These are the 20 best V10 production cars ever built

Excuse us for starting with one of the very best examples of ten-cylinder road transport. The LFA launched in 2009 after one of the most infamously gestated development programmes in automotive history; to declare the end result ‘worth the wait’ is to condescend the LFA with severe understatement.

Production was limited, prices high and its on-paper performance, with hindsight, a little underwhelming. But who cares when the 4.8-litre, 72-degree V10 tucked beneath its sculptured bonnet makes such an angelic sound at full hilt? The ‘1LR-GUE’ engine was co-developed with Yamaha and required a digital rev counter to keep up with its voracious sprint to 9,000rpm.

Two generations of R8 squeezed a 5.2-litre V10 engine between their two-seat cabin and rear axle. The first, Type 42-gen R8 made production in 2007. But it was another two years before a halo V10 version allowed it to fully live up to the Le Mans quattro concept which previewed its iconic, sidebladed silhouette.

Power peaked at 562bhp (at a saw-toothed 8,000rpm) in the R8 LMX and R8 Competition special editions which brought Mk1 production to a vivacious close in the mid 2010s. All models used quattro all-wheel drive and while most V10s were sold with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, look hard and you’ll find plenty of six-speed, open-gated manuals out there. Bliss.

No manuals this time around, and no V8s either. The Type 4S-gen R8 launched in 2015 and stuck much closer to the recipe of its contemporary Lamborghini cousin. At launch, you had a choice of 533bhp V10 and 602bhp V10 Plus models, rising to 562 and 612bhp come facelift time. As in the Mk1, a Spyder version allowed al fresco enjoyment of the rare, mellifluent warble only a ten-cylinder makes.

It’s an iteration of the lower-powered cars you should hunt in the classifieds, though: for the Mk2, Audi decided to throw its inhibitions (and heritage) to the wind and launch pure rear-drive versions of the R8, which stuck solely to the entry engine. Save, except, for the 333-off, 612bhp R8 V10 GT RWD which drew mid-engined Audi supercar production to a madcap (but melancholy) close in 2023.

The original R8’s Italian cousin and arguably one of the most important Bulls of all time. Lamborghini’s Audification was already in full swing by the Gallardo’s launch in 2005, but no car from Sant’Agata had yet sold with the casual ease as this one. Lambo registered 14,000 across nearly a decade of production, and with many, many iterations to choose from: 5.0- or 5.2-litre V10 and Coupe or Spyder, primarily, but among those you had manuals, autos and an ascendancy of track-honed specials.

Craving fun? You need an LP550-2 and its rear-wheel drive purity. Lap-times the priority? Then a lightweight Superleggera or Squadra Corse is more up your strada.

The ‘Sixth Element’ (doesn’t everything sound more alluring in Italian?) used a facelift Gallardo and its 562bhp, 8,000rpm 5.2-litre V10 as a base but then headed in its own, distinct design direction.

Its 2010 reveal was in the nascent days of million-pound-plus unobtanium, and its circa £2m price, 20-off production run and track-only status made it a true head-scratcher in its day – but a brave pioneer in the context of the lucrative market which followed it. Eighty per cent of its construction is carbonfibre (that’s the sixth element, seemingly) for a kerb weight of 999kg. And if you give Lanzante a call, they can even make yours road-legal…

Just as Audi upped the R8’s game for a second generation, the Gallardo bowed out to make room for the Huracán. It followed a similar path to its four-ringed relation, a decade-long production run stringing out 13 different editions with varying power and layouts. To make things simple, the lowlier 572bhp car stuck to rear-wheel drive, while the halo 602/631bhp cars were typically AWD.

Save, that is, for the Tecnica, STO and STJ, which paired the most potent tune of V10 to pure RWD, the latter two possessing a whole paddock’s worth of aero expertise. The most memorable Huracán of all is none of those, however – props to Lamborghini for winding down production ahead of the V8 hybrid Temerario with the 602bhp, off-road-ready Huracán Sterrato.

