It’s always baffled me a bit. Surely if you’re interested in an Audi R8 you’re the sort of person who likes those over-designed german toasters. The sort of kitchen appliance that belongs in a gallery of modern art.Where as if the Gallardo takes your fancy, you’re more likely to set your patio furniture on fire and throw a loaf on the blaze.

Either way you end up with toast. The only difference is the level of control, and that’s what sets the R8 apart from just about any other supercar.

Supercars are generally quite frightening. Too much power without control usually ends in tears. But with Audi’s incredible Quattro drive system, anyone who can tell a brake pedal from a windscreen wiper can climb aboard and drive very, very quickly. This car takes corners with so much poise and balance, with such grace and grip that you could be forgiven for thinking that you’re connected to the road magnetically.

And you sort of are. You see when you hit this little button next to the gearbox, marked by a diagram of what appears to be a Myprodol pill, the car electrocutes itself. Little bits of metal in the suspension suddenly stand to attention like excited schoolboys and the ride firms up even more.

Now you can attack corners with even more aggression and even more precision. The V10 howls through your bones and the short sharp gearlever becomes part of you; almost as if you’re reaching into the car and controlling the gearbox simply by feel.

On Hel’s Hoogte Pass at 2am, we filled her with fuel and resolutely stuck to the speed limit. I can report that at the speed limit(ish), this car feels even more planted and purposeful. It handles speed (legal-ish, law abiding sort of speed, roughly equal to the speed limit) with astonishing confidence; which becomes the driver’s confidence.

I would like to point out that the noise this car makes is one of the greatest aural delights of my young life. One quiet night, cruising calmly up a fairly steep road, the engine made a sound which was so arousing that I drifted into oncoming traffic with my eyes closed. It growls, howls, screams and bellows in a cacophony of motoring delight that has literally engraved itself in my memory forever.

This is a car that wraps around you and absorbs you into its world. And what an exhilarating, effiecent world it is. Until you stop. And climb out, to face the friendly mob which has assembled to greet you. And that is the true beauty of this car.

Somehow, the Audi engineers have threaded a bit of the people’s car into the R8. People want to talk to you. They want to know about the car; how fast does it go, what does it feel like to drive. In just two days I was subjected to marriage proposals, business ventures, relentless cellphone paparazzi and endless pleas to ‘rev it.’

I’m getting a bit tired of the slurs against the R8; that it’s ‘just an Audi’. Sure, supercars have to be fast and frightening. They have to be loud and stunning. The R8 of is all of those things, but most of all they have to excite the masses; give them something to smile about. And that more than anything, makes the R8 a true supercar.

Ciro De Siena