Gallery: meet Top Gear's new Audi R8 V10 Plus

We have some exciting news to report. Two weeks ago today we picked up Top Gear’s new Audi R8 V10 Plus.

It's here for the next six or so months, and we thought we’d try a bit of an experiment and post updates on here as we go along. We’ll tell you what the car’s been up to, how it’s performed, that sort of thing.

So click on for more, as we introduce the TG-spec R8…

This is how it started though. About eight months ago Audi said that not only could we run an R8, but we could spec it ourselves. So I opened it up to the floor and invited everyone to have a crack at the configurator and see what came out. These are just some of the results.

The curve ball to throw in here is that we want the car to look strong in pictures, so making it look like a black hole wasn’t an option. We umm-ed and ahh-ed about big wheels, what colour the side blades should be, whether to have the laser lights or not, but on one thing was I absolutely emphatic: we wouldn’t be having the Dynamic steering.

That’s the variable ratio steering rack that not only removes steering feel, but makes it difficult to predict how the steering will respond when you turn into a corner. It’s what undid the R8 when we group tested it against the McLaren 570S and Porsche 911 Turbo S last October.

To have a proper look at what our car might look like (we wanted to make sure we got it right…) I headed down to Audi City Piccadilly where they can call your spec up and beam it onto a big screen.

Not only do you get to see your car almost life size, but you can view it in different environments with different light on the car.

This is the moon. You can also put it in what appears to be the Scottish Highlands or in a city centre.

Better still, there’s a video mode where you can watch it drive through the city; the graphics are a bit Gran Turismo 3, but you get a good idea of what it looks like on the move.

Downstairs at Audi City is the colour and trim room. Get carried away with Audi Exclusive and the sky’s the limit. Audi is very proud of the fact that there are no limits to its range of paint colours. Want your A1 painted the same mauve as your daughter’s bedroom? Audi can oblige.

Anyway, we sat down and discussed various options. This was fun – discussing and debating the spec of your car with someone who knows all the options inside out and can show you what you might have missed on the configurator. In this instance, contrast leather stitching.

So here we are, several months later at West London Audi. You’ll know it if you’ve ever driven into London on the M4 – it’s the huge showroom that looms over the raised section before you get to Chiswick.

Want to know the final spec of our car before you see it properly? Go on Audi’s configurator and tap in the code AMQ9Q54U.

The funny thing was the sense of anticipation was so great that I didn’t want it to be over, so before the unveiling, we did a tour of the building…

The place is huge, but what I particularly liked (apart from the delivery mileage, massively specced A8 V8 diesel LWB that was on for £68k, some £40k below list) was this, the customer servicing area.

It’s so well thought out – you drive your car in under cover, walk through the glass doors to check it in, then saunter another few steps to the café where they’ll serve you coffee and breakfast. Spot on.

And it’s so big (120 cars on display), with two underground servicing and vehicle prep floors, that every car that comes through is given an electronic tag so the service department know where it is at all times. Anyway, enough time wasting.

Yep, Vegas Yellow baby!

I can’t tell you how giddy with excitement I was at this point. Sales Specialist James Barr-Miller pulled the covers off and I was blown away – it looked absolutely terrific. I love the black n’ yellow combo.

In case you couldn’t be bothered to type our code into the configurator, here’s what we’ve got: a V10 Plus in solid Vegas yellow with the standard carbon sideblades and 20-inch gloss anthracite wheels.

Inside we’ve gone for fine Nappa leather with stitched diamond design, with the stitching in contrasting Vegas Yellow (this picture was shot indoors and doesn’t do it justice).

I don’t want to give you a full list of the options we’ve fitted as that would be tedious, so here are some highlights.

Driving-wise we’ve fitted Magnetic Ride (£1,600), the sports exhaust (£1,800), plus the larger fuel tank (an extra £100 for the 83, rather than 73, litre tank) and the laser LED lights. Those were a £3,000 extravagance which I doubt I’ll have much use for until the nights close in again.