Heard the one about the V10-powered SUV? The top-spec Touareg was no joke, however, ably pulling a jumbo jet in its day to contribute to the wider model’s multiple world records. This was no mere value-brand Cayenne…

Calling upon a 4.9-litre twin-turbodiesel, its biggest numbers were pumped out by the post-facelift Touareg R50, which claimed 345bhp and a frankly monstrous 627lb ft for 0-62mph in under seven seconds, a 146mph top speed (not bad with 2.6-tonnes to haul and such bluff styling) and fuel economy of, um, 22mpg. And that’s the official claim. This was diesel treading a much different path to normal.

With a heart as vast as its towing potential, the generous ol’ Touareg didn’t keep this engine to itself. The Phaeton limo, like the almighty V10 diesel that made its brochure, was a pet project of Ferdinand Piëch. The father of the Veyron (and diddy little Volkswagen XL1) liked his targets to be ambitious, and ‘selling a ten-cylinder diesel saloon car in any meaningful volume’ is arguably in a realm well beyond the 250mph or 300mpg he breached with those lower, sleeker cars.

Look hard, stay patient, and they pop up in the classifieds at very tempting prices. Keep another stack of money set aside for maintaining the thing, though…

There’s a whiff of the same thinking behind the Viper, then Chrysler president Bob Lutz concocting an idea in the late Eighties to usher in a second coming of the Shelby Cobra. Only here there’d be no V8, but a V10 comprising eight litres, weighing over 300 kilos and producing 400bhp and 465lb ft to hustle along a fairly modest 1.5 tonnes of roadster (and in later 8.3-litre form, a Dodge Ram pick-up).

The production Viper proved as hairy at the limit as those figures suggest – and long before the days of copious airbags and multi-stage traction control. Future iterations upped the weight, aero and power so that by its 2017 retirement, the Mk3 Viper was cranking out 640bhp and 600lb ft for a top speed north of 200mph.

Another improbable home for a Viper V10 is this gullwinged weirdo from our own fair isle. Bristol had built essentially the same car for decades, but announced its 21st century reinvention in some style with the wild-looking Fighter in 2004. It takes a 525bhp tune of 8.0-litre Viper V10 and squeezes it into a narrower-bodied car that claims a neater gearchange and less tricky handling at the limit. Around a dozen examples were made, the proposed twin-turbo, 1,012bhp, 270mph Fighter T sadly not among those.

Styling by Zagato, power by Dodge. An unlikely recipe to celebrate 100 years of Alfa Romeo in 2010, the Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale clothed svelte carbonfibre bodywork over the tubular space frame of a contemporary Viper ACR. Which also means a 640bhp, 560lb ft 8.4-litre aluminium V10 connected to the rear wheels via a Tremec six-speed manual ‘box. Sold at around £500,000 new, only nine were built.

The self-proclaimed “world’s first superquad” is produced in Slovakia and looks like an Audi R8 Decepticon mid-transformation. It’s the genius/unhinged (delete depending on your aversion to risk) idea of Viktor Engler.

In base form, it uses the same nat-asp, 612bhp 5.2-litre V10 as the Mk2 R8 and Lamborghini Huracán, though the option of twin turbochargers takes its output past 1,000bhp and its vmax north of 200mph. All without ABS, traction control or – without stating the obvious – a roof or doors. It’s yours for around a million euros. Tempted? Here’s the time we drove it…

You’d be forgiven for forgetting this specific chapter of McLaren Automotive history. Among the Elvas, P1s and Sennas is a track-only curio that eschews Woking’s usual, twin-turbo V8 in favour of a wailing nat-asp Judd V10 that’s ubiquitous in motorsport. Measuring 5.2-litres in capacity and possessing 828bhp stood still, its output swells by another 30 horsepower on track thanks to ‘ram air effect’ – the increased rate of air it gulps in at speed.

McLaren made 25, sold them for £2.5m, and you’ll have to look hard to find a trackday its noise isn’t too obscene for. Perhaps no wonder it’s overlooked.

