Comfortable
The interior of the R8 comfortably greets passengers. Even large-sized folks can find enough room to be at ease. The leathers and plastics transpire quality while not creating excessive opulence. The seats do an outstanding job of cradling their occupants and are very supportive. For the driver, every control is intuitively positioned. Music lovers will no doubt add the optional Bang & Olufsen audio system and they will be able to enjoy their favorite tunes as much as possible thanks to the supremely quiet interior of this mid-engine sports car. The only fault I could find was the lack of a true footrest for the driver. Otherwise, the R8 is great for a weekend getaway or even a whole week on the road with your wife. Indeed, the front trunk has a 100-litre capacity and you can add 90 litres of luggage behind the seats. Buyers can even order a set of luggage specifically designed to fit inside the R8's trunk.

Audi quality at its finest.

420 horsepower!!!
Believe it or not, the R8 is motivated by a naturally-aspirated V8 engine. There's no turbocharger or supercharger. This 4.2L (260 cubic inches) powerplant docilely sends 420 horsepower and 302 lb-ft of torque to all four 18-inch wheels through a 6-speed gearbox -- manual or R tronic sequential. The car also benefits from an exclusive quattro AWD system with viscocoupling.

Personally, I preferred the manual gearbox; its Ferrari-like shift gate is more appropriate for sporty driving. On the other hand, the R tronic transmission suffers from abrupt shifts during track or slalom driving, even when using the Sport mode. For regular, fast driving, the R tronic works quite well, but for aggressive driving, the manual box is highly recommended. The only performance figure I was able to verify was the 80-120 kph acceleration: 3.5 seconds. By my calculation, the 0-100 kph acceleration should easily be achieved in under 5 seconds.

Track options
If you wish to drive your R8 on the track, you will definitely enjoy the magnetic ride adaptive damper system, especially in slaloms and turns. We've just learned that this special Audi suspension will be offered as standard equipment in Canada. You can opt for the phenomenally powerful ceramic disc brakes, but the standard steel discs are more than satisfying for normal or sporty driving on regular roads. Actually, that's one of the best qualities of the R8: it stops on a dime and quickly slows down before entering a curve. My tester was equipped with 18-inch wheels, but Canadian models will reportedly sport 19-inch wheels.

Canadian models will be equipped with a magnetic suspension.