Audi R8 V10 Plus 2015

► Full fat 602bhp right from launch
► Carbon and aluminium structure
► Playful chassis, sensational speed

Oh Audi, what have you done? The new Audi R8 doesn’t so much arrive with a bang as a carpet-bombing – while we all sort of knew the original was a cut-price Lamborghini Gallardo, presenting it as a V8 initially established such clean air between them that the later introduction of increasingly focused V10 variants never really threatened the established hegemony. Not this time.

Imagine being a fly on the wall when Ingolstadt told Sant’Agata that it would be launching the R8 MkII with the same 602bhp output as the Huracan, charging less for it and including more tech. Publically we’re sure Lamborghini will say the image gulf between the two brands is so vast as to make the situation utterly irrelevant, and perhaps that’s true. But the point is that the R8 V10 Plus is not really a 911 rival any more – if it ever really was.

Rather, the new R8 V10 Plus is a bona fide supercar. And it’s fantastic.

Sounds promising, but does this mean Audi’s thrown away the everyday drivability of the previous R8?

Not at all. This is still a very Audi supercar, which is to say the first thing you notice once you’re inside is the refinement – and the ride comfort. With the optional Magnetic Ride variable suspension in the Comfort setting, puttering out onto the Portuguese motorway network is really no more demanding upon your posterior than it would be in a saloon, even on 20-inch wheels. Big distances beckon not with a grimace but a bawdy wink; it only takes a brief encounter with the further reaches of the accelerator to understand that they will also disappear in no time at all.

As the Plus implies, there is also a regular V10 – a mere 533bhp that one, just the 15bhp more than before – which could be right up your street if the cruiser-like facet of the new R8’s character appeals. There is no V8 at all at launch, and our understanding is there never will be. Though a twin-turbo V6 could prove handy in certain tax-conscious markets such as China…