Audi R8 V10: voted 2010 World Performance Car

Business Car Manager: Editor’s Blog

THE CHARISMATIC Audi R8 – with its spine-tingling V10 engine – has hit the right note with the car judges in New York.

It’s just been awarded the rather gradiose title of 2010 World Performance Car at the World Car of the Year Awards ceremony at the New York Auto Show.

This accolade marks a second coming for the Audi R8 mid-engined sports car: the V8-powered R8 took the same award in 2008.

It’s hardly surprising what the judges liked: “Audi has at long last satisfied our hunger for a street car that lives up to the excitement of the original Le Mans series-dominating R8 LMP1 car that changed the endurance racing game starting in the 2000 season…With 525 metric horsepower and a big exhaust note, this Audi has been clocked to a 60-mph acceleration time of just 3.4 seconds by several publications worldwide.”

Yup, I’d go along with all of that. As well as enjoying the wonderfully responsive steering and chassis, it is the car’s ability to catapult you forwards, accompanied by the howl of the V10, which is quite astonishing. If you could afford it, I think you’d want to have one in your car collection.

As a matter of interest, previous World Performance Car winners were the Nissan GT-R in 2009, the Audi R8 in 2008, the Audi RS4 in 2007 and the Porsche Cayman S in 2006.