Audi R8 5.2 V10 Performance

Pessimistic start, but fair point. Audi’s supercar has an uncertain future, for sure. It’s not as profitable as its Lamborghini cousin, the Huracan, because the Audi R8 wears a badge also fitted to diesel hatchbacks and some forgettable crossovers, so it can’t be as expensive as the Lambo. Which uses plenty of the same bits’n’pieces.

What’s more, Audi is pushing an electric future: the e-tron family. It’s already shown us a fabulous electric supercar concept, nudge-wink-hinting what a battery-powered Audi supercar could look like.

And the company no longer competes at Le Mans, which the original R8 was built to celebrate over a decade ago. What to do with a low, loud, V10 dinosaur?

Celebrate it, that’s what. Bloody well revel in it. This is the facelifted, tweaked Audi R8 Mk2.1. Coming soon to some subtle Tony Stark product placement near you, no doubt.

Yep, that’s the facelift surgery. Evidently Audi over-ordered on its infamous grilles last year, and needed to use up the leftovers before the accountants hit the roof. So, we’ve got a massive grille stretching right across the car’s bum, and up front, the mouth is lower, wider, and more angular.

There are gills and slats and, every time you open up the bonnet to pop your shopping in the front boot, you’ll spot that those three intakes under the badge – a retro nod to the Group B Sport Quattro – are fake. So are the intakes behind the fuel filler cap and ‘sideblade’ sections.

To distract you, the new exhaust pipes are massive. 

The faster one, formerly known as R8 V10 Plus. Power in all R8s is up for 2019, and in the Performance, you get 612bhp, instead of 602bhp in ye old R8 Plus, and 562bhp in the standard R8 V10.

As a result, every version of the R8 has lopped 0.1sec off its 0-62mph sprint. In the Performance, that means 0-62mph in 3.1sec (and a bit quicker if you ignore Audi’s deliberately conservative claims). Top speed is 205mph. You can have a faster supercar than this, but you don’t need one.

Haven’t got time to get the stopwatch out? Not to worry. If you see an R8 with the carbon rear wing, it’s the Performance. The wing is “I’m richer than you” shorthand – the Performance sets you back a snip under £150k, or £13,000 more than the standard R8.

Not especially, and it’s the same story inside – the interior hasn’t changed a bit. So, it still feels like a big TT inside, which is actually about the highest compliment you could give any car’s cabin. One screen in the driver’s eyeline, stunning flashes of carbon and real aluminium, and sumptuous build quality.

The flaws have stuck around too. The seats still don’t hug you any more than your boss’s A4’s chairs, and every time you reach for the wireless phone charging pad, you skin your knuckles on the climate control toggles.

Audi has made detailed revisions to nerdy German things like suspension components and the optional Dynamic Steering, which varies how much steering angle you get depending on how fast you’re going.

It’s supposed to make the car more agile when you’re misbehaving, and more relaxed when you aren’t. Frankly, it’s a lot more intuitive than it used to be, and if you really, really concentrate, turn down the radio and properly pay attention, the steering is a mite more detailed than before. It’s good for an R8, but not a patch on a McLaren’s lively racecar feel.