And yet it still doesn’t feel like a
precision instrument. It’s amazing to drive, it’s simply phenomenal to
experience the sensory overload that driving the F-Type gives you – but still,
it’s more shotgun than sniper rifle, more butcher’s knife than scalpel. And
while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, should you be after that
scything tool, you need to step into the R8.
Like the Jaguar, my first experience of the
Audi is to crank its V8 to life in that same confined third floor of our
parkade. And the sound? Different, as you may expect, but it left me no less
drenched in sonic V8 flood. It’s higher pitched, edgier, as if you can hear its
Germanic heritage where the emphasis is on precision and not flamboyance. And
in terms of the drive, like the Jaguar, the Audi delivers on the facade it
portrays.
One
reason the F-Type isn't instantly recognizable as a Jaguar is the new taillight
shape, but it's sure to appear on some future models
The Audi, for example, brought me no joy in
the city. The brakes are too sharp, the accelerator too sensitive, and though
it’s not uncomfortable, managing stop-start traffic was a fairly arduous
experience.
That said, break free of the city’s limits,
head to an equally special piece of twisting blacktop, and the R8 reveals its
true self. This is where it belongs, where it feels at home. This Spyder is no
city-dweller; it wants - no, needs - the mountains. And behind its
flat-bottomed steering wheel, so do I. With 316kW available and 430Nm on offer
from the Audi’s higher-revving but notably smaller midships 4.2-litre V8, you
may think it delivers less than the Jaguar in this environment, but that is
simply not true.
Yes, our tests showed it was a shade slower
to 100kph (by 0.3 seconds), and that the quarter-mile takes 0.4 seconds longer.
Only its top speed matches that of the larger-engined, force-fed F-Type at
300kph. But none of these mathematical stats matter out here. No, this is all
about feeling, emotion, sensory gratification that can only be meted out by
cars like these.
New
tail-lamp of the Audi R8 V8 Spyder have dynamic turn indicators that streaks
across in the direction of the turn
Because here, it’s the Audi you want. It
just comes across more composed, more direct and more willing to respond
precisely to your inputs. It feels sharper, faster through a mountain pass and
more like a genuine supercar. Ironically, the one thing it falls short on
compared to the F-Type is, indeed, excitement.
The newly adopted dual-clutch S tronic
gearbox is a vast improvement over the old automated sequential manual R tronic
that turned every normal speed drive into a stop-motion stutter fest. As
before, the transmission feeds drive to all four wheels, albeit with a rear
bias.
And it has the equivalent of Jaguar’s Race
mode with a Sport button as well as one that firms up the suspension, the
former of which is harder to notice. In auto mode the revs are held for longer,
but from a driving perspective I reckon Jaguar manufactured more of a
button-change in character than Audi. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Audi
is the better car to drive, the more precise machine, but it lacks the same
level of emotion that’s on offer in the Jaguar.
The
F-Type’s engine note cycles through a rumble, roar and scream as the speed
rises
Don’t get me wrong, driving the R8 is a
phenomenal experience; its exhaust note is hugely pleasing and when you’re
piloting it through a twisty mountain pass and its precision and almost telepathic
ability to know what to do before you do is massively gratifying. It’s just
that, between the noise and the manic personality of the F-Type, the latter is
somehow more rewarding.
A close call
There’s such a vast personality difference
between the two cars that they’re almost hard to compare with each other. One
is a big, brawny 5.0-litre supercharged monster of a sports car, the other a
naturally aspirated 4.2-litre V8 supercar. How is the smaller-engined,
naturally aspirated option the supercar? How is the faster, more potent of the
two ‘just a sports car’? Character. But what a sports car…
The
Audi R8 V8’s engine turns in an impressive all-round performance
The Audi is also $28,400 more expensive
than the Jaguar, which will always be hard to justify, especially when the
cheaper Jag offers such depth of character and a hugely visceral experience
that delivers the most primeval of pleasures.
So if you want the precision tool go for
the R8. It’s a brilliant package, no questions asked. But if you do, be
prepared for that little tinge of jealousy you will undoubtedly get when you
see that F-Type driver smiling – his smile might be just a little wider than
yours…
