Category: Exotic Sports 
Price Range: £79,825 to £99,580
Purposeful, modern appearance, convincing performance, excellent ride/handling balance.
Not quite as involving as it should be, poor visibility, lack of storage space.
Audi has scored a direct hit on the supercar establishment with its first shot. Not perfect, but exceptionally capable and very, very desirable.
The R8 is being built largely by hand, at the rate of no more than 20 per day and to a standard beyond that seen by any Audi to date. Given Audi's already strong reputation in this area, this should prove all the reassurance potential customers should need.
That said, there are still some question marks over the interior's quality in the context of a car costing over twice as much as Porsche Cayman. There's a panel gap big enough to lose your finger in where the interior door pull meets the dashboard and the pull's handle felt flimsy and insubstantial. Some of the switchgear and a few smooth, hard cabin plastics also felt less than commensurate with the car's price.
At least you should not have to worry about your R8 leaving you at the side of the road. The engine is a proven commodity while the six speed gearbox (available with either manual or, for an extra £5,200 'R-tronic' paddleshift operation) has already survived the still tougher test of life inside the Lamborghini Gallardo.
