Anyone with a craving for speed should sit up and take notice because Audi has announced that its most powerful production car ever will hit the UK at the end of the year.
Priced from £119,500 for the 540PS R8 V10 ‘standard’ model and £137,500 for the 610PS V19 Plus flying machine, buyers will be taking the keys to a car capable of blasting past the 200mph mark.
The flagship Plus version can power to 62mph from a standing start in just 3.2 seconds and on to a potential top speed of 205mph with a seven-speed S tronic transmission and a newly developed quattro all-wheel drive system.
Yet despite plenty of extra equipment and greater rigidity, the R8 V10 plus model weighs up to 50 kilograms less than its predecessor.
Inside the Audi virtual cockpit, where the displays are digital, the main controls are grouped together in button clusters – which Audi calls satellites – on the steering wheel.
The driver is given the impression of sitting in a racing car and MMI navigation plus with MMI touch is standard.
Audi’s technical chief Dr Ulrich Hackenberg said: “With the new Audi R8, our engineers are bringing accumulated racing expertise from the race track onto the road. No other model of ours evokes more dynamic emotion.
“The new R8 V10 plus is the most powerful and fastest series-production Audi of all time.”