2012 Porsche 911 Carrera vs. 2012 Audi R8

We already knew the 2012 Audi R8 and the 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S were great cars. Everyone knows they're great. Now comes the bizarre job of determining their relative greatness. And that can't be done by pumping the performance test results into a spreadsheet, applying some spiffy algorithms to the performance test results and then dividing by the as-tested prices. The objective tests are only a start.

These are the two best everyday sports cars available today. They're not fragile like a Lamborghini or overly ostentatious like a Ferrari. You can get in and out of them without a crane; they have enough storage to hold a weekend's worth of luggage; you're not going to crack a vertebrae if you hit a bump in either; they won't skitter out of control at the first hint of rain; and they'll get up a steep driveway without knocking off body parts.

Taken together, these two brothers under the VW corporate patio awning are the best argument possible for hoping Germany comes out of the Euro crisis strong. These are both real cars, and at the same time, dream cars. So they need to be evaluated as both.

Driving the Dream
The all-wheel-drive Audi R8 enters its sixth model year for 2012, but it's still one of the most visually stunning cars on any road. It's muscular but lithe-looking, exotic without being intimidating. Showing up in an R8 is an event. When we pulled into a Starbucks in Bakersfield, California, the heads of every patron inside swiveled and craned to get a look.

The rear-drive 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S doesn't share a single body panel with the 2011 edition, but Porsche's customers want the 911 to look like, well, a 911. Because of that, all the advanced steel and aluminum materials and techniques used in constructing its shell are hidden under familiar styling. At that same Starbucks, no one even noticed it.

The R8 is the car most of us grew up dreaming about — bold, beautifully shaped, explicitly mechanical and interesting in every detail.

But it's not only from afar that the R8 has the 911 covered dream carwise. Stand behind the R8 and you stare down through a glass hatch at the car's luscious, mid-mounted 4.2-liter 430-horsepower V8. It's a highly styled engine bay, but what you're seeing is mostly alloy castings and genuine mechanical components. That's not a plastic cover pretending to be an intake in there; it's the real alloy deal.

In contrast, the only way to see the 911's rear-mounted 3.8-liter 394-hp flat-6 is to lift the car up on a hoist, get underneath it and stare up at the oil pan.

If you open up the deck lid that used to provide access to the engine in previous 911s all you see are some engine covers and fluid fill points. In this 911, the mechanical pieces are all buried. And that sucks.

The R8 is the sort of car most of us grew up dreaming about — bold, beautifully shaped, explicitly mechanical, exotic and interesting in every detail. Porsche has never built the 911 to be an exotic car, and the new one, beautiful though it is, isn't one either. It's a rational car; a car that CFOs, patent attorneys and thoracic surgeons fantasize about adding to their portfolios using the spreadsheets in their heads.

The World of Awesomeness
Reality bites into the dream of every car on the test track. But both the 2012 Audi R8 and new 2012 Porsche 911 bite back hard.

Both cars have significant rearward weight biases. The 911 puts 61.2 percent of its 3,277 pounds over the rear wheels, while 54.3 percent of the R8's 3,621 pounds are built into the hindquarters. And that pays off in both cars with driving experiences that are unlike any conventional front-engine machine. That isn't to say, however, that these two deliver the same experience.

Dump the clutch in the R8 at about 5,000 rpm and the Quattro all-wheel-drive system loads the engine down momentarily. Then, like a loaded spring, the car leaps forward with all four tires grabbing the pavement. The six-speed manual transmission uses an external aluminum gate, so gearchanges come easily. With the traction control turned off, zero to 60 mph takes 4.5 seconds (4.3 seconds with 1 foot of rollout). The quarter-mile is consumed in 12.9 seconds at 109.2 mph.

In contrast, the manual-transmission 911 rocks back on launch, hazes the rear tires slightly, lifts its nose and rips — the driver easily finding whichever of the seven forward gears he needs. With the traction control turned off, the trip from zero to 60 takes 4.6 seconds (4.4 seconds with a foot of rollout). The high-end respiration of the Porsche's engine shows up in the car's 12.7-second elapsed time through the quarter-mile at 113.2 mph.

