My wife and I went driving in the club's (Club Sportiva) 2011 R8 Spider Manual. First I drove the R8 and then we switched. She is more of a manual driver than I am. This is the V10 model and the 2011 model sells for about what we paid for our F-Type V8S when new. It has 525 ponies and all-wheel-drive. This is likely the only car I'd think hard about that I've driven instead of F-Type.


It is fun to drive as fun to drive and it is a looker. Seats are comfortable and driving position is good. View of the road is better in front worse in the rear (but do you really worry about what is behind you?), exhaust sounds great but it doesn't beat our active system.


It's front trunk isn't much better than our rear one. However, it is really low, the doors swing really wide and I can see why most of these cars are really low mileage. These would be a ton of fun as a weekend driver but I'd sweat them too much to drive them every day. In addition the stereo is really old, it is basically the same one as we had in our 2008 TT which makes it archaic. It doesn't stream music from a phone, takes SD cards (not a USB stick) and it has an older style display. It does sound good but with the top down the 770 watt upgrade system in our cars puts out far more sound.


Here is a video of a new R8 and an R both are up about the same power so I expect the outcome would be similar to the S and the older R8. The cars are pretty close (note it does surprisingly well against a Ferrari).


http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...C441A9F27BE0DB


In driving it is truly planted, where pounding on the power makes the rear of our cars get a little crazy there is no evidence of this in the R8. It just plants and goes, surprisingly while this undoubtedly makes it better on the track it is a tad less fun getting onto freeways.


I'd still go with the Jag because while the cars are close having a new one rather than a car that was already 4 years old and having a car I didn't sweat driving daily if needed to are huge advantages. Still if I wanted a second fast car this, or it's Lamborghini sister, would be one hell of a temptation.

 

I've never been a huge fan of the R8s but I can see how if you want an exotic looking car but not as exotic/extreme as say a Lambo but more attention getting than say a 911 then the R8 would be a good choice.

 

Compared to the rest of the competition, the R certainly seems a bit wobbly and floaty. I'm hoping the driver just didn't know how to set the suspension up correctly.

 

Interesting post, Enderle. Thanks.

I had a V10 R8 Spyder on loan for 2 days and it was a wonderful experience. It had the R-tronic gearbox though, which was brutal in comparison to the silky smooth dual clutch S-tronic in my RS5. So far, I have to say, though, that I am very impressed with the F Type gearbox - it's ALMOST as good as the S-tronic (but not quite), and definitely a lot better than the R-tronic.

I was very much set on an R8 as my next car. A high performance drive day in R8 Coupe's all day at Phillip Island track pushed me even further in that direction. The V10 coupes are absolutely planted and a joy to drive at speed.

The big negatives that stopped me buying one were;

1. Virtually NO trunk space - I took one of my daughters to school one morning in the loaner R8 - it was my computer bag or her school bag, but not both.
2. The R8 is at end-of-life for this body shape. New series coming in 2016. Could not justify spending a bucket load of cash on an old design, beautiful as it may be.
3. The technology is relatively old school. There's alot of bitching and moaning on this forum about Jag tech, but Audi isnt much better (and I lived with it for 4 years). Their responsiveness is quicker, but their interface is just as clumsy, if not more so. They do have voice control though, which I'm annoyed the Jag doesn't have.
4. Price difference- the fully loaded F Type R in Australia is AUD$289K. The V10 Spyder, unoptioned is AUD$430k. The V8 Spyder is AUD$345k. In the R8 price bracket, you have to start thinking McLaren, Merc S63 Coupe (now that was a serious option for me), or Lambo.

I was reluctant to move away from Quattro AWD, but admit I'm loving the "twitch" in the tail of the Jag.

And the Jag is just a beautiful car.

What wonderful choices to have to make!

 

looks don't even compare to this overpriced german bug.

 

The differential in the U.S. is substantial as well (at least to me). The unoptioned MY15 R is $99k and the R8 is $116k. Certainly not as large a differential as down under.