Audi R8 - The driving shot
Posted by Bill Thomas at 4:00PM on Monday 07 April, 2008 8 Comments
First of all, an apology is due. I must apologise profusely to Thomas Krauter, technical project leader from Audi. He was the 'chaperone' of his baby, the Audi R8 V12 TDI Le Mans concept car, on a recent trip to Miami for journalists to drive it. You'll read the full story in the May edition of Top Gear magazine, on sale from April 17. I apologise to him in that story, too.
Thomas, I'm sorry.
See, with such a rare and indeed priceless car - there is only one R8 V12 TDI on the planet, and apparently someone offered Audi £3 million for it at the New York Auto Show, an offer which Audi politely refused - driving it becomes even more special than usual. And so, 'the driving shot' becomes terribly important, just to prove that you've done it, see?
'The driving shot' is something I usually avoid like the plague. I have seven chins, and I know that I'm not cool. I also know that admitting I'm not cool doesn't make me any cooler. Most motoring writers are not cool. In fact, all motoring writers are not cool, except maybe Hammond, May and Clarkson. Maybe. Any other motoring writer who thinks or says he's cool is living in denial.
And, whether they admit it or not, I happen to know that every car photographer in the world hates 'the driving shot' because it's the worst shot they take all day... some pasty, uncool lummox trying to look cool behind a steering wheel occupying their lens, ugh. Hate.
Anyway, enough of that. We needed to take 'the driving shot' today, because it was a convenient way to get Thomas out of his precious car. Great bloke, Thomas, a really amusing, genuine and brilliant guy who I liked from the first moment I met him. But for now, I just wished he'd f*** right off, to be brutally honest. In the nicest possible way.
He wouldn't let anyone drive the R8 V12 TDI without him being in the passenger seat for every other type of moving shot or drive, and when he was in the car, he insisted that you didn't rev it much or give it much death. His left hand came out and waved in front of the steering wheel in a worried slow-down way whenever any hint of giving it death happened.
But in order to take this 'driving shot', we couldn't fit Thomas and a photographer in. So I insisted that we do 'the driving shot' immediately. It was suddenly the most important shot of the day. Let's do a driving shot, I said to the photographer, Justin Leighton. Time for a driving shot. Just to prove that I've driven it.
Thomas agreed, very kindly, in his nice way, so this was it.
I trundled the car around a corner of the deserted little island car park Audi had found in Miami and as soon as I was out of sight of Thomas, Justin's head snapped back and his lens almost smashed through the firewall behind us as I nailed that 6.0-litre V12 diesel's throttle pedal all the way to the carpet and let the thing rev. Sorry, Thomas.
In full tune it will make 500bhp and 738lb ft of torque, but for this drive - because the gearbox wasn't for final production and is apparently too weak to take 738lb ft of twist - Thomas had turned the boost down to half. So we 'only' had 370lb ft or so to play with. Even more reason to give it absolute full and unrelenting death, in my opinion.
The redline is diesel-low at only 4,500rpm, and you get there mightily quickly because the thing revs rapidly, like any sports car should.
And the two massive turbos feeding the V12 spool up fast, with almost no lag. I found myself in fourth gear and hammering towards the Atlantic Ocean at some rate of knots, the turbos emitting a loud hollow whoosh, and all the while I was thinking stuff like 'my God, what will this thing be like on full boost?' and 'my God, I think a diesel supercar will WORK!'.
Didn't take it quite to the redline, because Thomas would have summarily executed me if I'd have blown that engine to bits, but I went very close. And I can confirm that the diesel supercar has well and truly arrived - it's almost certain that Audi will build this thing, and when it does, the car should have more power and a hell of a lot more torque even than the normally aspirated V10 they're planning to put into the new RS8. Making this, the diesel, the ultimate Audi. On paper, at least.
But there was no telling anything much else about the Audi on this little drive, sadly - other than the car is utterly incredible. Or will be. I just want to drive it when it's properly awake, with no nannying on the boost levels.
Thomas has done a magnificent job with the R8 TDI Le Mans - it feels production ready and he deserves a medal. It's a fantastic thing, even at half-power, delivering almost alien levels of acceleration without any stress or bother.
He also deserves a full and unmitigated apology from yours truly. Sorry, Thomas. But we needed a driving shot. We really did.
Read the full story on Audi's R8 V12 TDI Le Mans concept in May's Top Gear magazine, on sale from April 17.
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8 Comments for "Audi R8 - The driving shot"
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Until seeing the R10 Le Mans cars going around, I never would have thought 'diesel' and 'supercar' could be uttered in the same breath without peals of laughter. It seems Audi is quite serious about this thing, and even though I'm nowhere near of the means to buy one, I hope they do build it - and turn the whole supercar world on its ear.
Why is Audi trying to convince the world that diesel is cool?
I'd have howled with laughter if you had blown it. Wrecking a currently priceless, one-of-a-kind supercar through stupidity would have been enough to remove the very reason why Jeremy Clarkson is ever allowed on TV. He wrecks old bangers.
And I'm sure mindless destruction is the only qualification needed for TG presenters these days.
Mate, you missed out the most important bit... what does it SOUND like?? Does it make a noise reminiscent of some Nordic god smashing rocks into little bits, like the Pug 908 Le Mans racer does? Or does it sound like a normal diesel?
People don't buy cars like this with their heads, do they... so the whole package, soundtrack included, is going to have to be right.
Diesel may not be 'cool' but it has an air of inevitability about it.
How long before we're welcoming(?) the new Aston Martin diesel or Lamborghini??
When I first heard of the Audi R8 V12 TDI I was so happy - how long have we waited for a diesel supercar to come and show everyone that diesels are just as fast and more efficient.
A diesel supercar? Hmm, I will admit it is faster than the standard petrol V8 but still... a redline at 4500 rpm isn't really going to help you much when you just want to balance the revs just so... It'll probably work though and I'm happy about that.
Regarding the sound, German news site Spiegel Online was also invited to that test drive in Miami, and it has got a few sound recordings in its report. Hear for yourself in the 'Soundcheck' box, although the quality of the recordings doesn't seem that good.