The New R8’s Non-functional Design Elements Distract From Its Atmospheric V10.

May 21

May 21 The New R8’s Non-functional Design Elements Distract From Its Atmospheric V10.

Less Is More

Think for a moment about how challenging it is to build a car. The worst car you have ever seen driving down the road required a great deal of engineering and precision to make it drive down the road. Now consider how much more difficult it is to create a supercar. All of the challenges that the engineers designing the Yugo faced, including the cost to build, require tighter tolerances. Every piece of the car went through a decision process to be included in the vehicle.

A moment of silence for one of the last Naturally Aspirated V10s.

Everything is a choice

Why then, did the team at Audi decide to adorn the new Audi R8 V10 Performance with a number of non-functional slits in the hood? Someone on Audi’s communications team explained that the “Flat slits in the hood are reminiscent of the Audi Sport quattro brand icon”. I have no problem with brand heritage design cues, but taking functional design cues would be much more interesting than some fake flat slits. Bad Audi.

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Style for Style is not Style

Many manufacturers have been guilty of giving into styling for styling’s sake, looking at you winged Countach models. However, I expect more from a road car that claims to share over 50 percent of its parts with the R8 LMS GT3. Hot tip, you could share even more parts if you didn’t include the fake vents.

There are too many distractions in our world today. Like scrolling through your phone while using the restroom, nothing productive happens while you are wasting your time on a distraction. You are only more likely to miss the target.

This mid-cycle refresh may be the last new R8 with a naturally aspirated V10. It is unfortunate that the styling elements don’t capture the right attitude of a 611 bhp supercar capable of over 205 MPH. Luckily, the extremely talented Henry Catchpole covers many other reasons why we should enjoy this R8 while it lasts in his latest road review.