Phantom RS

Uh, where did anybody call you anything?

KMarshall

I'm sure they have good reasons for what they do.

sparkhill

By "good reasons" do you mean too lazy or too cheap?

April

on top of the R8 price, just to have one? While the R8 sells in relative volume compared to a Veyron, it is hardly a model for economies of scale. Even Lambo owners would flinch at the additional $20K upcharge over the $10K E-Gear option.

The Gallardo arrived in '04. Which means it was being designed for the 4 or 5 years prior to that date. Single clutch units were a proven technology at the time. Even so, Lambo had to revise not only the shift programs several times, but also change the clutch material due to unacceptable wear. Imagine trying to adapt all this (electrical, computers, castings, assembly, machining, emissions certification) to a dual clutch system that could handle the torque and not cost an arm and leg. Because Lambo had a prior reputation for being unreliable, they picked a fairly well understood technology. This has been borne out by the Gallardo's excellent reliability record overall - not counting early E-Gear clutches.

Why am I telling you this? As you probably know, the R8 shares an incredible amount of DNA with the Gallardo. Basically it was piggy-backed onto the Gallardo as a value-add, long after the Gallardo project was already under way. Audi saw an opportunity to finally produce one of it's show coupes at a reasonable price, and took a gamble. Yes, it's based on technology begun in '00 if not prior.

Did you know that the Panamera is based on the next Audi A7/A8/Bentley/Lambo Estoque chassis? Just like the Porsche Cayenne/Touareg project (a Cayenne is built/produced 87% by VW, and the Panamera is slated to be 85% VW/Audi), Porsche will force the other brands to delay the launch of their products, so as to ensure they have the marketing field to themselves without anybody to compare the Panamera with other cars that might share the same or similar features.

When you stop to consider that neither BMW nor Mercedes (the natural competitors for Audi) offers anything remotely like the R8, then I am grateful they took the gamble and built the R8 in the first place! The safe choice would have been to spend the time and money building more sensible sedan, coupes, and avants that Audi is known for.

April

depts at car companies. They need to plan many years into the future, to test, certify, and try to predict the markets, while keeping on budget. Trying to retrofit a new technology into an old platform is not cost effective. By the time they launch the car to the public, the main engineering team is already working on something else, and only a skeleton staff remains to address ongoing design issues that crop up in the production car.

The present A6, S6, RS6 is based on the C platform. The A5/A4 introduced the Audi Modular Longitudinal Platform (MLP) that allows them to adjust length, width, and a host of other considerations, to create different cars. Hence all of the next gen longitudinal engined cars from from VAG will have DSG capability if their marketing depts deem it appropriate. The wild card now is whether Porsche (who just acquired a majority stake in VW) will allow the use of this technology in other family brands - with models that might undermine Porsche's image as top dog.

I'm not sure we'll see another generation R8. This car was created before Porsche became so influential at VAG.<ul><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Volkswagen_Group_platforms">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Volkswagen_Group_platforms</a</li></ul>

kthacher

Great post and information as usual. Unfortunately I think you are wasting your energy on OP. He seems bent on these type of rants for reasons that only he understands - for some reason he seems compelled to find fault with the R8, even though he does not own the vehicle. A while back it was that the A5 interior was way better, now with the V10 getting such great early press, he seems compelled to slam it too. Beats me as to why. I expect that he sees this as some kind of public service to make sure Audi knows that not everyone loves the car.

06A8

Porsche clearly stated that the panerama chasis will be unique to porsche. It is too low for the next D4 A8. Also, they did not use aluminium due to bulky extrusions that would have inhibited its low slung shape apparently...all said and done, I could argue that given the gallardo's chassis was out since 00, they had 8....8 damn years to fit in a dsg into their halo car, yet they still failed. Whatever it is, good points, so lets hope the next halo audi sports car satisfies in the tech department.

06A8

but as a halo car as so described by audi, and given they had 2 years since the launch of the V8 to add more tech into it...seems they could have done more.

If anything this sport differential/ dsg should have also made its way to the RS6 sedan, then i would seriously shut up and say yes, its a platform issue...but right now it looks like audi is being cheap.

06A8

audi sports cars like RS and R8...they totally could have done something for the R8, heck i believe the next rs5 etc will have sport differential and s-tronic.

April

it is leagues smoother than before, and actually smoother (in non-sport mode) than the DSG A3 loaners I've had in the past.

So I can understand why Audi would not waste the resources - especially if they end up using the latest system from Lambo.

And yes, the OP seems to have a tenuous grasp of the complexities and realities of bringing a car to market