Inside, the biggest blow-outs were the Sound and Comfort pack (£3,450 for the B&O stereo, and so on), and £2,450 for Alcantara headlining, though not with contrast stitching, as I thought it would be distracting.

Overall, we added £18,005 of options to the R8, taking the total to £150,720. It’s a lot of money. But it’s a lot of car.

Not wanting the moment to end, I insisted James gave me the full ‘how it works’ tour. The dash layout is broadly the same Virtual Cockpit as in the TT. I f you’re new to it you need to give it a few hours to get used to, but thereafter it’s brilliant, logical and simple.

James talked me through everything from the laser lights to the toolkit. Some of it was teaching me to suck eggs, but every so often a nugget of good knowledge would present itself that made it all worthwhile.

For instance, the laser lights only work with auto high beam – you can’t manually activate them. Also, he warned me that in Comfort, the Magnetic Ride has a tendency to bounce over speed bumps. If he hadn’t told me that I may well have taken the car back – I’ll cover this in more detail in future, but speed bumps are best tackled in Dynamic…

Then we talked about running in – it’s quite a process in the R8. Now I know several very knowledgeable people who proclaim that running a brand new car in is pointless, and you should just clog it from the word go.

But if nothing else I like the sense of build up, of not giving yourself everything all at once - I’m one of those who likes to savour opening Christmas presents.

So, for the first 600 miles, no more than 5,000rpm and no full throttle. And from there up to 1,500 miles, gradually build the revs, but still avoid full throttle.

I suspect that sheer novelty will mean I’ll be fine for the first few hundred miles, then find it harder to resist exploiting the upper reaches after that.

So this was me travelling the first few metres in the car. It had 113 miles on it already – that’s because the car was supplied direct from Audi UK and was driven down from their vehicle prep area to London before I took delivery.

Anyway, the naturally aspirated V10 sounded utterly tremendous when I fired it up in the private showroom, all the warning lights went out as they should, it selected first smoothly and out we trundled, my new car and me.

Then it was a concerned, delicate potter back to the office. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to own a new car you’re massively proud of, you’ll know the feeling – wincing as buses and taxis steam past, giving every kerb an extra three feet of clearance, staying well back from anything that might so much as blow fumes over your new pride and joy. You want it to be this clean and tidy for ever…

The cleanliness doesn’t last long, but the care does. It’s now covered 1,300 miles, mostly on the run to work and back, it has to be said, although that drive has become 5-10 miles longer so that it takes in some good roads – not to use the engine hard, but just the opposite –keep the engine steady and feel what the chassis is up to.

Anyway, the day I took delivery of my R8 I got a text from my mate Andrew: “Just picked up ‘The Beast’, are you around this weekend?” He was one of the first to put down a deposit on a new Ford Focus RS, so on Saturday morning I drove over to his and convincingly upstaged him.

I apologised for this, and we had a lovely morning taking each other for rides in our new cars. We were like two school boys, hands thrust deep in pockets, walking around, pointing and saying “cor!”.

It’s what cars are all about, isn’t it?

Sunday morning. I don’t play golf, but for some inexplicable reason my boy loves it. He has a school tournament, so I now know that you can get a set of golf clubs in the back – albeit only junior ones.

But all the golfers are moving to road cycling now aren’t they? That’s something that’s much closer to my heart – I love a bit of biking. And the equipment you need for it is even more challenging to wedge into a car than a big bag of golf sticks.

The only car I’ve ever failed to carry my bike on was a Jaguar F-Type convertible that I ran a few years back. I’m not going to be beaten this time…

So there we have it, one very happy boy with his new toy. I’ll try to post updates perhaps every other week, or as and when I get up to something interesting with it.

It’ll also be good to know if you like this sort of thing, or if there’s anything in particular you want to know about the car, so please comment below. We’ve plenty months ahead to answer your questions…