Both cars are slalom monsters, but the Audi is the slightly meaner one. Both cars chomp into the pavement with the first steering input and then seem to get better as each gate passes. The R8's all-wheel drive makes it almost foolproof. With the traction control off, the speed was a stunning 72.3 mph. Even with the relatively unobtrusive traction control on, the R8 still motor-boated through at a world-class 70.9 mph.

Using the Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC) and Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) technologies to amazing effect, the 911 slaughtered the slalom with a 71.3-mph performance with the traction control off and 70.3 mph with it on. Considering that only the rear wheels are driven in the 911 and factoring in its more significant rear weight bias, the Porsche's performance counts as phenomenal.

Beyond Mere Dreams
But as astonishing as both cars' slalom runs were, it's on the skid pad where the real shocker came.

Riding on 235/35R19 front and 295/30R19 rear Pirelli P Zeros, the R8 stuck to the pad all the way to 0.98g with the traction control turned on. At the limit the R8 would nose into understeer and it wasn't possible to nudge it into oversteer using the throttle. By any standard, the R8 had a great adhesive performance.

The 911, however, was mind-boggling. Wearing 245/35ZR20 front and 295/30ZR20 rear Pirelli P Zeros, the 911 pulled a stunning 1.04g on the skid pad with the traction control turned off and an amazing 1.03g with it on. Either way, there's almost no body lean and the 911 sort of takes a gentle oversteering set (easily managed with throttle) and then pulls the driver's eyeballs out through his ears.

More than a G from a car that is only the base upon which Turbos, GT2s and GT3s will be built in the near future. Wow.

Halters
Combine rearward weight biases with massive brakes and, no surprise, both these cars are mighty stoppers. Using medium to firm pedal application, both cars squat down over all four of their tires and flat eradicate forward motion. The R8 needed a scant 104 feet to haul itself down from 60 mph, while the Carrera S did the trick in an even scanter 102 feet. On a different surface, both these cars are likely capable of doing the 60-0 deed in under 100 feet.

But beyond that, neither car exhibited any brake fade or any wheel shudders or shimmies.

On the first lap around a road course, in either of these cars, drivers will find themselves braking later into each succeeding corner. On the second lap, every corner's apex will seem to have moved half-again deeper into the curve.

Every R8 or 911 owner should extend the driveway into their estates a couple miles and add 13 or 14 corners between the front gate and the garage.

Pitting the Cockpits
Anyone who has driven an Acura NSX will feel at home in an R8. The cowl is low, the two seats are even lower and the instrumentation is in a pod directly in front of the driver. It's all very logical and a little cold.

In contrast, and like previous 911s, the driver and shotgun passenger sit rather upright and tall in the newest version. The "Panamera Light" center console is taller than in any previous 911s, but it's neither off-putting nor particularly distracting. What is annoying is the small driver's footwell that seems optimized for two-pedal operation in PDK-equipped 911s. In the three-pedal manual transmission car, the driver's legs feel crammed over toward the centerline.

The 911's rear seats are useless for human beings, but are useful for carrying sports bags, groceries or a Siberian Husky puppy. Surprisingly, it's a true everyday utility advantage over the R8.

Both cockpits are covered in beautifully stitched leather and have perfectly shaped seats. But despite such sops to Porsche tradition as the left-mounted key and the five intersecting circles that contain the instrumentation, the 911 cockpit feels more 21st century than the R8's. And that's likely the century it's going to spend most of its time in.

Choosing Between Brilliance and Brilliance
Anyone rich enough to buy one of these cars can likely buy both. So buy both, and enjoy the variety.

But of course that would be wasteful, so do yourself a favor and get the Porsche. The 911's interior is more flexible than the R8's, it's somewhat easier to get in and out of, and it rides a squishy bit better when chasing the horizon on long cruises. Plus, while it's initially fun to attract attention in the 2012 Audi R8, it grows tiresome about the fifth time a stranger comes up expecting a guided tour.

Then, after all that, there's the simple fact that the 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S tested here runs about $125,000 as-tested while the R8 comes in at $128,715. Greatness is rarely cheap, but relatively speaking — and even well into six figures — the new 911 Carrera S is a great bargain.

The manufacturer and a private owner provided Edmunds these vehicles for the purposes of evaluation.