The notion of an affordable supercar is a fascinating one. Can a high performance car be easy on your finances and deliver the expected thrill? Paddlup certainly think so and you can read why below. Remember that Lockton can make the ownership experience even more pleasurable with our market leading cover for your sports, super or hyper car.
Regardless of which model you opt for, the interior is spacious, well-equipped and has the premium feel you'd expect from a car of this calibre. Transmission was very much a talking point for the R8, with the gated manual being less popular initially (but now becoming more desirable) and the performance difference between R-Tronic and S-Tronic proving to be a point of contention.
Despite it being a less exotic alternative to a Ferrari for example, it feels no less special behind the wheel. An unintentional benefit of the R8 being slightly further down the food chain is that there is less to go wrong from a technical perspective and therefore maintenance costs are greatly reduced.
Current values
For a pristine, lower mileage example like the 2012 V10 Coupe, 2011 V8 Spyder and 2010 V10 Spyder at PaddlUp, you're still looking at £50,000 and above. If you're willing to dip into the first generation R8s – the 2007 and 2008 iterations – then prices can reach as low as £30,000, roughly comparable to prices of a new standard edition TT.
With that in mind, it is probably fair to say that the Audi R8 has an ineluctable pedigree sharing many significant components, including an engine, with a highly regarded supercar in the form of the Gallardo. It's arguably as usable as a supercar can be in everyday life and it comes with a much-reduced price tag if you're not adverse to the slightly older models. We'd say those are all pretty big ticks in the boxes for 'best affordable supercar'.
This article was first featured in February 2023 by Paddleup. The full article can be found here.