On the move
Right from the time we put it in crawling motion, the R8 made no bones about its impatience. Even slight dabs on the pedal result in an angry growl. As long it’s kept in Sport mode, the R8 is an angry, snorting animal. With the slightest increase in the throttle opening, you’d feel an impolite thrust pinning you back into the seat. More importantly, as you release the throttle, you’ll get a forward push, thanks to engine braking. There’s just too much power, and more importantly, too much rev hungry intent there to facilitate tranquility – specifically in the Sport mode. The visibility from the driver’s position is limited to the front area. With its ultra wide B pillars, the rear left and right view is heavily compromised. You have to be extra careful while reversing this beauty.
We drove the car on an incredibly wet day with dense showers pouring down over us, slathering the road with inconsistent layers of water. And these showers were intermittent, so while on one instance we saw inch deep streams of water running across the road, the very next moment we witnessed a moist central spine with more water on the sides.
What that means in practice is that the road conditions weren’t well suited to test a supercar. Lack of granular, traction rich surface, inconsistent road conditions and dry weather tyres being used for wet weather – this was bound to get tricky. Right from the time we built some speed, we could clearly feel the fabled Quattro AWD working hard to balance the traction on all four corners and keep the car stable.
Under hard acceleration, with so much power at their disposal, especially in the Sport mode, the tyres break traction at the snap of a finger. That power-monging engine is extremely revvy, transferring large amounts of power to 43:57 biased axles almost instantaneously as you touch the accelerator pedal. Things get even trickier in wet conditions as the traction levels keep changing drastically at a very fast pace. So while the front right wheel is aquaplaning, the rear right one is just about to. The left front wheel is treading moist tarmac, while the rear left wheel is kicking gravel in a pothole – all of that happening at speeds nudging the double ton mark, and with each wheel carrying power enough to dig a crack in the road surface. Not an easy task for Quattro then to juggle power with so many adversities in its face. The spoiler of the V10 tries its bit to stabilize things, by getting deployed automatically beyond 100 km/h for additional down-force. You can deploy it manually via a button as well.
The tribulations of the Quattro in handling all that manic power was quite evident in adverse conditions were quite evident. Twitchiness, which sometimes bordered on to a slithering affect, was constantly perceptible every time we pressed the pedal hard. The diligent AWD was working indefatigably to keep the mighty R8 V10 balanced even with very low traction and without the aid of traction control, its efforts clearly perceptible at the steering wheel.
Thankfully, rain gods decided to relent after a while, offering us a straight patch of the road with unhampered visibility and a smooth stretch of tar which was just short of dry. And this was where the R8 V10 showed us what miracles it was truly capable of pulling off.
In Sport mode, the behavior you witness from the R8’s engine tranny combo is belligerence incarnated. The tacho needle kisses the redline faster than you could imagine in every gear. And with close to 525 horses at the ready, it means bloodcurdling acceleration. Novices would lift off their right foot much before it really gets dangerous. The aural pleasures you experience inside the cabin should be added to the list of seven sins, extending the number to eight. It’s just the right sound, not one decibel more, not one less. Unlike the muted burble of some of the other sports cars we have driven, this one overwhelms you with its no-holds-barred note. It’s throaty yet smooth, loud yet pleasant, dry yet insistent that you rev it to the moon and back.
That V10 powerplant absolutely loves being held by the collar and made to scream. Throttle it relentlessly to the redline, shift higher, do it again, and the R8 V10 will rev all the way to the redline with almost the same manic alacrity. It’s one crazy powerplant! Trust me, if you are pushing it hard enough in a straight line from a standstill, you wouldn’t have the time or courage to look at the speedo on a public road. The world is in a warped state as you bury the pedal, everything is going past you at such a bludgeoning pace, you’d dare not take your vision off the road. The whole experience is just too engaging, too involving, too exciting, too physical and emotional. You gun this baby to speeds we don’t speak of here, and by the time you lift off, you’d realize that all your nerves are tingling, the hair on your arms are erect in tension. Bliss!
And now comes the biggest surprise. The menacing, spooky, unrelenting face of the R8 has another side too. And you wouldn’t quite believe it when you see it. Angry and bloodthirsty when the given the stick, the R8 is equally docile when put in the normal drive mode. The ground clearance is just about manageable for the Indian highways (highways, mind, not your everyday roads) and the engine has enough grunt lower down the rev range to keep you pottering about without a worry in the world. Sixth gear, 1200 rpm, 80km/h – piece of cake! No spluttering, no stuttering- the engine spins smoothly, it’s almost as if you were driving your hatchback, which has been flattened into a wider shape. The R8 V10 is the epitome of an everyday supercar – if only it cleared a little more of the ground, it would have taken even the disastrous Mumbai roads in its stride.
We drove the car in extremely wet conditions, and mostly on arrow straight roads. While the R8 V10 exhibited tremendous composure in a straight line while treading damp to dry conditions, we wouldn’t comment authoritatively on the handling aspect until we have driven the car in dry conditions around a set of twisties.
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If its too slow, Chinas reform process could be affected and the United States … will put pressure (on China), he added.