2014 Audi R8 V10 Plus

Now providing the wealthy with easier access to power.

VIEW SPECS

Allegedly, the Audi R8 received a face lift this year. We have a hard time telling the new car from the old one, but that just means it's still a knockout. The biggest change is the arrival of an automatic transmission finally worth having. The old R8's automated-manual transmission, a brutal Lamborghini-derived piece, swapped gears with all the class and subtlety of blunt-force trauma. Until now, if you didn't want a clutch pedal, you didn't want an R8.

That dilemma is solved, thanks to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic that the R8 should have had from the get-go. It's as good as the old transmission was bad, though it does occasionally send a big clunk down the driveline. The automatic isolates you from some of the V10's quick-revving magic, but you'll need something like a Bugatti Veyron to beat this monster to 60 mph; the standard launch control dumps the clutch with the engine spinning at what sounds like an artificially loaded 4500 rpm. The optional carbon-ceramic brakes are unfadeable and massively powerful, but they make it damn near impossible to stop the Audi smoothly. That said, the steering is impeccably precise, and the car is heroically neutral at its handling limit.

But the price? Oh dear, the price. The epic acceleration speaks for itself, but the R8 is growing old. And as great as this car is, the vastly cheaper stick-shift V8 model just feels a bit more special.