Four sweet days in Orange County, land of sun, surf and reality TV’s ``Laguna Beach.’’ That was my allotted time with Audi’s first-ever exotic. And no question, I could feel the refracted star wattage when I was anywhere near the car.
The R8 is the auto equivalent of the iPhone: Everybody’s heard about it, yet almost nobody has actually seen one yet. And there’s no better place on earth to gauge the hotness of an auto than here: Southern Californians are both car crazy and utterly jaded. (At one point a small girl, maybe 5 years old, started jumping up and down when she saw the R8, shouting: ``Ow-di! Ow- di!’’ Where else would this happen?)
My test model was a sinister black, and its face reminded me of nothing so much as the visage of Darth Vader, rounded roof as helmet, headlights with LED running lights underneath as orblike eyes and massive front grills as menacing mouthpiece.
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