a speed of 140 km/h for sure? And that the steering has never left the slightest doubt about what was happening with the front wheels? And on the highway you can calmly twirl your head, looking at the flying F-15 fighters, and strain less than while driving a family car. Compromise? No balance!
The recipe is simple
What do you need to build a successful supercar? Of course, not only a crazy motor. Several decades of racing experience and victory in the most prestigious competitions, including a 24-hour race in Le Man, will be very useful. Take the racing motor as a basis. Create a unique, but emphasizing corporate identity design that is remembered at first sight, and a lightweight body made of aluminum. Add an excellent chassis that guarantees not only handling, but also excellent comfort. 
Audi-R8, which first combined the running qualities and appearance of a supercar with the advantages of a daily machine, a layout of the entire automotive history. The base price in Russia 170 621 dollars is noticeably larger than in Europe, but those who wish are already waiting for cars. It will not be easy to understand the choice of additional equipment, but perhaps it is better to abandon the automatic gearbox in favor of adjustable magnetic shock absorbers and ceramic brake discs. The latter are needed not so much for the sake of effectiveness on the racing track, but to reduce the unsubstantiated masses, this difference is more expensive than money! Just as more sports seats and carbon fiber external inserts on the white body. Such a car should be individual as its owner.
The main feature of Audi-R8 is an incredible combination of the running qualities of a supercar with comfort and ease of control of a conventional car. Faster than 5 seconds. And the all -wheel drive and central location of the power unit are also desirable to minimize the moment of inertia relative to the vertical axis. This is the first serial supercar from Audi.
Anatoly Fomin
Source: The magazine "Driving"
