Wow, wow, wow, the fantastic, All-new R8 Spyder debuts at Audi City London.

If web pages were like car mags, pages featuring the Audi R8 would be the well-thumbed ones. One of my personal favourites the Audi R8 V10 just gets better.

 
The R8 Spyder is making its first UK appearance at the Audi City London in Piccadilly. The landmark location in London features all that is Vorsprung durch Technik.

This Audi convertible focuses on total performance driving with its 0-62 mph of 3.6 seconds with a top speed of 197mph. The backbone to the R8 Spyder is the Audi Space frame which combines aluminium and carbon fibre in a structure that keeps weight down, which means lighter, faster, while increasing the rigidity of the cars by 50 percent.

The seven-speed S tronic dual-clutch transmission delivers the fastest shifts to the active quattro drive system. Transferring power as required to the front or rear wheels. Following my recent drives of the R8 Coupe version, with the V10 540PS engine producing 540Nm of torque at 6500rpm the bullet-like acceleration is just sensational, in the spyder top down……it will be on another planet.

Not just a performance car, the R8 Spyder can return up to 24.1mpg and the naturally aspirated ten cylinder engine which features dual injection can ‘decouple’ optimising fuel consumption up to ten percent with CO2 emissions of 277g/km. In its comfort mode the car makes a more docile, sensible, easy to drive supercar.

The cockpit of the R8 places all the controls of the car squarely in front of the driver, making is unnecessary to remove your hands from the wheel. An intelligent control system, offer drive modes from overtly dynamic to comfort. Specific dry wet and snow programs are also available to match driving conditions.

Audi’s award winning virtual cockpit will now offer the latest smartphone interface for iOS and Android smartphones. A Bang & Olufsen sound system incorporating headrest-mounted speakers is also making a debut, Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain will never sound better in combination with the music from the R8’s V10.

The mostly handbuilt R8 Spyder is available to order from late spring with the first deliveries towards the end of the year, so it looks like the roof may be staying up. Prices TBC.