NO fewer than four Audi employees in shiny suits escorted the 2008 Audi R8 to the L.A. Times' garage a few weeks ago, a veritable task force of handlers to introduce me to the company's new six-figure, mid-engine supercar. Once they arrived, there wasn't much for them to do but stand around and Armor-All their lapels. Despite the R8's evident exoticism -- the car is low, wide and mirthless, its gimlet eyes fixing you with white-hot LEDs like it was brooding on ways to wreck your marriage -- the car required no special instructions. There were no gear-shifting paddles attached to the flat-bottomed steering wheel (though they are an option), no hydraulics to raise the front end as there are in the nose-grinding Lamborghini Murcielago, no wing-setting launch sequence as in the Bugatti Veyron. Just turn the key, drop the clutch and go.
Bustin' loose
Always classy, Audi goes super-sassy with its R8 supercar for grown-ups.
RUMBLE SEAT
Like hell.
The Cavalli-suited entourage underscores the fact that the R8 -- certainly one of the finest mid-engine sports cars ever built -- is not about posting quick lap times or eating into the Porsche 911's market share, though it will do both to a bloody fare-thee-well. It's about Audi's image.
This is a company that has done everything right and has gone largely unrewarded in the American market. It has built a generation of impeccably tailored German sedans, from A4s to S8s, that have somehow failed to crack the code of automotive prestige. It has advanced core technology, like fuel-saving direct injection, and still its sales numbers stay nailed to the floor. For years it resisted building a luxury SUV, reasoning that a station wagon with all-wheel drive was a more efficient solution, only to take it in the neck from barge-building German rivals. Audi has utterly mugged the 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning seven times in the past decade (eight, if you count Audi-powered Bentley's win in 2003). And still, Audi is outsold by Lexus by more than 3 to 1.
The R8 reflects a strategic pivot from rational to emotional. Instead of appealing to the reasoning centers of car buyers' brains, Audi has decided to split some freaking wigs.
The R8 has a dark and glamorous air, smart and elegant and sexy as a string-back corset. Audi's design team pulled off a minor masterpiece: a supercar for grown-ups.
