eeagle

Some random notes, but interesting. An aquaintance called Sunday to say "you'll never guess what I just got." He was right. I knew he had a CLK something, and just got a new Porsche 997 TT 2 months ago, so I figured all that's missing is the Z. Wrong. Said he'd be right over. He drove up in red Ferrari Superamerica! Bought it in Vegas. Handed me the keys and said let's go. First Ferrari I had ever driven. It paddle shifts but I let the car do the work; besides, my left foot kept searching for a clutch, and every time I braked for a stop the engine was rev matched - I thought maybe my foot was on both the brake and gas pedal. It being Sunday afternoon and suburbia, I didn't exactly wring it out, but it did feel strong. Style-wise, it didn't do anything for me. The F430 or 599 are sexy; the Superamerica reminded me of what the Datsun 260 Z looked like by the mid 80's. The pivoting hardtop convertible was pretty trick though.

Audi R8: Came out of the dry cleaners today and saw the new Audi R8 parked next to my Z. I noticed the owner just walking away. He glanced back and saw me looking. I said 'nice wheels.' His reply: "I like yours better." I laughed. He walked away and I was about to get in my car when I noticed something on his side window. I walked over and looked: the guy had the small rear side glass duct taped to the rear pillar sheet metal and more duct tape from the top of the glass to the roof. Since I didn't get to ask him, I can only guess: side window glass is separating from the car and flying off at speed. For sure gonna be a recall for that!

shaan

great write up, you lucky punk you saw both of my favorite cars

RichieRich

I don't think the R8 is in production yet. Press car? Maybe a journalist, not an owner.

striper

The R8 had to be a test car of some sort. It is not available to the public yet and won't be for a while.

02HREBlue

Not bashing here because I am a big german car fan also, but this whole R8 thing -I am just confused about why they built it. I just don't get it at all. It is somewhat edgy looking, and a good handling car, but relatively very slow. Its got the OLD puney 4.2L, and even when the V-10 comes out at substantial price, it won't nearly be as powerful or fast as its Lamborghini sibling due to marketing concerns. It will be soon forgotten in my honest opininion. Makes no sense why they built the car at all. It doesn't do anything real special, just like the S8 or the A8 with the W-12. Completely nonsense.

eeagle

btw, this is the second R8 I saw this past week. I saw my first Audi R8 on Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu last Tuesday. Different car as it was the silver/blue or black two tone usually seen in pics. The one parked next to my car was all silver and had regular CA tags. Didn't look like a press car or whatever, but who knows.

bondmid003

I love the R8, absolutely stunning car if you ask me. Hopefully one day I'll be able to have one in my garage sitting next to the Z

johnei

It has the 4.2L V8 of RS4 spec... so red line of 8251.2345 rpms and 420 hp. Now I'm not sure if that is better than a 6.0L V8 with 400 hp but ohwell. Maybe they are short changing themselves a bit because everyone knows they will come out with a faster version, but I guess they're trying to do something like what Porsche does with the Carrera.

Silver05GTO

I saw surprised to see the RS8 only about equals the performance of a base C6. The stats are very close, mid 12's@112+, 187mph top speed. All for 2X the price of a base C6. Nice knowing the C6 vs RS8 is a drivers race