Audi R8 at Birdsville

[Sheriff]

Was in Birdsville for recent races..  Crew from Top Gear Australia Magazine were at Caravan Park in a new Audi R8 that they had driven up from Sydney.   Said to have driven over gravel roads at 35kph, changing drivers every hour.   Said also to be a 600bhp car, with a 0-100k time of 4 plus seconds.    Drove it up "Little Red" sand hill effortlessly.    Question is,, Why?    For the sake of a magazine article.    Seems a shame to me to abuse a supercar this way.    How would you like to buy it afterwards....  Cheers,  Mike.  ps.  seems a little inappropriate to have the park's garbage collection unit in the background of the second pic.   ;D

[peterwmh]

Why, because they didn't have to pay for it  ::), they are just boys in adults bodies, give it a caning and then give back what's left with no consequence!  But in a way I do envy what they do!!

Peter

[Ed]

that's fantastic!

Across the corrugated roads your bones would be rattling at 35 kmh.

130kmh would be nicer to skate across the tops!

now where are the burnout pics?  surely they must've......

[Sheriff]

Agree, Ed.  no way they would not have opened it up..  believe it was trucked back to Sydney.   Checked it out on Audi site, capable of 300kph if I remember right.     Mike

[trac44]

Hi fellas,
Name's Norm, and I'm one of those boys in an adult body. ;)
Came across your forum quite by accident when googling "R8 and "Birdsville". Spooky thing is, Orange is my home town; and I spent (more accurately mis-spent) my youth there when FEs were near new. I actually owned one. 8) Ah, the good ol' days.
So why did we drive an R8 to Birdsville? Because the editor of Top Gear Australia wanted a story, and the brief was to take the car places it would never be expected to be seen. His original request was to take it across a desert, but that would have been just too difficult. We got to Birdsville via Hilston, Mossgeil, Ivanhoe, Willcania, White Cliffs, Tibooburra, Warri Gate, the oilfield roads East of Innamincka, and Haddon Corner. Read about it in the November issue.
Yes, it is a shame to treat a super car like this, but that's the nature of the mag; irreverence. Fortunately, the R8 won't be sold to some poor unsuspecting sod, but will probably go back to engineering to be pulled apart.
And yes, we did drive it veeerrry slowly in the dirt; being mindfull of the 30% profile tyres. We holed one about 200 Ks out of Birdsville.
Yes, it was trucked out of Birdsville, but only to the bitumen; because we hoisted it at the servo and thought we had put enough rock dings underneath. We were worried about holing the cast alloy sump.
We never wound it up on the blacktop. Well, it might have exceeded the speed limit a little a few times while overtaking. ;)
It's a fabulous car (not quite 600 hp; about 310 Kw) and we did treat it as kindly as possible considering the conditions. I doubt that a Lambo, or even a Ferrari would have made that trip and still have no rattles.
For your interest, here's a pic on that infamous sand ridge about 30 kilometres out of town.
Nice to talk to you. Enjoy your FEs and FCs (I know you do). :)

[KFH]

Call me cynical if you like.  I went over Little Red about 12 months ago.  The tracks in the sand were quite deep then and with the clearance of the Audi it would have bottomed out and became stuck.  Maybe the surface was smooth at the time it went over!.  Lowered tyre pressure to balloon the tryes  helps get better traction in soft sand if you have sufficient tyre height to do it.  Is the picture of the Audi in the sand just another case of Photoshop at work?

Keith

[TTV6FC]

Looks like the car was "reversed" into position and you can see the foot marks coming away from the car too.If it is photoshop,it's a good job  ???

[JB]

I think that it was good of Norm, to fill us in a little more about the trip.

Thanks Norm, wish i had your job!!

JB

[KFH]

I may be wrong.  This site was sent to me and gives further information.

http://www.exploroz.com/Forum/Topic/62163/Audi_R8_on_top_of_Big_Red.aspx?ky=&p=%2fForum%2fDefault.aspx%3fpn%3d2

  Keith