Audi R8 V10 Spyder Convertible

Which is strange because the original R8 coupe is one of the most useful supercars in history. You can have that coupe for thrills, and for every day. But there's one crucial detail that hobbles the Spyder as an everyday car. Where an R8 coupe has a handy space behind the seats, in the Spyder that space is used to store the folded roof. All that remains is the front boot, which, as with all R8s, is the size of a lunchbox.So while the Spyder is on paper a relatively trifling eight per cent, or £8,690, more expensive than the coupe, in practice you'd also need to add the cost of forwarding your luggage. Say £28,250 for an S3, plus the wages of its driver.

Since as an R8 Spyder buyer you'll need to be so financially well-upholstered, you'll think nothing of forking out for two more cylinders. So Audi doesn't give you the choice and the Spyder is, for the time being at least, available only with the V10 and not the V8. And standard all-LED headlamps, magnetic ride, Bang and Olufsen hi-fi, and (nifty detail this) Bluetooth phone microphones embedded in the seatbelt fabric so that - even at big speed roof-down - you can phone your man in the S3 and tell him where to meet you with the fresh undies.

And what a time you'll be having en route to the rendezvous. We've already written thousands of words on the subject of our near-boundless love for the R8 V10. And now here's a convertible, with all the advantages that confers. A convertible is when you can't go very fast and want to enjoy the agreeable scenery and weather. A convertible is also more dramatic-looking. The absence of a roof makes a low and wide car even lower and, in consequence, wider-looking. And you hear that engine all the better.www.audia8lcars.blogspot.com