Putting the super in superb

Getting a closer look at the Audi R8 is the closest many people come to seeing a supercar and come close they do, whether they are on four wheels, two wheels or no wheels.

Looking balanced and powerful, sleek and sexy, futuristic and expensive, the Audi R8 is everything you would expect of a supercar meant to do battle with the Ferraris and Lamborghinis of the world, including its price tag.

You can get into an R8 for as little as $141,000, but our V10-powered, carbonfibre and leather clad tester came in a smidgen under $200,000. Outrageous, you’re probably saying, but put it into perspective against the likes of the Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari 430 and AMG-tuned Mercedes SL models, and it’s a bargain. Mind you, by comparison, you also begin to see what bargains the Corvette ZR1, Dodge Viper, Mustang Shelby GT500, Nissan GT-R and Porsche Turbo are!

So, what does $192,200 get you, outside of a nice house in the suburbs? In the Audi R8, it gets you a 525-hp direct injected engine, right there behind the cockpit under a clear cover for the world to admire. And LED lights provide the illumination by which they can admire it at night or in a darkened underground parking garage. And people will go out of their way to admire the car … not you, necessarily, but the car anyway.

Our car is an attention-grabbing Brilliant Red, which makes us curb our enthusiasm. And there’s a lot to curb. Top speed is governed to 316 km/h … we kept it to about a third of that (sometimes not by choice, as other cars will literally box you in so their drivers can have an undisturbed view of it for as long as possible; some even grab cellphone pics, which brings up a whole different hands-free-legislation argument).

Zero to 100 km/h takes a reputed 3.9 seconds. We hand-timed it in 4.22, in front of the unimpressed gazes of a herd of cows in an adjacent field. We would blame the slickness of the pavement for our laggardness, if the R8 did not come with Audi’s renowned Quattro all-wheel drive system, but it does.

We could also blame it on the wishy-washyness of the six-speed manual shifter, but it has this positive exposed gate pattern that really makes you be totally incompetent in order to blow any shift any time. So, we’re left to deal with the reality that we just aren’t as good on the ground as Audi’s test crew (mind you they probably tested the car and tuned it and retested and retuned it, until they got the time down as low as they could; we have the car for a week!).

That’s barely enough time to get used to the cozy, jetfighter like confines of the cabin or figure out the best layout to fit everything we need to carry along into the front trunk space.

Heck, we’re just getting accustomed to the sweet sound of that engine behind our heads, that lovely burble of the exhaust as we spin the engine to 6000 and 7000 rpm, and that firm yet pliant suspension that keeps the car on rails around corners, yet seemingly lets it hover over our city’s broken pavement. Now, Audi’s Bluetoothing us over the sound-system inquiring about when we’re going to be returning the car.

“Criminy, it’s only been seven days! How do you expect us to formulate an objective opinion of the car in only 140 hours of driving?”

Maybe we’re a little sleep deprived, but that happens when you get the chance at a car this good. Obviously, the Audi R8 is available only to a select few, but for seven days, it selects us and we are thrilled.