Audi is beginning to fairly dominate the World Car of the Year Awards. The Ingolstadt automaker has just won itself two major awards at the international competition; World Performance Car and Car Design of the Year. It is now two years in a row that Audi has bagged these two awards; last year it was the RS 4 and TT respectively that got the final nod. Just to cement its place the R8 was pitted against sibling A5 as well as the Mazda2, winner of the overall WCOTY Award for 2008.
The R8 has left each person lucky enough to get their grubby paws on it in sheer awe of its talents as a performer that not only delivers oozes of raw, edgy tyre-shredding Newtons on the road, but also as a well-balanced everyday car that almost goes anywhere where roads are paved. We know that a car from the same extended family (no names need mentioning) has owned this label since before forever, yet now R8 is going with it freely…
Using the same 4.2-litre V8, 420 bhp/309kW power unit found inside the RS 4, the R8 is said to force its way into the 100km/h mark from zero in a straight 4.7 seconds. And thanks to Quattro, even folks in Iceland and Alaska can drive one.
Audi R8 wins World Performance Car of the Year
Audi / Audi R8
Takes Design of the Year award too
By Thami Masemola
March 22, 2008 6:43 PM
Filed Under: Audi, General, German
Comments
Penner
March 22, 2008 6:47 PM
Right decision!
Joe_Limon
March 22, 2008 7:04 PM
The R8 is good and all, but I think the GT-R is more deserving of this award. 0-60 in 3.3 is amazing for a car in it's price range that is as comfortable on the track as it is on the road.
Joe_Limon
March 23, 2008 4:15 AM
come down? do you mean calm down? This car is pointless, it looks aggressive until you walk up to the engine bay in person and realize how small it's engine is. This if this car had 600hp, then for $150,000 I could see it being nominated for car of the year. But as it lies, it promises so much, yet falls so short.
kevoluetion
March 23, 2008 2:01 PM
As mentioned by car.fan, winning the performance award doesn't mean fast and power, if that was the case, the Bugatti Veyron would win every year. Not to mention the R8 also won the design of the year award. The GTR would probably win the ugliest supercar award (not saying its bad car). Never the less, the heading for this article speaks for itself, from critics all over the world.
Joe_Limon
March 23, 2008 6:30 PM
ok so we are agreed it isn't on looks. But back to the handling. The GT-R isn't just a straight line performance car. That was proved on the nurburgring. It also has amazing cornering capabilities, and has a comfortable interior to boot. Face it, it offers everything the R8 does and does it better. Not only that but it does it for half the price.
pscs
March 23, 2008 11:37 PM
I'm sitting on the fence here reading both sides of the argument. But John_Limon, have you driven both the cars yet? and just a side note, you can't compare 2 cars in different categories.
pscs
March 23, 2008 11:38 PM
I'm sitting on the fence here reading both sides of the argument. But Joe_Limon, have you driven both the cars yet? and just a side note, you can't compare 2 cars in different categories.
kevoluetion
March 24, 2008 10:50 AM
Perhaps, but it might be a different story once you actually sit in those vehicles. The attention to detail and quality on the R8 combines with luxury appointments and exclusitivity, where as the GTR is a Japanese performance vehicle, its just different class. Both different machines, but the GTR might be a runner up?
Joe_Limon
March 25, 2008 4:50 AM
I have sat in the r8 and the skyline at the past motor show in my city (one of the benefits of working on the floor) I preferred the skyline, the r8 seemed like a warped version of a regular car interior, whereas the skyline seemed newer, and of the same quality. And this whole award had to compare every different category so yes you can compare 2 different cars in 2 different categories.
BENZian
March 22, 2008 8:07 PM
nice car yes...but after all Lamborghini did the heavy lifting...price is the only advantage over a Gallardo...not impressed by the corporate savvy move to increase platform sharing...it does nothing so much as dilute Lamborghini. You will not see Ferrari mismanaging its brand this way...
radmeister
March 23, 2008 12:53 AM
What are you talking about, the MC12 and the GT. Every brand shares platform for cost reduction purposes.
car.fan
March 23, 2008 2:13 AM
Benzian,
Lamborghini have had record sales these past years under Audi management;) The release of the R8 is not going to stop rich guys from buying a Lambo. They will buy a Lambo together with an R8. The Lamborghini brand carries a great element of exclusivity. The R8 does enter supercar territory, however it will not pinch sales from Lamborghini that easily. I'm sure they thought things through properly....
