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| Road and Track - Comparison Test - V-8 Exotics: F430, V8 Vantage, Corvette, R8
      Who makes the best V-8 sports car? We test V-8s from England, Germany, America and Italy. While the title might not be as catchy as "Three V-10s to Yuma," we didn't go to Yuma, and we didn't drive V-10s. We went to Creston, and we drove V-8s. So where the heck is Creston, you're probably asking? It's a little cowboy town in California's Central Valley, and it happens to be near one of the most challenging, tight and twisty roads known to man. This slithery stretch of blacktop offers everything from blind turns over rises to bumps, jumps and the occasional sand-strewn apex. What better road, then, to take four of the very best sports cars in the world on.
And since we happen to be Americans living in America, we decided to include only sports cars with our favorite type of engine: the normally aspirated V-8. We can't get enough of a well-bred V-8, the louder, the more powerful...the better. After all, what's more American than a burly, throbbing, rip-snortin' V-8? So with four thrilling sports cars in hand — the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Audi R8, Chevrolet Corvette and Ferrari F430 — we attempted to answer this question: Who makes the best V-8 for your sporting pleasure?
Up First: Aston Martin V8 Vantage
Even Before Ford sold Aston Martin to David Richards and company, there was no doubt this British brand was heading in a bright new direction — the V8 Vantage was living proof, because it's the lightest and smallest Aston in years, two parameters of sports-car design that usually lead to high performance and big thrills on the road. To that end, Aston added a 380-bhp V-8 to the recipe, pretty much ensuring the car's success.
While some might believe that this dohc all-aluminum 32-valve mill is simply a rebadged Jaguar unit, the reality is that the only common component with Jaguar is the block, and even that was modified for Aston's use. For all intents and purposes, the Vantage's engine is entirely Aston's own — it was designed, developed and is built by Aston Martin, at the company's dedicated engine plant in Cologne, Germany, where all of Aston's engines are hand-built.
This 4.3-liter V-8 uses variable intake timing, a resonance induction system and an active exhaust bypass valve to achieve both its power and its absolutely marvelous sound. While it isn't big on torque — 302 lb.-ft. at 5000 rpm — the Vantage rips out V-8 noises that are almost sinful. Actually, the car's exhaust is so loud that as soon as you tip into the throttle, it seems a bit un-Aston-like; not quite as dignified as one might expect a fine British motorcar to be. The raucous note seems "manufactured" solely for the sound, kind of like a Ford Mustang GT with an aftermarket exhaust.
Although the Vantage's exhaust talks a mean game, we were a bit let down by its actual performance, lagging behind the (admittedly top-notch) competition we brought before it. Its 0–60-mph time of 5.3 seconds was a full second off the nearest competitors (the Vette and the Audi) while also 0.6 sec. off the previous mark we set with this car in Europe. We're chalking part of that up to the unusually hot temperatures we experienced on test day (though it was the same for all), but throughout the test the Aston was easily outdistanced on straightaways.
Said Road Test Editor Jonathan Elfalan, "The Aston has a great engine and exhaust sound, but its bark is a far cry from its bite. Just to get it to power oversteer you have to wring its neck." Part of that is due to the Aston's great traction, which lets you put the power down early and hard exiting corners.
The Aston also doesn't have as forgiving a powerband as, say, the Corvette or the R8, causing Steve Millen, race-car driver fantastico, to comment, "The Aston's engine doesn't pull as strongly in the higher rpm as it does in the midrange — it seems to run out of breath." He went on to say that he felt that it's best "to leave it in a higher gear and use the bottom end of the engine."
Since the Aston's engine requires more attention to rpm, that also means it requires more shifting. No problem here, as the Aston's 6-speed manual gearbox is quite good. Throws are fairly short with reassuringly positive gates, even emitting an occasional "clink" as you snick between gears, as if it had a metal shift gate like the R8's. And when we did wring the Aston's engine out to its fullest, we appreciated the handy red shift lights in the instrument panel.
