I WELL remember my first drive in the Audi R8 coupé at its launch in 2006. It doesn’t get much better than this, I thought, but Audi had other ideas.

Since then, I have driven several versions of both the coupé and socalled Spyder soft-top, each with tweaks to the design, engine size and power, culminating this month with a week behind the wheel of the latest incarnation: the R8 V10 Plus.

As the halo model of the Audi range, no doubt the R8 will move on again. For now, this is as good as it gets, and it’s very, very good.

Over the years, the R8 has had its roof cut off, a bigger engine stuffed in it and, in GT form, pumped up and pared back even further. Not many cars could go so long effectively unmolested but for 2013 the surgeon's scalpel came out - in a very modest way - and a few tweaks have been made to fourringed supercar.

Spot one in your rear view mirror and it will be the piercing all-LED headlights that catch your attention first. The front grille has been subtly tweaked and now wears chromed horizontal details on V10 versions, the side blades are also a little bigger on ten-cylinder models and there is a new front bumper to boot.

Massive changes they are not, and with good reason, for this is still a fantastic looking car, both in coupé and Spyder forms. It has immense presence, still turns heads and still raises my pulse whenever I am lucky enough to hold a set of keys for a week of road testing.

The new model in the range is the V10 plus Coupé, which has a tweaked version of the 5.2-litre V10 engine producing 550PS, and gets unique alloy wheels, exterior detailing plus LED lighting and carbon trim in the engine bay.

It’s also lighter and capable of thrusting you to 62mph from standstill in a mere 3.5 seconds.

But the biggest change is in the transmission. Audi has introduced an S tronic seven-speed gearbox to replace the previous R tronic version, which was essentially an old-school automatic.

The S tronic’s dual-clutch wizardry provides rapid and seamless shifts and much less grief in traffic. Gear shifts take place within hundredths of a second and with virtually no interruption to tractive power.

The chassis of this highperformance car employs technologies derived from motorsport. Double wishbones, forged from aluminium, guide all four wheels, while the springs, shock absorbers and front suspension geometry have been specifically tuned and adapted.

You can propel the R8 along without expending much more effort than you would in a regular car. Not that this spoils the sense of occasion however, because sitting snugly in the R8's cockpit you are down low compared to other cars, and grasping the small but chunky flat-bottomed steering wheel reminds you of what it is capable of.

Leave it in automatic and stick to the first few centimetres of throttle travel and you could almost forget you’re in a supercar, especially if you leave the button marked ‘Sport’ alone. But that would be a waste, and it takes only a moment to access the more dynamic side of the R8’s personality. Punch that button and the revs flare instantly as the throttle response is sharpened and the gearbox switches into a more aggressive programme.

The thing you’ll notice first however is the howl from the exhaust as it opens out completely to give the engine its full voice.

Squeeze on the throttle in any gear and there’s a hardening of the exhaust note as it begins to accelerate hard. Third gear is the one to go for, because at first you can’t believe how hard it pulls in a relatively tall gear and then as you reach the red line it’s even more amazing how it keeps on pulling to greater speeds. Whatever you ask of it, the V10 plus responds emphatically with a mighty push in the back.

And if you are in the right sort of environment, it will achieve a top speed of just under 200mph.

Thankfully, carnon fibre ceramic brakes come as standard.

Crucially it is friendly and entertaining when you start to push on, too. The Quattro drivetrain provides reassurance rather than nannying interference. The steering is sharp and responsive but not nervous. No car this fast has a right to be so friendly, but you can lean on the R8 a great deal and forget how much it costs and just revel in the grip, the balance and the knowledge that even if you are a little cack-handed it is on your side.

There is virtually nothing I would change about the R8, but the audio set-up needs an overhaul. You still have to remove the satellite navigation DVD to play a CD, there’s no DAB radio and no USB port.

There are faster cars out there but I would choose the R8, and particularly the more extreme V10 plus version, over any of them.

Fact File

Audi R8 Coupe V10Plus

PRICE: £125,900

ENGINE: Ten-cylinder, 5.2-litre petrol, developing 550bhp

TRANSMISSION: Sevenspeed S-tronic driving all four wheels

PERFORMANCE: 0 to 62mph in 3.5 seconds; top speed 197mph

ECONOMY: 21.9mpg combined

CO2 RATING: 299g/km

 

• Audi has taken the back off its R8 V10 plus supercar for a video which allows viewers to see its high-performance engine in action - and hear it roar.