It's official .... the R8 is finally mine !!

[Alan]

The Audi is officially mine, the car was previously owned by a man who ordered it when the R8s first came out and he was in his mid 80's at the time ... he had 15 cars when he passed away, the estate is now liquidating the cars and this was the first one they sold ... some of the others were a Maserati Quattroport, a late model Rolls, a Ferrari 575, a Bentley ... anyway you get the idea ... the man had very good taste in cars.

For some reason finding an Original Owner R8 was really hard to find and I looked at all years from 2009 to 2012 ... most of them had 3,4 or ever more owners ... This 2008 which was a year I wasn't looking into but it was such a find I couldn't resist. Anyway it has 9,500 miles and like I mentioned in the other thread it has the R tronic ...

Today was my first day with the car, I picked it up an hour away and had some time to play with it though I was a total spaz driving home because I was so nervous .... I have to say this transmission is really cool, when first driving off from -0- mph it has characteristics of a manual, there is no rolling forward like an automatic, you need to lift off the throttle when shifting gears like a manual to get it smooth and overall it is just so amazing to learn something new and so different though I have along road ahead of me.

My 16 yr old son was more excited then I was and he caught the drift of the r tronic very quickly ...

Here is a quick pic ... (yes the garage is a mess)

[clyde]

Cool! Enjoy!

[IndyMike]

Supercar. Props!

[equ]

Congrats!

[bren]

Nice.

The transmission sounds like it behaves just like SMG in the e46m3.

[kognito]

Awesome! congrats!

[ff]

Very cool. Enjoy it!

[Alan]

Originally Posted by bren

Nice.

The transmission sounds like it behaves just like SMG in the e46m3.

I would say if there was a scale where SMG was a 1 and the DSG was a 4, this transmission would be a 3 in terms of smoothness and refinement.

In my experience with the E46 SMG which was MANY years ago was that it was clunky, it banged into gear and really was in need of some major refinement (I was not a fan) ... the R tronic is much smoother and feels much more refined though what I like is it still has the rawness to it so you would never mistake it for a regular automatic with a torque converter.

If you try to drive it like an automatic your not going to like it if you don't take you foot gently off the gas pedal during shifts because you will bob around but it is not a jerky feel, it is more of a delayed feel as the Automated clutch does it job.

[bren]

Originally Posted by AF

I would say if there was a scale where SMG was a 1 and the DSG was a 4, this transmission would be a 3 in terms of smoothness and refinement.

In my experience with the E46 SMG which was MANY years ago was that it was clunky, it banged into gear and really was in need of some major refinement (I was not a fan) ... the R tronic is much smoother and feels much more refined though what I like is it still has the rawness to it so you would never mistake it for a regular automatic with a torque converter.

If you try to drive it like an automatic your not going to like it if you don't take you foot gently off the gas pedal during shifts because you will bob around but it is not a jerky feel, it is more of a delayed feel as the Automated clutch does it job.

Yup, still sounds exactly the same.

My guess is you were just being hamfisted.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by bren

Yup, still sounds exactly the same.

My guess is you were just being hamfisted.

I would think overall it is the same when describing it because it is a single auto clutch not a dual so maybe I am wrong but I'd think all single clutches have the same basic concept just like every manual has the same concept but each has a different feel.

I can only tell you from when I remember driving an E46 M3 SMG, it had this crazy BANG into gear that I am not experiencing and the SMG automated clutch engaging and disengaging felt more abrupt and not nearly as smooth. Maybe I'm wrong since I am comparing it to a memory of over 6 to 7 years ago.

Anyway overall IMO this have a more refined feel.