It's a rivalry stretching back decades. But when it came to developing and designing their flagship sportscars, the German brands couldn't have differed more.
The i8 is a rolling showcase of everything that's brilliant about modern supercars. In fact, the i8 debuted a new type of drivetrain; essentially two drivetrains in one car. An electric motor powering the front wheels, and a petrol engine in the boot powering the rears. And there's no mechanical linkage between the two - it's all cable and computers.
The R8, on the other hand, is decidedly old school. It raises the middle finger to downsizing and turbocharging, converting petrol into power and noise using a naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10. The result is simply glorious - made all the more enthralling in the drop-top Spyder version.
In this video, we take both cars to a beautiful road outside Cape Town to get under the skin of this odd but electrifying rivalry. See what we did there?
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