As you walk onto the Audi stand you are surrounded by almost 2500 kW of power, but not brute power, the elegant sophisticated power you expect to get from Audi. You stand around scanning the stand amazed at the site of the Q7, the worlds most powerful SUV, then the TT, South Africa’s most popular convertible, then the S8 with a R50 000 sound system, then all thought and movement stop as your eyes cross the charcoal black beauty that proudly sits in the limelight of centre stage.

As the car rotates you notice the Audi symbol that everyone has come to know, the 4 Rings, then you notice the sexy curves of the body, finished off with pieces of carbon fibre to just hint to on lookers that what you seeing is not your ordinary Audi. Then you see the shiny silver badge reading: R8. Everyone’s first reaction is “I want one!”

But expect to pay a pretty penny for this new comer to the super car arena. It is expected to cost between 1.2 and 1.5 million South African Rand. Is it worth it? I would say yes, just based on the splendid styling of the car.

Not only that but the performance figures that Audi have released are very promising as well, a 309kw V8 motor will launch the car from standstill to 100km/h in a mere 4.6 seconds and a unrestricted speed of 301km/h can be reached, but done expect to see those speeds done on South African roads, the car will most likely be governed at 250km/h like many of our super cars. Now Audi have made sure that the pinnacle of their brand does not fall short of perfect, the powerful V8 motor is mid-mounted meaning perfect weight distribution on the car, this coupled with the Audi Quattro ® four wheel drive system will make the R8 and tar seem like 1.

The South African public will start seeing the R8 on their roads towards the end of next year, so M3 CSL and SL 55 AMG, be prepared to face your competition.

Seagyn Davis
CarBlog and Zoopedup Journalist
cuz@teamzoopedup.com