There are cars and there are cars. Take the Maruti 800 or say the Hyundai Santro or even the Hondas — City, Civic and Accord. These are nice, everyday, run-of-the-mill, office-and back sturdy cars that you can depend on. And then there are those breath-stoppers, those extremely desirable wish-I-had-one head-turners like a Lamborghini or a Porsche 911.

Just the other day I saw a yellow Lamborghini Murcielago in GK1, New Delhi — its V10 engine bellowing as it accelerated out of a police check post. And I do remember catching a glimpse of a Porsche 911 cabriolet howling past traffic through a momentary gap on the Ring Road. Hopefully, by next year, the Audi R8 will join the ranks of these exalted, super-fast mean machines.

India knows Audi as a manufacturer of sporty luxury cars like the A8 and the A6, but not as a manufacturer of sportscars per se. The cute, curvaceous TT that is a hit with the ladies has been replaced in Europe with something more masculine, but that is yet to come to India.

However, Audi has a history that dates back to the Hitler era 600bhp Type C Auto Unions that took on the Mercedes-Benz racing cars and beat them regularly. In recent times, Audi has been winning Le Mans regularly and it is in the light of that success that the Ingolstadt-based company launched the R8 supercar.

The R8 is stunning at a length of 4.43m, width of 1.90m and a height of just 1.25m. The wheelbase is 2.65m, enough for a cabin with room for two persons, driver and a lucky or unlucky passenger (depending on whether one likes to be driven or prefers to drive). The upholstery is leather, of course.

So what’s it got, guv? Well, how about an aluminium body for starters? Add on a mid-engined layout coupled with permanent all-wheel drive for brilliant handling and a 0-100kph time of 4.6 seconds as well as a top speed of 301kph. Pretty hot stuff!

The engine is a V8, with a 4.2litre displacement. It uses FSI, a technology that won Audi several Le Mans victories including one as Bentley. FSI stands for Fully Stratified Injection, where the petrol is injected directly into the combustion chamber.

This, with the 4.2litre displacement and four-valve technology helps the engine to develop 420bhp of power and 430Nm of torque (thrust), and endows the car with brilliant acceleration. The R8 has a power-to-weight ratio of 269bhp per tonne and the engine is limited to 8,250rpm. Torque is fed to the four wheels either by a six-speed manual transmission or the R-tronic sequential shift manual gearbox with joystick and paddle control. The R8 uses 19-inch alloy wheels, fitted with 235/30 size tyres at front and 295/30 at the rear.

But it’s the position of the engine — behind the driver’s seat and between the front and rear wheels — and Audi’s patented ‘quattro’ drive system that gives the R8 its superb handling characteristics. Dry sump engine lubrication also helps achieve optimum handling as it allows the engine to be mounted as low as possible to lower the centre of gravity and not worry about losing oil if the sump breaks.

Audi’s slogan is ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ or ‘advancement through the use of technology’. Several years ago, Audi created waves with its all-aluminium bodied A8 and became the first manufacture to make production car bodies with a metal usually found in aircraft.

The R8 has an Audi Space Frame ASF(r) made from aluminium and magnesium, developed exclusively for it. Even the struts are made of sealed hollow extrusions joined directly with one another while sheet aluminium elements are included in the framework so as to have a load-bearing function.

The result is extreme rigidity with less weight. Of course, this type of construction is still too far away to be used in cheap cars like a Maruti 800 or the Esteem. But that’s not all — the damper system (shock absorbers) is special too. The damper units, normally oil or gas-filled in normal cars, are filled with a fluid, called magnetorheological fluid, which contains tiny magnetic particles that react to an electromagnetic field. This allows the viscosity of the fluid to be controlled by an electromagnet system at any time, according to the road conditions.

Soon, everyday, Audi’s Neckarsulm facility will be building 15 R8s under strict supervision. No doubt the world is waiting with bated breath. It’s got the works — looks, handling, acceleration, and speed. Just one thing puzzles me though — why on earth has Audi put in a specially designed 465watt, 12-speaker B& music system with microphone-based noise compensation? Surely one would have to be off his or her chump to want to listen to music, when one has that fabulous 8-piece orchestra playing right behind the seat!