Audi R8 V8 review - see why it's a £40,000 bargain supercar!

this is a 2007 audi r8 v8 and is it a future classic well in this video we're going to find out because i'm going to drive it i'm going to show you all around it i'm going to give you some buying tips things to look out for if you're going to buy one of these which could cost you a lot of money i'm also of course even though it's old i'm going to launch it to see how quick it really is from north to 60 miles an hour [Music] this video is brought to you by the new stereo app it's a live broadcast social platform which you can download for free by following the link in the description or the pin comment below when the r8 went on sale in 2007 everyone was like oh my god look at that it's amazing now some cars day but this hasn't at all it's still looks fresh and modern you could argue that it actually looks better than the current r8 i really like the look of it i really do and don't forget it was cool enough for iron man one of the standout design features on the r8 is this the side blade i love the side blade you have them in different colours you can even get them in carbon this works well with this gray combination it's nice every single angle of this car just works got a lovely back end and yeah they're real vents real exhaust pipes as well v8 has twin pipes on each side the v10 version had an oval pipe on each side it's a bit dirty kind of like that can't wash it and i've been driving it having fun it's actually in the winter the good thing is even when you're driving on grimy roads the dirt never seems to make it onto this rear screen so it's always clear for you to look through and draw over that v8 engine it's also nice actually when it's cold day like today then you can warm your hands and your body on this warm engine bay one of the key things about the idr rate is that all its body panels are made out of aluminium don't know what that's proving i should really get a magnet and show that it doesn't stick anyway also the wishbone suspension is made out of aluminium as well all this helps keep the weight down though this car still weighs in at 1 575 kilos so it's not exactly a featherweight now part of the reason for that way is the fact that you've got quattro permanent all-wheel drive and it's set up so that it sends 70 percent of the power to the rear wheels and only 30 to the front so it does have a rear drive bias was that sporty driving experience yeah the r8 was initially launched with this engine here it's a 4.2 liter natural aspirated v8 with 420 horsepower especially not 16 4.6 seconds but we'll find out exactly what it does in a moment when i launch it and time it a year later in 2008 audi actually fitted the 5.2 litre natural aspirated v10 from the lamborghini gallardo and that had 520 horsepower and could do not 60 in 3.9 seconds let's see how quick this old r8 is from north to 60 miles an hour sorry to interrupt the video just before i launch the old ra to probably it's aging clutch but i need to tell you about the new stereo app it's basically a podcast between two people that's live that other people can join in on by sending voice messages to show you what it's like here's an extract from my recent stereo show with yanny when are you going to let yanny wrap one of your cards and will he have full design choice over what you get so it'll be a total surprise good question sorry danny it's up to you um when are you gonna wrap one of my cars are you going to pay though matt of course not the people want to see it you've got to give the people what they want in terms of um janet having his own choice well do you know what do you know what if he's going to do it for free or let him do whatever he wants to do and i promise no matter what it is to drive the car around in that scheme for at least three months i'm happy for that deal you heard it here live on stereo you heard it and there's no running away from that he said he will let me wrap one of his cousins he'll have to drive for three months and you can't give me like your fee at the portrait you never drive around i want a car that you use on a daily basis i want people to see that my masterpiece the work of art how many points on your licenses do you both have none really zero points yeah yeah what do you mean really now i'll be doing another stereo show with yanny live tomorrow night at 7 00 pm so make sure you tune in and send in your questions to us you can download the app for free by following the link in the description or in the pin comment below anyway let's get on with the launching of the r8 i have my specialist timing gear up here i'm going to launch it come on bit off the pace there not 16 5.2 seconds crap gear change i'm going to try it again this time i'm gonna try it with the esb in sport mode come on bit slippery there that's about one oh a 4.9 seconds and you know what i'm not sure i want to do it again because don't want to damage the clutch here on the inside the r8 actually still feels pretty modern it's a really really nice design like the sweeping dash i like the quality of the leather nice steering well the seating position is brilliant loads of adjustment in it as well so it doesn't matter whether you're big or small you're going to be able to find a decent driving position and you sit nice and low in it as well there's a couple of things that i do find a little bit hard for instance the layout of the dials always the outers of this era with that kind of shape dials just reminded me of wally [Music] you're not gonna be able to see that now sorry another thing that i'm not so kid on is this the infotainment system just seems so dated it hasn't even got bluetooth for audio so you can't play your music through it if i was going to buy this car i'd rip that out i'll keep it you know for future when i come to sell the car and put a modern system in so i've got full connectivity in terms of practicality we've got some cup holders there there's a ledge here where you can store stuff and a glove box of moderate size and some small pins in the door it's not the most practical but it is a sports car isn't it underneath here is your boot your front boot so your fruit and you have a 100 liter capacity i think it's a little bit smaller than you have on an equivalent porsche 911 but you can fit enough luggage in there for a weekend away and look i'm like a cat that's presented with an open box i just have to get in it there's enough room for a man in here in fact i reckon i could fill it with water and have a little bath that's a bit odd but you could one of my favorite things about this original r8 is the open gated manual gearbox it's just so so good to use i love it you can get the car with an automatic with a single clutch auto