Audi R8
Which of the Audi R8’s design features grab your attention and hold it, set you to pondering them, and race your emotional engine? How did Claus Potthoff, the designer responsible for its exterior design, set it dramatically apart from competitors like the Porsche 911 Carrera S, Ferrari F430, and its cousin under the skin, the Lamborghini Gallardo—without sacrificing the Germanic elegance typical of Audis? For me it’s those unusually bold and brash elements that scoop in air for cooling the engine, driveline components, and brakes and then vent it back into the atmosphere. Taken together, the R8’s air management system make the more subtly sculpted orifices of competitors seem demure by comparison.
The dramatic elements include Audi’s bold signature grille, of course, which commands the lion’s share of attention in most Audis, from the A3 to the Q7. But, in the R8’s case, the outsized outboard intakes flanking it steal the limelight. The grille’s role is further diminished by a more normal, less disquieting scale and orientation; while the R8’s nose is taller and more blunt than the usual supercar’s, the grille nevertheless seems wide rather than tall. Nor does it seem unusually large, especially for a sports car. The dramatic effect it does retain is due, ironically, to those same intakes that upstage it; they sweep back so rakishly that they thrust the nose forward, suggesting the fuselage-like body of an open-wheeled racecar. The angle is so extreme, in fact, that we could justifiably call them side scoops.Potthoff, who has since moved to Audi’s Design Center California in Santa Monica, made the front scoops and rear vents seem even larger that they are by visually integrating them with the headlights and taillights. The combined scoops and headlights, which cant upward when seen from the front, increase dramatic effect by taking on an angry, aggressive expression.The eye-catching “sideblades” just aft of the doors, which were functionally shaped and placed to direct air into the engine compartment, constitute the design’s most unusual and perhaps its most exciting aesthetic features. I like them in the side view. But, from other viewpoints, they also constitute the car’s only aesthetic flaw in the way they drape flaccidly over the body, where they extend above the shoulders. They seem to have no more substance than an appliqué or paint break. I wish they could have somehow continued the taut, simple character of an actual sword’s blade.The R8’s potent aesthetic elements were made feasible—if not essential—by an opportunity presented to Potthoff in the form of an unusual challenge: Audi ‘s planners wanted the R8 to perform and handle like a true supercar but, unlike the typical supercar, they wanted it to be as comfortable for everyday driving and long trips as a more practical sports car, like their TT.Meeting that lofty and laudable objective required a higher sitting position (the most fundamental contributor to prolonged comfort) and more head room—both of which led to a taller cabin and higher profile than ordinarily expected of a supercar.By providing enough luggage room behind the seats for even a golf bag or two, the cabin also became longer than usual. The additional length made up for the additional height in restoring a proper length to height proportion—and then some; the sideblades were conceived as a way to mitigate the impression that the car had become too long.
The roof’s profile promotes brand identity by recalling the TT’s roof. But Potthoff stressed this was more coincidental than intentional. He told me the R8’s overall impression was meant to honor Audi’s racing heritage, going all the way back to the mid-engined Auto Union streamliners of the 1930s.
By making the rear vents mimic the forward scoops, Potthoff established an important symmetry that unifies the car’s form from nose to tail. He carefully incorporated other orderly relationships and orientations in the process of refining the car’s form, as shown in the side-view photo. This was done in order to establish an underlying Germanic sense of rationality, simplicity, and elegance that is a revered Audi hallmark. They include: symmetry (D and E with A, B and C); parallel relationships (A, B, and C; F, H, and I); orthogonal (right-angle) relationships (G with F, H, and I; D with E); continuity (seams in front and rear fenders are essentially continuous with F).