The first Audi R8 was a racing car; actually, that’s like saying Michael Schumacher was just a racing driver. The R8 was an incredibly successful racing car – easily the most successful sports racing car of its time – racking up an amazing string of victories at Le Mans and in the USA, where it made the ALMS series its own. But, at the same time that the racing car was racking up titles, Audi was secretly working on another R8 – a road car. By the time the company finally switched to using the diesel-powered R10 for its Le Mans and ALMS programmes, the “second” R8 was just about ready.

After what seems like years of rumours and “leaked” pictures, the roadgoing R8 finally received its UK press launch in May 2007 in the south of France. The area’s quiet, twisty roads meant the car’s performance and handling could be assessed by British journalists eager to finally get their hands on the right-hand drive car for the first time. In addition, the reigning ALMS champion, Scotland’s Allan McNish, was on hand to offer chauffeur-driven laps of the nearby Paul Ricard circuit.

All that activity was actually very useful to us journos, since the R8’s performance figures are like virtually nothing else in Audi’s range. Powered by the same 420PS 4.2 litre V8 FSI petrol engine as used in the RS4, the R8’s powerplant is unrestricted, giving a 0-62mph figure of 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 187mph. Permanent quattro 4WD transmission means that getting all that power onto the road isn’t an issue, while the car we drove was fitted with Audi’s “magnetic ride” suspension system that gave a ride that changed seamlessly between “comfort” on the straights and “sport” in the twisty stuff. The trouble is, Audi decided to offer the clever suspension as an option only – why? If you’re spending around £80,000 on a car, surely something as fundamental as a system that makes it handle better should be included as standard?

There are, in fact, only two models in the R8 range – a manual and an automatic. All sorts of (expensive) options are available, as we’ve come to expect from the Germans, but you’re basically faced with a simple choice. To me, that choice is actually quite easy, since I can’t quite bring myself to recommend that the £5,200 sequential gearbox is worth the money. In “paddle-shift” mode, it’s awesome, changing gear virtually instantly, although if you keep your right foot planted as you change up the ‘box, the changes do happen with a bit of a bang. In fully-auto mode, however, it’s a different story and it seems as though the gearbox isn’t quite sure when to change. My advice; stick to the manual gearbox with its Ferrari-like chrome gate and send the five grand to us at UKCN as a thank you.

Another key piece of advice to would-be R8 buyers would be to pay careful attention to what colour you opt for. The lighter colours (as you can see from our slideshow and the stills at the top of the page) have an optional “blade” down the side. Hmmmmm. It doesn’t quite work for me, I’m sorry to say, and so I’d opt for the all-black of our test car every time.

That said, if I had the money to blow on a supercar, the R8 would be pretty high up on my list. It’s an Audi, so it won’t break down (like the Aston Martin one magazine was planning to use for a group test in France) or give passers-by completely the wrong impression, like a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. The one downside, though, is that I don’t have a great deal of patience and so I’m unlikely to be placing an order any time soon. Thanks to the handbuilt nature of the cars (a maximum of only 20 a day will come out of the Neckarsulm plant) and the demand, there’s already an 18-month waiting list and I suspect that can only get longer.