A true sports car isn't just about raw speed; it also needs to be able to get around corners quickly. Here, the Aston was far more brilliant. Although the car feels even weightier than its 3605 lb., partially due to its heavy steering, its suspension (unlike the Corvette's) works so well at maintaining control when the going gets bumpy that most everything we mentioned previously is forgiven. Noted Assistant Road Test Editor Calvin Kim, "You can do some seriously good back-road work with this car; its only glaring fault is lack of power, and that's only because of the cars we're comparing it to."
In terms of instrumented handling numbers, the Vantage is right there with the competition. Its slalom time of 69.4 mph is slightly quicker than the Vette's, while also not far off the Ferrari's and Audi's; its 0.91g skidpad number is more than respectable. And the Brembo-sourced brakes — with 14.0-in. rotors at the front and 13.0s at the rear — provided the best pedal feel next to the Ferrari's mega-expensive carbon-ceramic system.
The Vantage is also a terrifically appointed grand tourer, with super-tightly-stitched (and abundant) leather along with a beautiful Alcantara headliner. The Vantage surely displays the finest British tradition. In case you're not familiar with British traditions, that's another way of saying the Vantage is quirky. Things like the counterclockwise-rotating tachometer needle (while the speedo moves clockwise), the power seat controls located near the driver's right leg and the odd-to-operate parking brake seem to be done in a way just to be different. And the Vantage gets away with it...simply because the car is British.
Up Next: Audi R8
Let's see if we can follow Audi's logic with the R8: First, design a completely original semi-exotic that looks out of this world, but starts just barely north of $100,000. Next, stuff one of the world's best V-8s (from the RS 4 sports sedan) into a spot just aft of the driver. Give it the famous Quattro all-wheel drive. Then, adorn it with the same name as one of the most successful endurance racing cars in history. Works for us.
And the R8 does work, almost sublimely so, and it all starts with the engine. This all-aluminum 32-valve dohc 4.2-liter V-8 includes direct injection, Nikasil-coated cylinders, four chain-driven camshafts (each with its own hydraulic valve-timing actuator) and an extremely high compression ratio of 12.5:1. The result is 420 bhp at 7800 rpm with 317 lb.-ft. of torque at 4500.
Out on the road, it's pure magic. The engine is at all times ultra-smooth and powerful. It sounds better the higher and harder you rev it, and since it makes great power up top, you don't pay a penalty for taking it there. The sound is terrific, a slightly muted rumble, but honestly...it should be louder. The intake noise is fine, but the exhaust doesn't rip enough for a car of this caliber.
Unlike the Aston, which sounds better from inside the car than from out, the R8 is the opposite, the noise better for onlookers than for the car's occupants. The car's tune rang home for Steve: "The R8 sounds like a Trans-Am race car with mufflers, like a huge-displacement pushrod V-8."
The R8 can be ordered with either Audi's R tronic paddle-shift manual or a gated 6-speed manual like our test car. There's something about operating the clutch yourself, and something even cooler about clinking through the R8's gated gearbox, which works quite well and is especially positive in normal driving. But if we rushed shifts during aggressive driving, it became a bit clumsy.
Although the heaviest car of the group, the R8 put up impressively quick acceleration times (0–60 mph in 4.3 sec., matching the Vette), no doubt helped by the car's catlike all-wheel drive. In real-world acceleration (in other words, without a drop-clutch launch), the R8 is slower than the Vette, shown by its 0.3-sec.-longer trip through the quarter mile. But we just can't get over how eerily smooth and flexible the R8's engine is, or its willingness to rev to its 8000-rpm redline. "It clearly doesn't have as much top end as the Ferrari," Steve remarked. "But it's a very forgiving engine. If you find yourself in too high of a gear exiting a corner, it still pulls away very strong."
The R8 isn't exactly shabby in the handling department either, posting just shy of 1.0g around the skidpad along with a 71.1-mph run through the slalom cones. The car's natural handling state is trace understeer, which is safe, but with the ESP stability system turned off, the R8 can be provoked into power-on oversteer as you exit corners. Great fun!
