Arthur St. Antoine: Our first competitor in the best handling car competition is Audi's 911 killer the R8. It's mid mounted 4.2 liter 420 horse power engine gives it perfect weight balance, it drives all four wheel through an electronic shift transmission, it looks really good on paper, let's go see how does it look --
420 horse power now still through all wheel drive, how did you feel?
Randy Pobst: Well we are not into little cars anymore, I am telling you that right now. The car I had very much more of a race car kind of feel, the engine is a mid engine and man is it obvious after getting out of the front engine cars I am just moving a lot less mass around when I entered the corner, even though it's a relatively heavy car I think.
Having that engine located right in front of the axle is really good place for it, handling balance was superb the first lap and a half and then the front tires starts to go off, I had quite a bit of under steer in the middle of the corner that was causing me to have to wait to apply the power and I think we will even be able to see that may in some of our videos where I get into the corner and I have some under steer and the car the wheels returned and I am just waiting for it to bite and I think that was mostly due to the front tire heating up right away which is surprising on a rear engine or a mid engine all wheel drive car, the engine is smooth makes a wonderful noises, their steering precession just terrific the mid engine placement makes the car feel kind of light on entry, it's easy at once to turn but under lying that is a real predictability.
The Audi has done an incredibly good job here of making a package all one piece.
Arthur St. Antoine: You said that there was no whole lot of under steer, did you feel any rotation or any stability controls coming in.
Randy Pobst: First lap I got some rotation into the camera corner in which maybe really happy. Down to turn 5 and it was a very happy nice rotation and actually want it more. But was I found was I was over slowing the car for most of corners because the braking was so incredibly strong but then about the time I was cranking up my braking the front tires started to go off which happened pretty fast I was surprised. So the front no longer had to bite to rotate the car in the entry, in terms of handling feel utterly superb, the balance and sense of control is really satisfying.
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