Features

The Audi R8's first-ever public appearance came in late September, hurtling down a quarter mile of asphalt exiting the über-modernist Grande Arche de la Défense in Paris. From a distance, it looked like someone had ballsed-up and sent out a TT instead.

Perspective can play the strangest of tricks on your brain; as the R8 drew closer, the differences unfurled. The stance is much lower than a humble TT's, with fat 19-inch rims pushed right out to each corner.

The domed cockpit tapers way back, the belly sitting close to the ground, the tail stretched weirdly long, as if the bodywork has been morphed out of shape by exposure to speed.

Some see hints of pre-war Auto Union racers in here, others the proportions of a dachshund. Still, any visual hint of the forces involved can be excused; for the first time in its history, Audi has built a road car capable of hitting 187mph.

Of course, there have been quick Audis before: RS2, RS4, RS6, not to mention the latest V10-powered S8. All share a 155mph electronic speed limiter, a device designed as much to appease the German law makers who still allow stretches of autobahn to remain free from speed limits, as to rein in the antics of Audi's customers.

In the R8's case, those officials had best look away. For the velocities this thing can reach, you'd previously have needed to detour to the race track, to find the car the R8 has stolen its name from.

The R8 racer won at Le Mans on five separate occasions, not including the (R8-based) Bentley speed eight's victory in 2003. It has since evolved into the diesel-fuelled - and spookily silent - R10, continuing Audi's Le Mans domination this year.

An absence of aural drama is one criticism that could never be levelled at the road-going R8. As the show car homed in on the end of its quarter-mile catwalk, the wail of its engine came blaring along behind, splitting the night air as driver (and six-times Le Mans winner) Jacky Ickx flicked left, before parking on a platform mounted before an audience now with fingers shoved firmly in their ears.

Here the R8's many odd styling details could be seen more clearly; multiple slats of matt-black plastic shrouding each corner, a spindly spoiler retracting as the car pulled to a standstill, vertical black carbon-fibre sections cutting into the side profile and drawing your gaze away from the cooling pods set rearwards of its doors.

Until this moment, the R8's power source had remained the subject of much idle speculation. The V10 from the Gallardo, courtesy of Audi's sister company Lamborghini, was the hot favourite to slot in first, with the turbodiesel V12 from the R10 ranking as an outside bet. Now there could be little doubt.

Anyone who has spent time in the latest RS4 knows that only its manic-revving, naturally aspirated V8 could make quite such a racket, never more hard edged and purposeful than it sounded here.

The R8 has much the same direct petrol-injected 4.2-litre V8, delivering a similar 414bhp and 317lb ft, but now equipped with dry sump lubrication to allow it to be set much closer to the floor, dropping the centre of gravity.

And, yes, the release of noise is even more intense - as in a Ferrari F430, only a skimpy glass panel separates the engine from the public's eyes and ears.

The driver and passenger receive their own private peep show, the legend 'V8 FSI' staring back at them through the rear window. Unlike the RS4, the R8's engine is mounted in the rear.