Self-shifting Audi R8s finally have a decent gearbox
The first time I ever drove an +Audi USA R8 was way back in 2008 when I drove two different examples in the span of a few months, both with the rather unfortunate R-Tronic automated manual transmission. At various times over the years, I had many unkind words for this gearbox most notably during this episode of the Autoblog podcast http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/16/autoblog-podcast-170-the-hooniverse-visits/ when I referred to it as a piece of crap. Needless to say the folks at Audi PR at the time weren't thrilled by my assessment.
On the other hand the manual transmission was wonderful as I noted in this review http://www.luxist.com/2009/11/17/review-2009-audi-r8-5-2-fsi-v10-an-everyday-supercar/. In the aforementioned podcast I referred the R8 while talking about the S5 Cabrio and its absolutely sublime S-Tronic gearbox http://www.autoblog.com/2010/04/12/2010-audi-s5-cabriolet-review/
Unlike the single-clutch R-tronic with its hydraulically actuated gears, the S-Tronic is a dual-clutch unit with silky smooth and fast shift action. This year Audi finally did a refresh of the R8 and installed a 7-speed S-Tronic beefy enough to handle the output of the V8 and V10 engines in that car and according to +Jonny Lieberman of +Motor Trend Magazine who was fortunate enough to go to Italy to drive it, it cures all the problems caused by the old transmission.
