FIRST DRIVE 2014 Audi R8 V10 plus review, test drive

The hottest and most focussed series production
version of the current Audi R8 supercar you can
buy before the brand new one – freshly unveiled
at the Geneva motor show 2015 – goes on sale. I
specify ‘series production’ because Audi has also
introduced a limited-edition version called the R8
LMX, which has a 20 more bhp and laser
headlamps; if you were able to snap up one of the
99-unit global production run of the LMX, you are
lucky indeed.
So there’s a new one coming soon, and this is
not the ultimate version of the outgoing car – so
why bother revisiting this R8? Two reasons. One,
we have only so far sampled the V10 Plus on the
racetrack and not the road. And two, this is still
one of the greatest and most accessible
supercars money can buy. However, the ‘Plus’ in
its name is a hint that perhaps it isn’t quite as
friendly on the road as the standard model – if
you can call a 518bhp mid-engine V10 supercar
‘standard’.
Apart from the subtle changes that came with the
facelift a few years ago (new LED front and rear
lamps, and new tailpipes, mostly), the Plus gets
its own set of special accoutrements over the
standard car. There’s loads more carbonfibre on
the bodywork, in the cabin and even in the engine
bay. Rather more significantly, however, the
power from the glorious Lamborghini-sourced V10
is up to 542bhp and torque to 55kgm. Then
there’s the weight – a whole 50kg less, and the
dampers, which though still adaptive, have been
stiffened; this is meant to be the ‘hardcore’
version, after all.
So, it’s a bit more than just a power upgrade,
then. All this has a lot of promise when you think
about how it will affect the way the R8 drives,
and sure enough, it feels a bit different from the
standard car on the road.