It’s easy to forget that M5s have often launched in a whirlwind of controversy. The chunky hybrid G90 has upset everyone with its weight. The F90 before it introduced the devil that is four-wheel drive (then promptly stole everyone’s heart in astounding CS format). The F10 snuck turbocharging in through the door. Even this now revered E60 didn’t make the most charming of first impressions, its top-endy 500bhp 5.0-litre V10 a world away from the muscular V8 of the utterly adored E39 and its onslaught of driving modes utterly dizzying.

With the knowing smirk of hindsight, though, it’s an anomaly, a wonder… an icon. Its near-all-aluminium ‘S85B50’ engine develops 100bhp per litre without a turbo in sight and peaks at an ear-piercing 8,250rpm. Sure, reliability sometimes passes it by. Its contentious arrival is otherwise a very distant memory.

Perhaps you wish to ignore the purists entirely and experience the S85’s shrill red line as unencumbered as possible. You’ll want the M5’s two-door, four-seat sibling then, ideally with the roof dropped on an E64 M6 Convertible. Peaks of 500bhp and 383lb ft match the saloon and Touring, and you have the same, slightly clunky seven-speed automated manual ‘box with which to squeeze out every last digit. Prices start at £12k. For how much longer?

Or you can experience an S85 in its most unlikely setting of all. Germany’s Wiesmann brothers spent 30 years shoehorning burly BMW M powerplants into unsuspecting retro roadsters and tin-tops, their cars essentially the zanier, more hedonistic continental cousins of a cuddly ol’ Morgan.

They all have their own, oddly irresistible appeal, but perhaps the MF5 and its 500bhp V10 is the most unlikely – and therefore tantalising – of them all. Still not sold? Wiesmann’s factory is shaped like the gecko on its logo. Told you they were zany.

For those even Wiesmann isn’t offbeat enough to please (and boy, do we need to know who those people are) there’s the Veritas RSIII. Another German skunkworks special, and sold in either V8 or V10 form, the latter nabs the same 5.0-litre unit as the BMWs and MF5 above and squeezes it as far back from the front bumper as possible for near-perfect weight distribution. The body is made of carbon and Kevlar and the styling is, um, unmistakable. Priced around £300,000 new, production was limited to 30 cars.

Take an early Gallardo-era 5.0-litre V10, apply two massive turbochargers (and around 400 unique parts), and slot your ensuing creation into a snarling supersaloon and estate. Voila, you have a 572bhp, 479lb ft C6-generation Audi RS6, a car which responded to the sensational ten-cylinder power of its contemporary BMW M5 rival with… more V10. Much more.

Perhaps surprisingly, this sits at the more numb, less interesting end of the RS6 spectrum when it comes to driver entertainment, and its engine is more of a subtle sledgehammer than an esoteric entertainer. Buy one from as little as £15k and you’re unlikely to mind either way. Just keep a healthy savings account for servicing.

Prefer your extraordinarily powered Audi to fly lower under the radar? A detuned, wet-sumped version of the R8’s 5.2-litre n/a engine made it into the long snout of both the S6 and S8, the latter surely the cooler of the pair thanks to the cliched Ronin references intrinsic to its predecessor and the fact most appear to be specified in Savile Row blues and blacks. This is a 444bhp, 398lb ft limo that looks nearly as subtle as a base A8 TDI.

Engine codes are often a deeply unsexy way of namedropping a particular powertrain. ‘M80/01’ is little different, doing naff-all to suggest it’s a 604bhp, 8,400rpm, 68-degree, 5.7-litre V10 deploying not a single turbo and sitting in the middle of a carbon tubbed, manually shifted, ceramic clutched roadster that now commands comfortably over a million pounds second-hand.

For those that have driven, witnessed or even found themselves in the same postcode as a Porsche Carrera GT at full chat, that’s arguably a very small price to pay. The greatest V10 production car of all time? Only the Lexus LFA owners’ forum disagrees.