The R8 is so splendid and comfortable as an everyday car, it almost feels wrong to say anything bad about it. So we'll let Steve say it: "The R8 is very nice for touring but when pushed hard, the weight of the car doesn't allow it to be as nimble as the Ferrari."
Jonathan also found limited minuses: "It's like trying to find an ugly spot on Jessica Alba — it just doesn't exist! But the Ferrari definitely felt sharper on twisty roads. The R8 at times feels too safe in its handling manners, if that's possible, and because of that the Ferrari is more of a driver's car."
An issue that did crop up for the left-foot-brakers among us was that the car doesn't allow for throttle and brake overlap, condemning us with an unusually long penalty of power loss if we did so.
Inside the R8 lies one of the world's best interiors, made even more exotic by the optional $2200 Carbon-Fiber Everything Package (okay, that's not really what it's called). As with recent Lamborghinis, the R8 uses traditional Audi switchgear, but in the R8 this seems perfectly in keeping because a) it's an Audi and b) the interior is a completely original and thoroughly modern design.
As much as we all loved driving the R8, Calvin did feel one thing was missing from its driving experience — soul. The R8 is almost too clinical in its ability to do everything well. Calvin offered: "Maybe the car's soul will shine through after a few thousand miles of ownership...if Audi wants to leave me an R8 for a few months, I could investigate this issue better." The mark of an intrepid journalist.
Up Next: Chevrolet Corvette
America's best-known sports car — the Chevrolet Corvette — is also one of the world's most underrated sports cars. Too many people overlook the C6 Vette when shopping for all-out performance. And with the new LS3 version of GM's small-block V-8 giving the car even more power and driveability, the Corvette is the best it's ever been.
The new-for-'08 LS3 gets an increase in bore versus the previous LS2, which raises its displacement from 6.0 liters to 6.2. Though compression has dropped from 10.9:1 to 10.7, the LS3 is more powerful and more efficient than the LS2, thanks to the addition of the Z06's fuel injectors as well as better-flowing heads and larger valves. Output rises to 430 bhp and 424 lb.-ft. of torque, with our test car's optional ($1195) dual-mode exhaust system bumping those levels to 436 bhp and 428 lb.-ft.
If you haven't driven a C6 Corvette or, even better, the C6 with the LS3, you need to. The engine does everything a modern V-8 should: It's quiet and smooth at idle, yet get hard into the throttle (especially once the dual-mode exhaust kicks in) and the engine's pulsing, pounding and throbbing absolutely engulf every part of the car — it's such a manly sound, and gives you such a manly feeling, that Jonathan likened driving the Vette to "wrestling a grizzly with your bare hands — it'll put some hair on your chest."
But what distinguishes the Vette's engine from the other three here — as well as every other engine in the world — is its massively hard-hitting and never-ending surge of power; it feels like it pulls just as hard at 2000 rpm as it does at its 6600-rpm redline, and the gear it's in is completely irrelevant.
"The Corvette's LS3 V-8 won me over with its all-around power delivery," Calvin said. "There's not a dip in its torque curve, and its power is always instantly accessible."
It's also instantly quick, laying down a 0–60-mph time of 4.3 sec., tied with the R8 and eclipsed by only a half second by the $248,903 as-tested Ferrari. The Vette's power-to-weight advantage over the Audi becomes even more obvious as the cars reach the quarter mile, the Vette's 5.9-mph higher trap speed a significant figure.
The Corvette's 6-speed manual gearbox is sturdy-feeling, with positive (though slow) throws, and most felt this is an aspect of the car that, if improved, would help greatly in the minds of potential new buyers. Said Jonathan: "I hope that one day Corvette engineers will figure out a shift linkage that doesn't feel like it's made completely out of rubber — imagine if this car had a Porsche-like gearbox?"
