Interesting thread - my last ten cars have been Porsches and I honestly thought that I would never change but the more I read about the R8 the moreI was impressed and to me they are a great looking car.
Finally, three months ago I went to the dark side and changed my 997C2S for an R8 but at the same time I put down my deposit for the new 997.2GT3
After a week I would have happily swapped back to my C2Sas I just couldn't get on with the R8 - it was so different to the 997, but now.....well I have to say that it has grown and grown on me and it would be a really hard decision. Let me go through the pros and cons
The engine is brilliant - you can potter around and it won't complain, hesitate or play up in any way , but when you want some fun it delivers. Extremely flexible, smooth and sounds terrific especially when you start to use the revs.
Handling - incredibly safe and secure. The car has less understeer than a 911 and althought it's 4wd it will oversteer quite easily and readily if you switch off the esp..Grip levels are very high. Damping is excellent and despite my worries about the car bottoming because of a low ride height it hasn't happened. The ride is excellent.
Gearbox - personally I'm not keen on the metal gate and in normal driving the change is not as good as a 997's but if you are pressing on and using fast gearchanges it all works perfectly.
Brakes are diappointing in that they are over-servoed in my opinion and are too sensitive. However, their stopping power is excellent
Build quality is superb and the paint finish for example is first class.
Fuel consumption is horrific! My average so far has been 17.1mpg compared with the 997's average over 3 years of 24mpg. If you are pressing on, single figures!
Looks - imho it is a great looking car and because it is quite rare it attracts a lot of attention so is probabaly not suitable if you're very shy!
Not as practical as a 911 in that it has only 2 seats and a very small luggage capacity so if you're thinking of going on a long trip - send the luggage on ahead.
You can use this car as a daily driver so long as you only need two seats
I've really got to like this car despite my initial reservations - but despite that I'm still going to take the 997.2GT3 when my allocation becomes due because I think it is a really special car and I'd hate to get to 85 and think "I wish I'd taken the GT3"