Motor Trend Compares the 2014 Audi R8 Spyder with the 2013 Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet

Here’s another great “Head 2 Head” episode from Motor Trend starring the Audi R8 Spyder and the Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet.

A couple of good points to ponder when watching this video — Jonny Lieberman points out that back when new episodes of I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show were making TV sets glow, and GM was king, its five car brands competed against one another. Specifically, the lowest-priced brand would compete against its sister brand one income bracket higher. Eventually the competition ended at Cadillac, back when Caddy was really the standard of the world. Then by the ’80s you had cost-cutting in its worst form: badge engineering. Woeful products like the Cimarron were the waste product of that badge manipulation.

Volkswagen Group is straying far from badge engineering, and plans on keeping these cars on very different platforms. Even though the markets overlap for the Audi R8 and Porsche 911, and even though the Audi R8 is based on the Lamborghini Gallardo, both products are well-differentiated and there is negligible overlap between target markets.

Also of note is how Lieberman complains about the seven-speed manual in the Porsche with its “jumbled-up” gearbox. With five forward positions on the gear lever, selecting gears can be hectic, and often times you’ll put it in third when you’re hunting for fifth. It’s likely this wouldn’t be a problem for owners who are driving their Carreras every day, but when I saw Lieberman complaining about this in contrast to his labeling the praise on the seven-speed S Tronic in the Audi R8, in my gut I could feel the manual transmission taking another one of its final breaths.

Enjoy the video.