{"id":2076294,"date":"2026-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2076294"},"modified":"2026-08-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:00:00","slug":"audi-a2-and-audi-r8-were-these-brilliant-cars-too-clever-for-their-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2076294","title":{"rendered":"Audi A2 and Audi R8: were these brilliant cars too clever for their time?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The A2 and R8 have more in common than you\u2019d expect, given one\u2019s a tall slow hatch and the other a true mid-engined supercar. See, both were all about the confidence and innovation that came so naturally to Audi in its Eighties\/Nineties\/Noughties pomp.<\/p>\n

The R8 is obviously the easier to love. It launched \u2013 looking fantastic (still does) \u2013 as a quattro with a screaming nat-asp V8 and manual transmission. It carried a whiff of an earlier unexpected supercar from an engineering minded company, the Honda NSX. It was a proper supercar, but without the grumpiness and occasional mendacity. Proper? The R8 revved to 8,000rpm and had a delicious adjustability to its handling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It wasn\u2019t aloof like Audis of the time tended to be. It was low and wide, and the cockpit and seat looped around you \u2013 you were a component not just a conductor. The body was super rigid and\u00a0the suspension\u2019s springing and damping perfectly orderly.<\/p>\n

A friendly thing though. Its traction and balance meant it wouldn\u2019t spit you off the road. The cabin had all mod cons. And it had Audi\u2019s usual sense of for-the-ages quality and cabin materials. It was meant to be used, and then used some more. If you wanted extra emotion or glam, a Spyder and V10 came soon after.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As for the A2, emotion and glam were way down the priorities. This was a fiercely rational car, built on a mission. Most car, least fuel. It was comfy and, yes, the design was beautifully considered and crafted. Because Audi. But the real business was in saving fuel and lowering the CO2 footprint. It was extremely light, because that means lower fuel consumption in acceleration, and it was extremely low drag, because ditto in high speed cruising. How light?<\/p>\n

Thanks to Audi\u2019s pioneering aluminium construction \u2013 which later gave us the R8 \u2013 it was under 900kg for the main petrol-engined version. A pretty spectacular result considering it was roomy for four people, had a decent boot and it had doors that shut with the fallout shelter thunk you expected of an Audi. It wasn\u2019t some flimsy science experiment. It was also quite fun, as it happened.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It felt agile and behaved accurately. Audi had a habit of turning out underbaked four-wheeled dough balls, but this wasn\u2019t one. So both the A2 and R8 went a bit awry. For the A2, it was simple. Fuel stayed too cheap. I know this sounds glib, but the A2 was perceived as a supermini yet it cost twice as much as most. You\u2019d never get that back on fuel savings.<\/p>\n

Something else too: it had the room of an A3, so people just bought an A3 on instinct. A bigger number so must be higher up the range eh? And the A3 was conventionally desirable and premium while the A2 was a bit left field and boffiny. You needed to explain it to the neighbours.<\/p>\n

The R8 wasn\u2019t exactly a flop but on the other hand no one was vastly surprised that, after two generations, it quietly went to the morgue. Not enough people want a usable supercar. Supercars are madness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Both the A2 and R8 were probably too clever by half. That was Audi\u2019s confidence at work. They were immensely satisfying technical achievements that didn\u2019t quite leave the door open to\u00a0gut instinct. Which doesn\u2019t stop history judging them kindly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The A2 and R8 have more in common than you\u2019d expect, given one\u2019s a tall slow hatch and the other a true mid-engined supercar. See, both were all about the confidence and innovation that came so naturally to Audi in its Eighties\/Nineties\/Noughties pomp. The R8 is obviously the easier to love. It launched \u2013 looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2076294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2076294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2076294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2076294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2076294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}