2022 Audi R8 V10 Performance RWD: First Drive Of A Paradoxical Supercar
The R8 is a wonderful and very strange car, a supercar that’s too polite to act like one in public
My Verdict
For whatever reason, I think the Audi R8, in all its forms, gets kind of forgotten in the supercar space, and that’s a shame. It definitely has a different tone than most other supercars, a certain seriousness that might turn some people off and might attract others from a niche that I think is likely smaller, but I’d think quite passionate.
I had a blast driving this thing around that island, on the track, through the towns and winding through the mountain roads, but it’s not something I think I could personally ever own.
And that’s not just because I’m a perpetual broke-ass who had to be gifted underpants — it’s because, deep down, I’m not sure I’m a Serious Enough Man (I say man because the sales for these are about 99 percent male, according to the PR guys) for a car like this. I’m not even entirely certain I’d get along with those people who are?
Pulling up in an R8 makes a pretty distinctive statement, confident yet quiet; saying it’s not a showy status symbol would be delusional. Of course, it is, but it goes that extra step and becomes a showy statement that says you’re the sort of person who looks down on showy statements — which is a sort of showy statement unto itself. It’s an ouroboros of posturing, and not everyone can pull it off.
Look, if you have the money and love to drive, why
not get yourself an R8? And if you’re going to get one, why not get the more visceral RWD one and save a bit of money that you don’t really need to save, anyway? It’s a blast to drive, it’s easy to cruise in and, according to some PR pitch I got just now, the R8
is even the most reliable supercar, which it better be, considering how it’s built.
The R8 is an odd sort of supercar, a self-conscious and contentious supercar, a capable track monster that you can also take your mom to her fight club in without upsetting anyone in the gated community.
Years ago, I had a chance to take an Audi R8 on a track, but I gave away that chance. I gave it away to repay a sort of karmic debt because I gave the opportunity to a Jalopnik reader that was instrumental in helping me recover my beloved Beetle when it was stolen all those years ago. Since...
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