Our test car had the $1695 Z51 performance package, which includes larger cross-drilled brake rotors (13.4 in. up front, 13.0 at the rear) as well as stiffer springs, shock absorbers and anti-roll bars. On smooth surfaces the car's outright grip is superb, despite steering that, while improved for 2008, still doesn't give the feedback of the Audi or Ferrari. The tail is willing to come around (it does great powerslides), though it's very controllable; we enjoyed this aspect, as it helps the car turn, but driving the Corvette quickly requires more attention than the Audi or Aston.
Where the Corvette suffers is on bumpy back roads. In that environment, the stiffer setup of the Z51 turns the car into a bit of a beast, causing it to skitter about and fight for traction. It's still fun, but it doesn't exude the confidence of the others. And, consequently, the Corvette's ride, while certainly not uncomfortable, can't be described as smooth.
Despite the better brakes that come as part of the Z51 package, our car suffered from a mushy brake pedal throughout the test, though no fading was present. Normally, Corvette brakes are quite good, so we're chalking this one up to our particular test car.
If there's one area people usually criticize an American car, it's the interior accommodations. While we aren't going to tell you the Corvette rivals the Audi's beautiful layout, the Aston's high-quality feel or the Ferrari's pure purposefulness, we will tell you the Corvette's interior delivers no-nonsense controls, super-comfortable seats (though lacking in lateral support) and a supremely convenient head-up display. While it doesn't feel like a million bucks, keep in mind the Corvette starts at just $45,170!
It's in the value criterion that the Corvette shines. Even with its as-tested price of $56,185, the Vette is $71,015 less than the next cheapest car (the Aston), and a full $192,718 less than the Ferrari.
Not only that, but after driving the Corvette to its maximum on a back road, fully able to keep up with the Ferrari and Audi (the Vantage was left behind), you start to wonder if one even needs a Z06...you certainly don't need one to go fast. This standard Corvette is already incredibly quick with fully capable handling, while sacrificing only a small amount of the usable real-world performance you'd get with the Z06.
Up Next: Ferrari F430
Including a Ferrari in a comparison test is a no-win situation for the marque from Maranello. For if it wins, readers say, "Of course it won — look at how much it costs!" If it loses, suddenly the Ferrari is a huge waste of money.
But we're including the Ferrari F430 anyway. After all, could we do a story on V-8s and not have one of the best-engineered and ferociously fast cars ever built? We couldn't.
And the Ferrari F430's engine is a masterpiece, even just to look at — the 90-degree V-8 sits in plain view under a clear engine cover for all the world to see, its red crackle-finish intake plenums and cam covers screaming, "I'm a Ferrari, so you'd better take notice!"
Of course, this 4.3-liter engine has 4-valve heads, variable cam timing on both the intake and exhaust as well as variable intake volume. The F430 is a high-winding machine that makes its peak power — 483 bhp — at its redline of 8500 rpm; peak torque of 343 lb.-ft. is reached at 5250 rpm.
The pushbutton starter brings the F430 to life with a ferocity that borders on sheer anger; it's noisier at idle than many cars are at full throttle. But full throttle at high rpm is where this engine comes alive, and where it likes to reside. It's actually the least V-8-like of the group, almost acting — with its lack of low-end punch — like a screaming V-6. This is a race engine, and this is a race car for the street. Just as a Ferrari should be.
"Yes, the F430's V-8 requires some revs under its belt before you're in the thick of its powerband," said Jonathan. "But that's the way race cars are meant to be driven," he continued. "The F430's engine is the most visceral, the most sensual and produces the most head-turning exhaust tone by far." The Ferrari's note, which is a glorious combination of sucking intake noise together with a free-flowing exhaust shriek, seems to change its pitch about every 500 rpm; the backfires that accompany each full-throttle upshift just add to the symphony of sounds, while the blue flames that shoot out the exhausts at night add to our delight.
Unlike the other cars in this test, though, if you got stuck in too high of a gear in the Ferrari exiting a turn, it felt like your call to the engine room — via a floored throttle pedal — went completely unnoticed. Luckily, its slick F1 paddle-shift 6-speed manual leaves you just a flick of the carbon-fiber paddle away from more power, replete with an always-correct computer-operated throttle blip.