bendyhui
March 23, 2008 6:21 AM
R8 provides good performance really!! but just wondering why were there so many R8 got fired?
car.fan
March 23, 2008 12:16 PM
german-cars-lover, A super car does not win such a prestigious award because of the amount of power it has. The R8 ticks all the right super car boxes. Fantastic engine from the Audi RS4, Lightweight body, no body roll, fantastic traction off the line and around the bends thanks to its Quattro all-wheel-drive. Also, unlike any other Super car, The R8 cockpit is a comfortable place to be in. The R8 is practical,fast,comfortable.....
kevoluetion
March 23, 2008 2:03 PM
Pefection....from elegance, aggression, quality, comfort, luxury and uniqueness all very well balanced.
_M7_
March 24, 2008 12:39 AM
420 hp R8 its a city car like an smart?? THE BESTA CAR ITS THE GTR low price almost 500hp and even more whit the vspect edicion and if you want to tune it you can get 1000hp XD what eles do you need?
radmeister
March 24, 2008 5:34 AM
The GT-R is ugly compared to the R8, lets face reality the R8 was the best looking performance car to come out of 2007. Also if audi wanted to make the fastest car out there they could have easily being backed by VW/Porsche/Bugatti and also having 80 years of making some of the fastest cars on earth. What they went for with the R8 was something like a Porsche, a medium priced performance car that can also be a daily driver which based on porsche's sales figures is a good market to sell in. If i am not mistaken that 4.2 V8 has won numerous engine awards and is truly a great engine, sure it's not mind blowing performance but its reliable and still puts down some nice numbers. There will probably be more R8 versions coming out with more power in the future. Also, all this talk of it being a watered down gallardo is a bunch of BS, the gallardo is a beefed up audi, the engine is audi, the chassis is the patented audi space age aluminum frame. The R8 was in the works probably before the gallardo and they used the Gallardo as a testing platform because if something went wrong mechanically it would be expected from an exotic, not so expected if it was on an Audi. Lastly the GT-R is a great performance car but for one it is not even out internationally yet, and wasn't unveiled until we were already in 2008, who knows it might win the 2009.
Joe_Limon
March 25, 2008 5:09 AM
Good point about the GT-R release date. And for that I withdraw all objections about the GT-R not being performance car of the year. The rest of that paragraph is crap. I disagree on the looks, I don't like them and so do half the people I know. The "medium priced performance car" made me laugh. $150,000 is medium priced my ass. True there are many performance cars that cost a lot more, that just means there are a lot of expensive priced performance cars. Seriously, for the average person who wishes to buy a performance car, $80,000 is on the very top of the medium price point. Unless... of course you live in a neighborhood where everyone makes a minimum of $200,000 a year.
radmeister
March 26, 2008 12:09 AM
You can probably afford an R8 lease on 80,000$ a year and that is an upper medium class salary which is what this car and porches are aimed at, upper middle class. Upper class get ferraris and lamborghinis. For 80,000$ the only performance car worth buying is the GT-R. Looks are opinion based, i personally think that the R8 is 10x sexier than the GT-R which is a sweet looking car but the R8 is a completely different league from anything else out there.
THERENAISSANCEMAN
March 24, 2008 8:13 AM
one thing about performance/supercars . . . manufacturers do not quote MPG fuel consumption in their stats. of what good a fast car can bring if it conks out at the next bend just because its engine had expended all its on- board fuel supply ? the last time we heard of a practical sportscar was that of a Porsche 993 Carerra which delivered a real-world 25 MPG consumption .
The_woo_factor
March 24, 2008 10:08 AM
GO THE AWESOME r8! I said it before and I will say it again.....I'M GONNA GET ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...maybe two
The_woo_factor
March 24, 2008 10:10 AM
GTR is a TOO FAST TOO FURIOUS type of try hard cars...sure it may have a cool engine....but that's about it!
streetlowtuner
March 24, 2008 12:10 PM
the r8 is a beautifull car, no doubts about that, but when it comes to looks i choose the gt-r, i just find it agressiver looking, less priced and has the same efficienty. the days of german cars ruling just are over. a car lover with no specific brand preferre
kevoluetion
March 25, 2008 4:20 AM
Remember Audi is not meant to look aggressive, its just not their brand, but having said that alot of their models are very aggressive, just look at the normal entry level A4. GTR is a fun car but i cant say they spend sleepless nights coming up with the design. And nothing compares with german quality esp when it comes to Audi. Germans will rule and always will.
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