Considered on its own merits, though, the 2010 R8 is an awesome car. It all starts with that 4.2-liter 420-horsepower V8, which is one of our favorite engines currently in production. Power is sent to all four wheels in typical Audi fashion, and it’s supported by communicative steering and brilliant handling.

The 2010 R8 is an exotic sports car you can genuinely live with every day. In fact, we’d venture to say that the R8 is one of the most accommodating supercars ever produced.

Some consider that the R8 is based on the exclusive Lamborghini Gallardo this make its price tag seem somewhat reasonable.

Body Styles, Trim Levels, and Options

The 2010 Audi R8 is a two-door midengine AWD exotic sports car. Standard equipment includes 19-inch wheels, a retractable rear spoiler, xenon headlights, LED brake lights and turn signals, leather and Alcantara upholstery, power-adjustable sport seats, aluminum trim, automatic climate control, Bluetooth connectivity and a seven-speaker stereo with a six-CD changer.

There’s also the Convenience Package, which contains parking sensors, auto-dimming rearview mirrors and a “hill-holder” feature for models equipped with the conventional manual transmission.

Powertrains and Performance

In performance testing, we hustled a manual-shift R8 from zero to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds, dispatching the quarter-mile in 12.7 seconds at nearly 111 mph. In the R tronic model, our times increased to 4.6 seconds and 12.8 seconds at 108.4 mph.

EPA fuel economy estimates stand at 13 mpg city/20 highway and 15 combined for cars equipped with the conventional manual transmission, while the R tronic lowers the highway estimate to 19 mpg.

Safety

Standard safety equipment includes antilock disc brakes, stability control, seat-mounted side airbags and knee-protecting airbags.

Interior Design and Special Features

The 2010 Audi R8 features an attractive interior with high-quality materials, although there are a few cheap-feeling bits, such as the hard plastic on the center console and the substandard emergency brake handle. The center stack swoops elegantly toward the windshield.

Unlike in most newer Audis, the R8’s Multi Media Interface (MMI) controls are mounted below the LCD screen on the center stack, which is less convenient than their typical location on the center console.