IF your budget can’t quite stretch to the £112,500 required to savour open-top sports car driving with the wail of a V10 in your ears, then for the slightly less flush, Audi has a new option: a V8 version.

Costing £95,545 for the manual or £100,855 for the R tronic automated manual, the lastest 4.2 FSI V8 is hardly a slouch: there’s 430PS power (up from 420PS) and a 0-62mph time of 4.8 seconds.

The fully automated lightweight fabric hood can be opened and lowered in 19 seconds and at speeds of up to 30mph.

Standard specification mirrors the R8 V8 Coupe but in addition there is metallic paint, electric seat adjustment, seat heating and Bluetooth mobile phone preparation incorporating seatbelt microphones.

First deliveries of the new V8-engined R8 Spyders will be available in January 2011.