It's a little difficult to truly document how big a deal the original R8 is without this review turning into a 4,163–page thesis, but despite all its accolades of being Audi's first true exotic supercar, inheriting a Le Mans conquering name and blending it with a rally bred AWD system, then wrapping that recipe up in a strikingly curvaceous body previously unthinkable of the Germans, what I love most about the Audi R8 instead is just how... understated it is. It doesn't scream, it doesn't demand attention. It's classy, it's subdued, yet very clearly special. The format of rear mid engine, all wheel drive makes so much sense both from an engineering and consumer standpoint, and it makes me wonder why it hasn't been attempted more by other manufacturers. If I ever find myself moderately wealthy one day and needed to keep up appearances instead of tumbling around in a stiffly sprung oven that is the RX-7, there perhaps is no other car I'd look as wistfully at than a first gen R8, and probably the lighter 4.2L V8 variant, too.
Unfortunately, as its name might have already given away, the specific R8 we got in Gran Turismo Sport has the sequential shifter option ticked, dubbed the "R Tronic". It does its job and does it quick, but I have my reservations about these early 2000s flappy paddles on public roads, and on the track, you can probably shift a stick just as quick. It truly is a shame that the R8 we got has the R Tronic gearbox, even with this game doing a criminal disservice to manual cars, because the first gen R8 is one of the last supercars to offer three pedals and an absolutely gorgeous gated shifter, setting the first gen apart from the second gen, whose styling I'm not super keen on; it looks too boy racer and destroyed many of the natural curves, shapes, and proportions of the original, though I'd love to sample it for myself nonetheless. In fact, I wish this game had the facelifted V10 Plus... and the pre facelift V10... and the RWD variant... Oh! And the Spyder as well! ...can you tell I really like this car?
As the first flagship model of one of the biggest brands in Germany, the Audi R8 lives up to every stereotype of German engineering: well put together and so well thought out it boarders on overthinking. Despite having a rear mid engine layout and being able to send as much as 90% of the torque to the rear wheels, the R8 is one of the easiest cars to drive quickly, defaulting to understeer if you overcook a corner, always behaving in a predictable fashion up to and even beyond that point. Even after the week's meet, I found myself wanting to drive the R8 more and more, even taking it out onto some wet tracks, and the R8 was just as surefooted and assuring even then, never once flinching or breaking character, always making me feel well coddled, protected, and taken care of. It's a sensation that's very, very rare to feel in a car, much less through a simulator. I can't even begin to imagine what the R8 in real life must feel like to drive and own. In fact, the only other time I felt this relaxed and assured was in a yet another German car, the E46 M3.
Despite being rather softly sprung by today's supercar standards, understeer on this AWD, 1,560kg (3,439lbs) car is shockingly nonexistent if you brake amply for a corner, as the well damped car with its mid engined weight distribution rotates delightfully into an apex with intuition and immediacy that is unheard of for any AWD car not bearing a "GT-R" badge. So easy and relaxing to drive fast is the R8 4.2 that, despite me waking up from a late night shift the morning before our weekly meet, I had a lot of fun simply chugging along sipping coffee on the straights as I "raced" everyone else. It's as self assured to drive as it is to look at. I love that understated, well founded confidence it exudes, both in its styling and driving dynamics, and I think speaks a lot of the person who would own such a car.
Despite being the tamer R8 and being such a relaxing drive, the 4.2 is deceptively quick around a track: it effortlessly destroyed the aforementioned E46 M3 when I tried to recreate a photo–finish race at Seaside all the way back in Week 94, and even a car with the GT-R badge, the R34 V・spec II Nür, fell some three seconds a lap behind at Bathurst. Sure, both those cars are way cheaper and have way less power than the Audi, but how does the tamer R8 stack up against a slightly more modern, slightly more expensive luxury coupé that also has a V8 and more ferocious, topless siblings?
The 2015 Aston Martin V8 Vantage in this game weighs in at 1,610kg (3,549lbs) and packs 429HP (320kW), which is 50kg (110lbs) heavier than the Audi while only packing 15 more horses (11kW) to compensate for it. Despite having a worse power–to–mass ratio and being saddled with a stick shift, the Aston surprisingly out–accelerates the R8 on the straights, which is perhaps an indication that the R Tronic box in the R8 isn't as quick to shift as it feels to me. It was super clear even from the seat of the Aston when and where the R8 shifted gears; it was so abrupt and momentum robbing it's evident even from the outside, and when I first raced the R8 back at Week 94, I actually thought it was a manual having only heard it from the outside. The slightly more expensive Aston may also be heavier with a disadvantageous front engine layout, but it was much more lairy to negotiate bends with, having no concerns about safety nets nor trying to save its driver by defaulting to understeer like the Audi. As a result, the Vantage felt a lot more nimble to attack corners with, being the sort of car that makes you feel like your pants are on fire even when they may or may not be, a huge contrast to how the R8 goes about its business.
The R8 of course has the corner exit advantage being AWD, and is somehow lighter as well despite that fact, meaning that it outbrakes the Aston easily into a corner and can carry more speed through the bend, all of which give the Audi a huge advantage on the sharp downhill twists of Bathurst. Honestly? I have no idea how the hell I've managed to stick to Vic's rear bumper (and even door handles at some points!) if the Aston had all these deficiencies on paper. It felt like it was all just the power advantage and being in the R8's slipstream that had allowed me to have this close a race with Vic (or maybe, you know, he simply wasn't trying).
Both these V8 cars are achingly beautiful luxury coupés offered with bigger engines, a manual option, and convertible versions, and both are an "old school" type of car wherein there is just enough power, there is just enough civility, and where the mechanicals and the driver make the magic work instead of computers. The 2000s may not have been that long a time ago, but in hindsight, this sort of car has become just about extinct in the 10 or so years since then after the R35 GT-R hit the market and forced everyone to rethink how to engineer a supercar (yes, I blame the R35 for the digitisation of cars), and god bless the Aston Martin for still keeping the Vantage so faithful in its evolution. I really wonder how much of the original recipe the facelifted R8 has kept, and after my time in the pre–facelift 4.2 this week, I am seriously craving for more R8 experiences.
As much as I would hate to, this is where I'll have to commit a sin for a reviewer by saying, "I have no idea which I'd rather have if I could only pick one." I think I'll really need to sample all the other configurations of each to really be able to conclusively tell you which of these cars and in which exacting spec I'd want them and why, but simply as they are in this game, both are brilliant cars that suit me when I'm in different moods. I guess when I'm so tired from work today, the R8 is the one for me. Ask me any other day though, and there's a very real chance I'd tell you it's the Aston I'm lusting after.
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