and it should have been called the r chronic because it just isn't very good in 2012 they updated that automatic with a dual clutch system and it's much better but still if you're buying this car you want to be able to go because it's just so wonderful an early 2007 audi r8 v8 will set you back from around 30 grand however you probably want to spend about 40 000 pounds because then you'll get a minter like this one here now if you are buying one of these cars there are a few things to look out for well these brakes are brilliant you've got eight piston calipers at the front and four piston at the rear these discs are rather expensive so they cost 300 quid each so you want to make sure that they're in good condition and it's best to change your pads when they're about 50 down because you don't want to accidentally damage these discs and end up having to replace them the v8 engine is generally very tough but if you hear a clunking noise that could be the bottom end bearings going walk away from that car because that could be really expensive to fix the engine can get coked up because of the direct injection system a deco will fix that for you one thing to watch out for though is the clutch because it costs about three and a half thousand pounds to have one replaced make sure you check the radiators for any leaks it's a common problem on these cars also if you are buying one get it up on a ramp get all the under body trays removed to look for other leaks in the brake lines and coolant hoses as well another thing to check that the lights are working properly all the leds and the xenons because one of these units will cost you about 650 pounds because the rear suspension wishbones are made out of aluminium but they wouldn't use steel bolts on the car the two can react so if you need to remove anything it can be a bit of a problem however that's the least of your worries if the rear lower wishbones go which can be a common fault on these 3 000 pounds each to replace because you have to replace the whole unit and the hub take the car for a drive break accelerate and go over speedups if you can and listen up for any knocking sounds that could be a sign there's a problem with the low wishbones look out for general wear and tear in the interior for instance the leather on the seat bases can get a little bit baggy as they have done on this car if you look at this gear knob you can see it's all scratched the driver obviously wore rings and made a bit of a mess of that shame bigger concern is this if you get a car with the magnetic ride they can fail and the dampers cost 800 pounds a corner so you might be safer just getting one with the normal setup in fact if i was buying this car i would actually just get one without the magnetic ride and replace all the suspension on the car anyway as a matter of course probably fit coilovers let's see what this old r8 is like to drive well do you know what it may be over 13 years old but it still feels really quite new in here one of the things about the r8 was it was always easy to drive yet when you wanted to have fun you wanted performance it gave you exactly that these adaptive dampers are great when they're working and they really do smooth out the bumps in the road and the faster you get the more they smooth out those bumps if i press a button down here put it into sports mode all of a sudden you can feel it firm everything up it's a little bit too bumpy then for british roads the comfort setting though is perfect as is the gear shift oh it's so nice you find yourself just changing gear for the hell of it even when you don't need to but then again this is an engine that likes to rev you can spin it all the way up to 8000 rpm and it sounds awesome when you do it so sure footed this car steering's sharp direct i actually spoke to the guy who was in charge of developing this car and he said there's one thing he'd have changed it would have been the steering he did say that he wanted even more feedback but they have to develop these things to a budget and they had spent all that they could in that area but i think the steering by today's standards because it's hydraulically assisted is just nicer than most modern supercars or sports cars and you can't fault a naturally aspirated v8 the throttle response you just flex your right foot and it immediately just picks up it's actually quite easy to heal and tear as well the pedal position is just really nice and the beauty of this car is that it's not too cumbersome to just suddenly have to do a u-turn and the clutch pedal isn't too hard or stiff either so when you're just pooping around in this car it doesn't get on your nerves i really like it then you put your foot down oh yes do you know what you do not need to go any quicker than this car is capable of on the road you really don't back in the day i'd always recommend getting the v10 just because that sound and the added performance made it feel like a supercar rather than a sports car but when you're buying an older car that's not such a problem and i think this v8 really when you're thinking about it it is all you need they absolutely nailed it when they release this thing it's got to be a future classic there is only one thing that i've noticed that really annoys me i'm driving this car i'm in my ideal driving position but the way the key is and the fob it's always like bashing off my knee i don't want to take the fob off the key because it's got the audi logo on it but it's just a bit annoying it's just tapping away there like that that really is my only complaint though with the way it drives that's the biggest problem that shows how good this car is so what do i think about the audi r8 v8 well do you know what it's a bit of a bargain really there's so much car here it looks modern it's got all the performance you could ever need with the manual it's fun to drive it's a fabulous fabulous thing the only problem is is that now i think i quite want one myself which means i'm gonna have to get another car should i get one i really shouldn't get another car let me know what you think in the comments below but it is wonderful it really really is don't give it back i hope you all enjoyed the video if you did please give it a like you can watch more videos by clicking on those windows there and don't forget to subscribe to this channel also download the stereo app for free by following the link in the description or in the pinned comments and tune in to my new show

Channel: Mat Watson Cars

Views: 792,666

Keywords: mat, watson, carwow, audi, r8, quattro, review, matthew, yianni, drag, race, v10, 4.2, 5.2, lamborghini, gallardo, buying, guide, stereo, app

Id: HX-R25i25rU

Length: 12min 53sec (773 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2021