R8 Wardsauto: Audi R8 Scores Perfect 10

[Bartek S.]

It becomes apparent that a weekend in an Audi R8 with the new 525-hp V-10 will be like no other when I drive past a banquet hall in the tony Detroit suburb of Birmingham and a valet dashes off the curb into traffic to shoot pictures of this red rocket.
The rest of the weekend goes the same way.

A grandmother stopped at a traffic light asks excitedly about the car, then exudes, “It’s beautiful!”
A businessman in a BMW 745i sharing the northbound lanes of Woodward Avenue with the R8 can’t take his eyes off it. A slack-jawed man and woman – in a Porsche Boxster, no less – stop in the middle of the street to inquire about the car.
People react to the R8 as if it were John Lennon’s paisley Rolls Royce, only way, way cooler.
Auto makers wish every vehicle they produce could generate such excitement.
Of course, they can’t, because acclaim of this nature must be disbursed in small doses, like the atomized fuel sprayed under 1,740 psi (120 bar) directly into each of this Herculean 5.2L engine’s 10 cylinders.
All of the admirers are consumed by what they see – from the flowing LED headlamps to the illuminated see-through engine bay. But none actually ride in the car.

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