Its design to work from the atmospheric cut-off in the blue (320nm) to the near infrared and excellent image quality (0.22 arcseconds), coupled with several simultaneous on-line instruments and rapid response capability make SOAR a very competitive telescope even in the age of 8 to 10 meter telescopes. The first light instruments were designed to allow optical and near-infrared imaging and mid to low resolution spectroscopy, with the possibility of changing from instrument to instrument in a few minutes.