Jonathan, Calvin and I wished we could try Ferrari's true manual, with gated shifter, just for the sheer joy of completing that proper heel-and-toe downshift on a mountain road. Steve, always the consummate racer, said, "After 40 years of shifting for myself, I'll take paddle shifters every day." And as for an engine, Steve absolutely loved the Ferrari's: "To me, the F430's engine is the best here. But you have to rev it, and those paddle shifters can help you in any situation, especially to get you back in the powerband quickly."
The Ferrari's magnificent-sounding engine and lightning-quick gearbox aren't just for show, the F430 cracking off 0–60 mph in just 3.8 sec. and the quarter mile in 12.0 sec. at 119.6 mph, far eclipsing the other cars in this test for outright quickness. From 5000 to 8500 rpm, the Ferrari revs far harder than the others; if you're in that range at full throttle, you better hold on, because this car is going to take you for one helluva ride.
As would be expected of a Ferrari, the car is also amazing when the road starts to snake left and right. The F430's steering is incredibly precise, perfectly quick and the feedback through the leather and carbon-fiber steering wheel is superb. Although the front end can occasionally feel light, in general the car is well planted, with minimal drop-throttle, mid-turn, tail-will-come-around antics. It's not as easy to get in and drive as the Audi, but once you get used to the car's limits and slightly more nervous nature, it becomes a more willing partner. And those carbon-ceramic brakes are so firm and positive.
Ferrari certainly knows how to do interiors that thrill enthusiasts. Our test car was fitted with carbon fiber galore — the rest was made of high-quality hand-stitched leather. But the stereo's operation was difficult to decipher (even for tech-geek Calvin), and there's no warmth like in the Audi. "The Ferrari feels like a race car that's been fitted with an interior," said Calvin.
The big downside to the F430, of course, is that few people can afford this most amazing of cars. With the Ferrari's base price of $184,309 and an as-tested price of $248,903, this magazine article is about as close as most will ever get to experiencing one. And that's a downright shame.
Up Next: Final Thoughts
Who makes the best V-8? That's the question we set out to answer.
We all agreed — without doubt — that the always hard-hitting LS3 of the Corvette had the best power delivery and was by far the easiest with which to tap its potential.
But everyone also agreed the Ferrari sounded the best. Said Steve, "The F430's engine goes through melodies of sound that start out throaty, move on to a bark and finish in a high-revving scream." It's about as sexy-sounding a package as you'll ever find.
So when it came to choosing an absolute favorite V-8, we were torn: Two of us chose the Corvette's torque-rich 6.2-liter, the other two the Ferrari's high-revving 4.3. In a tie-breaker, we went with the Corvette's LS3. This engine is truly phenomenal in its everyday usability and civility, yet it's insanely fast when you ask it to be — all the while rewarding our ears with that most American of V-8 thunder.
But since you generally don't buy a car based solely on its engine, rather the whole car as a package, the question remains: Which is our favorite V-8 sports car? When the editors were asked which car they would buy if they had to pay for it themselves, two said they'd sell their house and buy the Ferrari, while two opted for the Corvette. Jonathan justified his choice of the Vette: "I'd like to say I'd buy the Audi if I were paying for it, but the thought of owning two Corvettes for the same amount of cash — one for the street, one for the track...I think I know a deal when I see one."
If "forced" to drive one of these every day, we were split again: Two chose the real-world comfort and livability of the Audi R8, two saying they'd put up with the Ferrari's frenzied, exotic nature just for the thrill of it.
But when asked which car everyone loved driving the most, it wasn't even a contest — it was Ferrari's F430. So while the Corvette LS3 gets the honor as our favorite V-8, the Ferrari F430 is our favorite V-8 sports car.
Videos: ROADandTRACK.com -- Road Tests - Comparison Test: V-8 Exotics (1/2008)
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