That’s it….for now.

[stevo55]

After much deliberation and a new business venture (which I need to put money into) I’ve moved on from the R8 after just over 1 year of ownership. All in I did around 3500 miles, at least 1k of that was by the missus as I work away a lot. Not many miles for sure but these tend to be part of a collection (I had 3 until recently) and driven occasionally. You did get some high mileage ones and full credit to the owners running them as a daily (which is easy so long as you don’t need to lug kit around). As for the all important residual value- last April/May I bought it for £83,995 with 21066 on the clock (Jan 2016 build) and it sold for £79,995 with 24,862 miles. As I put a fair deposit down I got a fair chunk back which is much needed for next car (more on that in a mo). I could have made more on a private sale (I went down the SOR route) and one guy (after I put it up on a FB R8 group offered to drive down from a long way to pay for it. Ricky endeavour as you have no idea a) who is going to turn up at your place (although you meet somewhere else and can take it from there just to be safe) and b) someone that has that sort of money waiting. I’m overly cautious but it pays to be suspicious I find.
Parting thoughts for anyone curious about ownership:

1. By FAR the best car I have owned as a pure driving machine. As you can see from the list I’ve owned some pretty good performance cars and the R8 is a standout one. Performance is just epic (some people spend £££ putting superchargers on these and running them up to 1000+ bhp but where you can run that-outside of Thruxton etc- is a mystery. They are licence losers as it is). I never did any launches or racking or track days etc but I hear they do 0-60 in reality in around 2.7 secs and it felt as quick as that. Instant power, instant gear changes and the performance exhaust (for me anyway) is more than enough- cold starts will require your neighbours to be petrolheads. Handling was sublime and just a brilliant car to drive. Truly a Supercar and my first (hopefully not the last).
2. Perception of others. Some cars have a certain reputation as do their owners. R8 shares the Lamborghini Huracan engine and yet if you drive the Lambo I would wager a fair amount of people will secretly say/think ‘look at that w4nker’ or similar. Jealousy for sure but they do attract a certain type (for example I love Merc G Wagons but they again attract certain types of people that are full of themselves). Not in the R8. Park it up and you return to find people taking photos next to it, admiring it, asking if their kids can get in it etc etc. I didn’t have a single negative interaction with anyone, just positivity. I think they are seen as not trying too hard and an ‘acceptable’ supercar. Drive it along and you get people giving the thumbs up, kids asking you to ‘rev it!!’ Etc. Plus (ahem) the opposite sex paying more attention but lets face it, that’s the car not you so you have check your ego on that.
This of course reduces the risk of some pond life keying or damaging your car (not a guarantee of course and mostly down to the area you are in). All round good vibes from you and everyone else which has been different considering some of my previous motors.
Now the downside (which comes with driving any very capable car) - the muppets. As always you will come across morons who for whatever reason want to bait you, race you etc. Especially those in their little chavvy tuned cars (I had a discussion last year with a young lad who I have seen tearing around in his BMW 1 series with ‘600 bhp’ (apparently lol) on cup tyres and Halfords chic accessories. On the subject of ‘declaring the mods’ he went all coy and admitted he hadn’t. A fatal accident waiting to happen). Sometimes I bit other times I didn’t (I backed off once as I could see in my rear mirror that the idiot trying desperately to catch up was on the verge of crashing and killing himself/others so enough was enough. Ego is a terrible thing). Case in point: Looking for next car I was stood next to mine at a BM Dealer and hear a car horn-two girls in a car shout out ‘nice car mate!’….On the journey home some idiot in a tuned Audi S1 wanted to have the bragging rights of ‘taking an R8’. Always the blokes and usually younger ones with everything to prove. Pick your battles wisely is my advice-try the other idiots driving Golfs. Next car will be far slower and more comfortable (R8 is very comfy by the way) and I will not miss the Morons of the road frankly.
3. The important one-reliability. In one year I had 2 sensor faults all fixed under warranty. Now, quick one on that. I used ‘Opteven’ and their ‘Supercar’ top level one (came via Oracle Finance who I regularly use). Whilst they didn’t quibble any of them they a) had a list of preferred garages and most of them were (no joke) Halfords Autocentres. Yes really. That was two interesting chats and whilst you try and not come across as some sort of snob the fact is you pay extra for top warranty and event their paperwork has a Ferrari 458 Speciale on it. Because of course you’d take that to Halfords……So in the end they asked me to pick a garage I wanted (couldn’t do Audi as the max hourly rate was £120.00 and Audi are £180.00). Plus they don’t pay for diagnostics which is annoying. It was all sorted but I wouldn’t entertain them again. But pound for pound a very reliable car . Gen 1’s have coking issues on some I think and other bits but the Gen 2 and above are solid. As always research to buy the right car (there are some abused ones out there plus the ever present ‘hire/wedding car’ specials that are to be avoided like the plague they are).

4. Next car needs to be a really comfortable 4 x 4 for long distances so its BMW X7/5, Audi Q7 or Range Rover. Time will tell but if the new business takes off well I’ll be getting another R8.

I am now officially out of fast cars (for now) and so will lurk on here as its a great place to be.