at the design, that I’m most interested in, cocooned in an aluminium and carbon-fibre body, where the outside world should become a blur.
Any blurring is a result of the 5.2 litre V10 engine housed in the middle. The 610hp (449kW) unit doesn’t bother with any form of turbocharging as seems the norm in today’s conscientious society, instead mixing direct-injection and indirect manifold injection with the large capacity vee-engine to produce the power output, along with 413lb-ft (560Nm) of torque.
Those numbers may not resonate with everybody, but they are a precursor to squeezing the throttle and being fired forward: the R8 can hit 62mph in 3.2 seconds.
But the cabin is a comfortable and relaxing place, bathed in leather, controls aimed at the driver, with little thought going towards the passenger.
As you drop down into the low-slung seats you’re faced with Audi’s digital instrument cluster – the virtual cockpit – and a flat-bottomed steering wheel where numerous controls are housed. The most important of which to my mind are the start button which almost glows tantalisingly red, and beneath, a second button with the image of twin exhausts emblazoned on it. It heightens the aural pleasure of the R8 should you be pushing you and the car harder around a track or dawdling around town.
It could almost be seen as childish, but childish is partly what this car is about. Who wants straight laced and safe when you’re spending over £134,500 on a sports car, especially one that can hit 205mph.
Pressing the red ‘go’ button, shifting the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission into drive and slowly pulling away doesn’t give any indication of the ferocious power the R8 houses. But that’s half the trick of the car, it’s meant to be an every day sports car; comfortable when you aren’t in a hurry, brutally quick when you need to pick up the pace.
That meant as the sun set on the French countryside, there wasn’t the panic and fear you can find in other high-performance competitor vehicles, where if you put a slight foot wrong, your world can quickly turn into a 360degree view of your surroundings.
That is in part due to the R8’s all-wheel drive system, which gives you a huge amount of reassurance as power is delivered to all the wheels rather than just relying on only two powered contact points with the road. And the roads in France are narrow, twisty and difficult to judge at times.
But no matter what the state of the tarmac the R8 always felt within its limits, downshifting for bends brought a healthy blip of the throttle – enhanced further if you press that childish exhaust button on the steering wheel – and a very linear steering feel. And as dusk turned into night, the R8’s new trick also came into view.
The R8 has not only LED headlights but also laser spots that double the range of the high-beam. They’re bright. Very bright. But on unknown, quiet country roads it made timing downshifts and turn-ins so much easier because I had a proper view of what was coming, rather than a half illuminated version that you would have had from halogen and even xenon lights. There’s also another point, that virtual cockpit.
Having all of the navigation data right in front of you makes a huge amount of difference to following directions, and the fact that the screen is a very healthy 12.3” means it’s crisp and clear. The processing power behind it also means that it doesn’t flicker and there is no lag as you progress along your route. Add to that that the smoothness of the animation when flicking between the different available readouts, and it’s a brilliant system. As a driver-focused car, you want to be at the centre of the controls – sorry passengers but you’re of secondary concern – and the virtual cockpit does that. There is an elephant in the room though, and that’s personality.
If you’re in the market for a high-performance car like the R8, willing to spend very far north of £100,000, one of the traits you want is character, something that is going to make you part with your money. Which is perhaps why the Porsche 911 does so well and, to a greater or lesser extent the Aston Martin Vantage. But this particular elephant is beginning to disappear.
As the second-generation or the R8, the sports car is starting to build its own character; assured, loud and comfortable.
And if you can judge any car of this ilk by the eyes that fixate on it as you drive through towns and villages, even under cover of darkness, then the R8 has bucket loads of character. Those sharply cut lines and low stance do make for an eye-catching combination.
So when the test drive came to a close, and I pulled into the hotel after three hours in the cabin, I was disappointed to leave. The R8 gives us what we want; it makes us feel like capable drivers thanks to the assurance of the chassis and all-wheel drive, we feel like the centre of the universe when we’re in the driver’s seat, and it gives us a bit of frivolity – that little exhaust button once again.
And lastly, it’s a car that can give you those moments of escapism, because not once during the drive was I thinking about how full my inbox was, or what calls had I missed.
But I must admit, once I got out of the R8 I was logged onto Twitter, posting pictures of the sports car, and Vines of the exhaust crackle.
Audi R8 V10 Plus
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