PURE DRIVING EXCITEMENT
New Audi R8 Spyder makes driving obscenely fast, easy and comfortable
DEREK MCNAUGHTON
LLORET DE MAR, SPAIN Carrying on a conversation in a convertible travelling at 130 km/h — with the top down — shouldn’t be this easy. And with a 540-horsepower V10 breathing heavily behind my seat, it should be nigh impossible to hear anything without shouting.
Yet we’re not shouting. We’re talking calmly, gently, soaking up the weakening sunshine of fall along the coastline of Spain in a 2017 Audi R8 Spyder, the topless version of the R8 coupe that arrived last year.
Its fabric roof — now insulated for sound and cold — folds away at the switch of a button in 20 seconds and at speeds up to 50 km/h, slipping away under a sculpted and vented rear deck like a suit jacket in a suitcase of carbon fibre-reinforced polymer.
A small plastic windscreen about the size of a snowboard behind the seats does a decent job of defeating the wind that wants in on our chatter, though it seems flimsy in comparison to all the aluminum, glossy carbon fibre, rich Nappa leather and neatly tailored trim in the exquisite R8 interior.
With Audi’s Virtual Cockpit and a 12.3-inch digital instrument screen, the speedometer, tachometer and route guidance are clear, colourful and pleasing to the eyes.
With the top up, the glass rear window can still be powered down to better hear the symphony that is the 5.2-litre, direct- and portinjected V10, which peaks at 398 pound-feet of torque at 6,500 rpm. At its redline of 8,700 rpm, the mid-mounted engine sings with a holy terror of smoothness that will require expensive counselling to forget.
The Spyder’s quiet and confident Quattro all-wheel-drive system has been updated to include an electrohydraulically actuated multi-plate clutch, able to transfer up to 100 per cent of the torque to either the front or rear axle, depending on need.
It makes driving obscenely fast, extremely easy, and more comfortable than it ought to be. The power neither overwhelms nor underwhelms.
Simply, the drive is pure excitement.
The electromagnetic steering is always on point, feeding the driver with respectable levels of feedback and a surety that speed isn’t something to fear.
The seven-speed S-tronic dualclutch gearbox is the perfect concierge, always at the ready with the next gear, actuated instantly by paddle shifters and never delivering a hard kick between shifts. The brakes are brilliant. Even better, in the adjustable drive mode of Dynamic with the optional sport exhaust ports open and optional sport steering wheel adding a deeper level of drive settings, the warfare that erupts from those black rectangular pipes housed in a tidy rear diffuser is enough to frighten the unwitting. The exhaust clicks and pops and bangs like a small handgun when the throttle is lifted, which might be a tad silly but nevertheless addictive, especially in tunnels and narrow streets when the sound crackles off hard surfaces to scare the pants off children.
Thrust, of course, is immediate: 100 km/h is gone in 3.6 seconds. The 2017 Audi R8 Spyder is an elegant, sophisticated beauty. The new Audi R8 Spyder features an exquisite interior. In another 8.2 seconds, the R8 exceeds 200 km/h.
Even at this speed, despite the F4 hurricane of wind howling past, the cabin remains comfortably civil, without the cacophony of turbulence expected of a convertible at speed.
Top speed is 318. We don’t go there, but we do push the R8 as hard as possible through the spaghetti strings of roads that line the coast of Spain, and not once does the convertible shake, shudder or feel top heavy — usually the bane of any car that stows its roof below deck.
Granted, Mediterranean roads aren’t as swashbuckling as those of Canada, but the Spyder, now stiffer by some 50 per cent, feels as taught as the coupe.
The R8 Spyder delivers an extremely comfortable ride when the driver isn’t behaving badly; the standard sport seats are perfect.
Even though the R8’s aluminum and carbon subframe is now much like the R8 LMS race car, weighing just 208 kilograms, it rides more like a GT car in Normal mode and could almost pass for an RS7 if you didn’t know the difference. The R8 Spyder weighs only eight kilograms more than the R8 coupe.
So what possibly could be the downside to choosing the Spyder over the coupe? The side blades are more elegant in the Spyder. The engine cover looks sharp. LED headlights are standard. There’s no weight penalty. The freedom that comes from driving a convertible is undeniable, and with the new insulated roof, noise and cold won’t be an issue. The 43-kilogram roof can even support more than a metre of snow.
If there is a downside, the seats could use a tad more travel, especially on the passenger side, as cabin space is reduced for the mechanicals of the roof. And four cubic feet (113 L) of cargo space might be problematic for anything more than an overnight bag or two. But that’s all.
The Spyder, arriving in Canada next spring with an expected MSRP close to $200,000, looks long, low and mean. It adds a greater degree of beauty, elegance and sophistication to the already gorgeous R8 coupe, and does so without any of the traditional compromises of a convertible.