Volkswagen China Investment Ltd.’s commitment far exceeds the support provided by a vehicle partner. The Audi brand wants to place particular emphasis on cultural activities aimed at communicating the Olympic Idea around the world. The “Passion for Movement” programme includes plans for various cultural events. Audi, among other things, will make use of its many years of experience in the professional organisation of large-scale musical events and invite prominent performing artists to China.

Before and during the Games the spotlight will also be on the employees and dealers. For example, 124 showrooms in 87 cities will receive their own “Olympic Corner”, combined with numerous marketing activities and the sale of merchandising articles. During this campaign, Volkswagen China Investment Ltd. will also be collaborating with other partners of the Games, such as adidas and Air China. The objective is to inspire excitement and euphoria around and about the Olympic Games in order to extensively motivate dealers and employees and to further intensify their commitment to the Audi brand this way. The name of the project: “Olympic Extended Family”.

The commitment was officially kicked off at a press conference in Beijing in January. On this occasion the chauffeur vehicles with the newly developed emblem symbolising the ties between Audi and the Olympic Games were also presented for the first time. The Games themselves will be staged in the Chinese capital, which had been selected in 2001 against  other contenders – including Paris, Toronto and Istanbul – from 8 to 24 August 2008.

Sure, if it feels like it should cost $200,000. The always-funny Ezra Dyer got to take a spin through Beverly Hills in the 2008 Audi R8 for the New York Times, where he bemoans the car’s sideblades (or “sideburns,” as Dyer calls them) but not much else.

Despite the price tag of $110,000 and up, the DNA shared between the street-bound R8 and Audi’s lauded race car R8 — midengine layout with most of the torque going to the rear wheels, dry-sump lubrication, etc. — makes the 2008 Audi R8 one of the few cars allowed on municipal pavement that truly feels like a race car. In effect, the R8 is more like its Lamborghini cousins (also owned by VW) than like its other Audi siblings.

Unlike most Audis, which Dyer says are criticized for lacking any soul, the R8 offers up plenty of meat to get us grunting like cave men — yes, even the women — from an exhaust note that gets your blood rushing to optional LED lights that appropriately light up the engine under its transparent cover when the parking lights are on (should you be showing things off under the hood after dusk).

Click through for the full review, and watch this space in the coming months for more news about the R8, including rumors that it will soon be packing an optional V10 courtesy of Lamborghini.

The designer presented twenty of the black and white images in the Audi Forum New York on 12 May during a special event entitled “Kaleidoscopic Vision of a Car.” The guests from the worlds of business and entertainment had an opportunity to compare the real-life car with its mirror images – and to meet the designer in person. The pictures will be on display for two weeks as part of the photo exhibition at the Audi Forum. 

Lagerfeld shot the R8 in southern France, in Ramatuelle near Saint-Tropez – using three extra-large reflective screens and the very best equipment: “The R8 is a car of today, and it must be photographed using state-of-the art technology.” An artwork calendar containing twelve of the remarkable sports car images is exclusive to Audi R8 customers.

The release of the new Audi A4 Avant is expected to be around twelve months after the debut of the sedan, which puts its arrival sometime in early 2009.

Behind the Wheel | 2008 Audi R8

Growling at the Exotics’ Door

Powered by a 420-horsepower, 4.2-liter V-8, the R8 starts at $110,000.

By EZRA DYER

Published: May 20, 2007

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.

Multimedia

Some Racy Alternatives to the Audi R8

For all the racy overtones, the R8 is still a six-figure luxury car.

THE Audi R8 always wakes up on the wrong side of bed. Spin the starter motor and the 420-horsepower, 4.2-liter V-8 directly behind your head greets the day with a ragged, grumpy cacophony of angry internal combustion. Fire it up inside a parking garage, where the din reverberates inside the R8’s snug cabin, and it’s easy to imagine you’re heading for the starting grid at Le Mans.

