Audi R8 Spyder V10 Performance

There are marques that tell you what progress is, and there are marques that simply let you hear it. Audi belongs to that second category. At least, it did back when they still thought ten cylinders were a perfectly good answer to a question nobody had asked. And they were right. The R8 was always the odd one out in the Audi stable: a supercar with four rings on it, built on the same recipe as the Lamborghini Huracán, but without the theatrical drama queen and with the level-headedness of a marque that could just as happily build an A4 Avant for the local builder.

I have always had a soft spot for that R8. Not because it was the fastest, not because it had the maddest design, but because it is the last of the Mohicans. When the rest of the car world was already signing up for the electric future, Audi stubbornly kept the faith with a naturally aspirated V10 sitting mid-mounted behind the seats.

No turbos to cushion the blow, no clever software mimicking the sound through the speakers. Just five point two litres of German obstinacy, which at six thousand revs starts to wail in a way you now only hear in old Formula 1 footage. A crescendo you would normally need a season ticket at the Royal Albert Hall to enjoy.

And then, on top of all that, we are talking about the Spyder here. Roof down, and what remains is one of the few open cars in which the engine note matters more than the weather forecast.

Right, back to the R8 in question. This one is from 2020, specified as a V10 Performance, which in plain human language means: 620 bhp, the hottest variant this engine ever came in. Mythosschwarz metallic, which is a distinguished way of saying it is black in the way a dinner jacket is black. Serious, understated, and irresistible precisely because of it. On curves like these, black does something other colours cannot: it lets you see the shape rather than the colour.

The history is exactly what you would expect from a car with this pedigree: impeccable. Delivered by Audi in Neckarsulm, where they still put these things together by hand back then. Subsequently maintained properly at AZ Bochum, Audi Centrum Tilburg and finally Van den Udenhout in Breda, all authorised Audi partners who know exactly where to keep their fingers off a V10 like this.

At the last major longlife service in 2025 everything went by the book: engine oil (the proper Shell Helix Ultra 0W-30), brake fluid, cabin air filter, and even the operation of the roll bar with the roof open was checked. Because yes, safety, even if you want to take Paddock Hill Bend with the roof down. In July 2026 it sailed through its MOT without a hitch.

So beneath those four rings sits a fully fledged supercar, but without the accompanying headache. You need not worry about the doors flapping up and half the street reaching for their phones to film you. You climb in, turn the key, and ten cylinders wake up behind your neck with that characteristic V10 rasp. And then it dawns on you: nobody makes this any more. The successor has no V10, and the one after that probably has no exhaust at all.

The Michelin summer tyres are still tucked underneath, 245 at the front and 305 at the rear, slabs of rubber so wide that you understand where those 620 bhp find their way onto the tarmac. Two seats, because you do not need any more. This car is not family transport, this car is a statement. A statement that you understood the naturally aspirated engine was a dying breed, and that you wanted to secure one before the accountants of the car world tossed them into the recycling bin for good.

Granted, it is not cheap, but shall we be perfectly honest? In five years' time nobody will remember what the latest electric hyper-crossover cost. But the last naturally aspirated V10 from Audi, roof down, black as the night? That one will go down in the books.

You do not make music with a plug.

Special features

• Audi R8 Spyder V10 Performance from 2020
• 5.2 FSI naturally aspirated V10, 620 bhp, the hottest variant
• Mythosschwarz metallic, exceedingly elegant
• Fabric soft top with checked roll bar operation
• S tronic automatic, quick-shifting
• Full service history with authorised Audi partners
• Longlife service carried out at Van den Udenhout Breda (2025)
• Michelin summer tyres (front 245/30/20, rear 305/30/20)
• Delivered from the Neckarsulm factory, imported from Germany
• Two seats, a pure enthusiast's car
• One of the last naturally aspirated V10s ever built

With the roof down and the V10 still echoing in my ears

Nick Slinger

Copywriter · HooG Selections