Car Rental: Audi R8
(February 2023)

Mike suggested that we rent an Audi R8. And, would you know it, Enterprise let us do it!


We took two days off during the work week to minimize the traffic. It snowed the night before. Well, pictured is what passes for snow in greater Phoenix!


We both thought that they wouldn't rent a $200,000 car to us. So when Tyler asked if we wanted a black coupé or a white convertible, we felt like Christmas had arrived early! As I spoke with him, Mike took photos and video of the car. To accomodate visitors with slower connections with the Internet, I will upload two sizes of videos on this page (Blu-ray & DVD) with the file sizes. Here's the inspection video: Blu-ray (189 MB) & DVD (16 MB)


I parked the car so we could retrieve our belongings from Mike's car. Obviously, I thought that it was a lot wider when I parked! I was still happy to drive my first supercar!


After we lowered the top, we drove south on the Pima Freeway (Loop 101) to Shea Blvd, which dead-ends on the Beeline Highway (Arizona State Route 87). I was surprised how quickly I became more comfortable driving this spectacular machine. It employs the same chassis as the Lamborghini Huracan and is powered by a 5.2-liter V-10! Once out of the city and on 87, I sheepishly tested how more-than-600 horsepower can move you:
Blu-ray (35 MB) & DVD (4 MB)

That's 0-80 mph in about 8-9 seconds. Mike managed quicker times, because he let the car shift gear automatically and we learned which driving mode to use. Writing of shifting, I liked the "flappy paddles". I did confuse the transmission a few times, and the drive-by-wire "committee" stepped in.

You'll notice that we stopped just outside of a rural housing development. As we were photographing the car and smiling, a woman stopped her red Kia and told me that she would gladly exchange cars and "drive it like it should be driven!" Here are some more shots of this striking German car:

Click for a larger view of the front.


Mike took the wheel, and I could look around. The interior of the R8 is well-appointed. There's climate control A/C, heated seats, parking sensors, cruise control, etc. Since we had the top down, and it was a chilly 40-something; we enjoyed the seat heaters!


We climbed, which is easy for the car in any of the seven forward gears, and the temperature dropped. Then, snow appeared and a sign warned that chains were required. We turned around with the anticipation of balmy 55 degrees in the Valley of the Sun!


We switched again and we stopped at In-N-Out for some burgers. It was surprisingly easy to drive the car in the drive thru! It's much easier than my Midget. In fact, I believe that one could easily drive the car every day and anywhere. It doesn't stand out that much, as you can see in the above photo. I think the fact that we had the top down at 50 degrees attracted the attention of others!


We drove back home to avoid having to deal with the rush hour. Of course, we had to line up the three vehicles. The only trouble is that we only have a two-car driveway. No trouble for the Jeep!


Squeezing the R8 into the garage with the Jeep allowed us time to examine the car more carefully. The interior is a pleasant place to sit.


We had to read the Owner's Manual to pop the engine lid, because Enterprise had disabled the engine lid release. (It's electrical.) Yes, Enterprise left the Owner's Manual in the car. The convertible top blocks most of the engine. Without removing it, which is described in the Manual!, we could not see the engine. There is a small lid behind the top to access the oil cap. The engine uses a dry sump, also.


The exhaust may be made louder by pressing a button on the steering wheel. We were curious how it worked. Mike captured video while I ran the engine. It cannot be used while the engine is running at fast idle.
Caution: this video may be loud! Here's the video (12 MB)!


I noticed that the front brake rotors were connected to the hub with what appears to be thick spokes. Yeah, I'm trained as an engineer so I notice this sort of thing I believe that the engineers wanted to decouple the hot rotors from the hub. Why boil the grease or oil (?) in the hubs with heat from the brakes? The R8 is probably the closest thing to a racing car that the public will ever drive!


The dashboard is all LCD or LED. It's cool to see a very accurate representation of the two open compartments. The Power and Torque gauges respond instantaneously. It's fun to overtake cars on the freeway with ~10% power!

R8s are available with all-wheel-drive, but ours was not!

We experienced what felt like axle tramp from the rear end in full-throttle starts. Mike was even able to get the traction control light to flash!


When we were driving the R8 back to the rental facility, Mike commented that we were probably the calmest pair of drivers ever to rent the car. It's true that we enjoyed it, but we didn't go much faster than 80 mph. In fact, I drove back very calmly, and the car is marvelous as a GT car. It's composed, rides better than any of our vehicles, and has more than enough power for anything. I passed four cars on an entrance ramp, because they tried to make it difficult for us to merge. That's this car in a nutshell: calm until the gloves come off!

Here are a few videos that help to explain why we love the Audi R8 so much. It just such a great driver's car and looks fantastic on one's surveillance cameras!

"It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."





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