And that’s entirely the point of this automobile. The 2008 R8 joins a small, elite group of production cars that manage to convey a convincing racecar vibe. Like a race machine, the R8 has a dry-sump lubrication system that sprays the bottom end of the motor with jets of oil to keep it from starving under high cornering loads. (Two other racecars for the street, the Porsche GT3 and Chevrolet Corvette Z06, also employ this approach.)

The R8’s midengine design echoes that of Audi’s dominant R8 racecar, which racked up 62 wins in 79 starts. In fact, the R8 production car was styled by the same team that created the racer. I didn’t get to drive the R8 on a track, but based on its genes it should take to a road course the way Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf’s children should shine on a tennis court.

For all the racy overtones, however, this is still a six-figure luxury car, and an Audi at that. Thus the R8’s $110,000 base price can rocket skyward rather quickly once you begin adding creature comforts.

For instance, you’ll want the $3,500 Convenience Package, the main feature of which is a rearview backup camera, because backing your new R8 into things is definitely inconvenient. My test car also had enhanced leather ($5,500), a navigation system ($2,000), a 465-watt Bang & Olufsen sound system ($1,800), metallic paint ($650) and carbon fiber sideblades ($2,000).

Budget another $9,000 if you go for the R-Tronic sequential manual transmission. (Sadly, a single-clutch Magneti Marelli and not Audi’s stellar Direct Shift Gearbox, which can’t handle so much power.)

And that’s how you build a $134,000 Audi two-seater. Of course, at this point you’re probably saying to yourself, “An Audi priced in Maserati-land, fine, but what the heck is a sideblade?”’

Good question. Adorning each flank of the R8, just behind the doors, is a vertical panel meant to visually shorten what is actually quite a long car — the 104.3-inch wheelbase is about an inch longer than that of a Ford Escape S.U.V. (One benefit of that long wheelbase: the R8 can take two golf bags behind the seats.)

It took me a while to make up my mind on the sideblades, which can be ordered in colors that contrast with the rest of the bodywork. At first I disliked them, then I wondered if I was being closed-minded toward styling innovation, and finally I concluded that the things are hideous and began referring to them as sideburns. Fortunately, you can specify body-color sideburns, thus minimizing their impact on what is otherwise a striking vehicle.

On that front, this is something of a car-review cliché, so forgive me for dragging it out here, but the R8 is a car that you really need to see in person. Photos do not do it justice. This car exudes drama and menace, particularly when it’s in motion.

Driving through Beverly Hills with the windows down, I heard the driver of a passing Mercedes utter an involuntary “Whoooaahhh!” that rushed past in the slipstream. I realize that flashy new cars tend to draw an inordinate amount of attention in the first few months of their life, but Beverly Hills is about as jaded an environment as you find, and the R8 was the subject of more cellphone photos than a Lindsay Lohan-Paris Hilton bar brawl.

Moreover, Audi’s in-house high-performance company, the confusingly named quattro GmbH, will build only 20 R8s a day at its dedicated plant, so this car will always remain an exclusive proposition.

Heading out of Beverly Hills and into the canyons outside Los Angeles, the R8 came into its element. Audi says a run from 0 to 60 m.p.h. takes 4.4 seconds, but the R8 is less about straight-line speed than about cohesive balance, the ability to tackle any road with instant confidence.

The car employs Audi’s quattro all-wheel-drive system, but the torque split is far more rear-biased than on any other Audi. As with its cousin, the Lamborghini Gallardo, the R8 strives to mimic the feel of a rear-drive car, so only 10 to 35 percent of the V-8’s torque is ever sent forward. At one particularly enthusiastic first-gear launch, I was surprised to find the enormous 295/30/19 rear tires spinning briefly before all four wheels dug in and catapulted the car forward. Burnouts are something you don’t expect from an all-wheel-drive Audi, even an RS 4.

As I said, I didn’t get to drive the R8 on a track, and exploring this car’s limits on a public road would constitute sociopathic behavior on par with juggling chainsaws at a baby shower.

nytimes.com

Audi New York

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