| First Drive | Nice, France | Audi R8 Spyder V10 |

Coupé or convertible? It's never been a question I've asked myself before. It's the same with manual or automatic - or any other of the two-pedal, paddle-shifted options that are increasingly offered. It'd always be coupé and always a manual gearbox. I'd still want a third pedal and a proper stick, but with the R8 Spyder I've had a bit of an epiphany - if my supercar choice were to wear a four-ringed badge on its grille I'd want fabric above my head. And I'm not just talking about my silly cap.

In the Metal

If the R8 coupé has superstar looks then its Spyder sister is in the megastar category. The hood - which takes 19 seconds to open and can be operated at speeds up to 31mph - features neat shaped buttresses and a drop down rear window. Usefully, that glass doubles as a wind deflector when the cloth is stowed. When lowered, the roof nestles under a carbon-fibre panel. It denies you a view of the 5.2-litre V10, but who cares about looking at it when you've got the keys?

The R8's long-ish wheelbase is more obvious in the Spyder thanks to the loss of the coupé's 'sideblade', but it's impossible not to be seduced by the R8's detailing. Audi's mastery in mixing pure lines with technical-looking highlights is demonstrated by the all-LED headlamps, the gloss-finish air intakes and vents and the dramatically styled 19-inch wheels. Everywhere I go in it I'm papped by camera phones, those without just stopping and staring. It's that kind of car.

What you get for your Money

Pretty much everything. Choose the manual version - as you should - and your Audi dealer will want £112,500 for the keys. To that you can add about £7,000 if you want ceramic brakes, and if you like the idea of paddle-shifters you'll need another £5,200. All Spyders come with an extended leather pack inside (the interior as beautiful as ever), Audi's magnetic damper system, Bang & Olufsen premium audio, DVD satellite navigation and Bluetooth telephone preparation - the latter using clever microphones integrated into the seatbelt.

Driving it

It's cool in Nice, which means the roof's up and the heater is on as I negotiate the Autoroutes to get to the hills. That back window is dropped and the wind-deflector positioned, giving the best of both worlds - a draft-free interior and the accompaniment of the R8's rousing V10 rumble. Immediately the Spyder impresses with its stiffness, Audi adding bracing within the extruded aluminium to create a car that exhibits very little shake over even the nastiest of bumps.

Not once have I felt the urge to mess with the suspension for a softer or firmer set-up. Not that I could, as this European specification car is riding on the sports set up, which uses standard dampers instead of magnetic ones. I don't miss the choice though. Audi's engineers say that these dampers are set somewhere between the Sport and Comfort settings offered by the magnetic system. The middle ground proves pretty good, with the suspension coping well with lumps and bumps but providing excellent body and roll control.

That's more apparent as the traffic thins and the roads get a bit more interesting. The DN7 is my goal, a challenging ribbon of road that on the map follows ever tightening contour lines and looks like fun. And so it proves, the DN7's many corners linked by barely straight straights. The surrounding valleys are soon filled by the sound of a 5.2-litre V10 being extended mercilessly in second and third gears.

It's a glorious engine. At town speeds it hoodwinks you into thinking it's a little ordinary. But get it singing in the upper rev reaches and the change in character and pace is startling. It develops 518bhp at 8,000rpm, while its 390lb.ft of torque peaks at 6,500rpm. Get the rev counter's needle up there and the V10 delivers shocking pace, though it's not at the expense of low-rev flexibility.

The snick-click of the manual lever passing though its gate punctuates the exotic, screaming, metallic shriek that the V10 creates in its upper reaches. The manual shifter demands some concentration though; it's quick on its way down, but sometimes tricky to slot from second to third at speed. It's all part of the physicality of driving it, the manual so much more involving and interesting than the R8's unremarkable R tronic paddle-shifter.

With four-wheel drive as standard, traction is phenomenal. Use it all and the Spyder will reach 62mph in 4.1 seconds and 124mph in 12.7 seconds on the way to its 194mph top speed. It feels every bit as quick as that on the DN7, and the Spyder's ability to carry speed through bends is quite extraordinary too. It's arguably the quickest way to drive this Audi, but the urge to play with that gearbox, stand on the excellent ceramic brakes and treat the valley to a full 8,700rpm redline throttle blip is one to be savoured at every opportunity. So it's slow-in-fast-out on the DN7, the R8 doing that very nicely indeed.

It feels pretty big here. It is possible to unstick the rear with the ESP setting to Sport, but I'm not Ken Brock and the drop-offs are pretty serious here. The steering isn't that quick either; it's nicely weighted, but doesn't deliver the sort of incisive, rich feelsome precision of some of the R8's rivals. Even so it's possible to carry ridiculous pace with ease, all backed up by a sound that's ferocious enough to have me worrying about attracting the law or loosening up a few stones and causing a rock fall.

Worth Noting

The R8 Spyder weighs about 100kg more than its coupé relative, but really, with 518bhp to shunt you along you'll not notice it. Audi isn't saying so officially, but there'll be a V8 version in time. There are also rumours that the R8 will get a proper DSG double clutch choice to replace the clumsy R tronic for two-pedal jockeys. Even if it does we'd still stick with the manual.

Losing the roof does limit the already limited practicality of the R8 further. There's now no space behind the rear seats for soft bags, limiting luggage space to the tiny volume under the bonnet.

Summary

Drop tops come with compromises and the Audi R8 is no different. But they define the Spyder, making it feel far more indulgent and special than the coupé. It's no longer pretending to be everything to everyone, nor a daily driver - something it fails to do as well as Porsche's 911. Losing the roof elevates the R8 Spyder to another level, not just because of the additional access it gives you to the V10's aural amusement but on a far deeper level. If you buy one I can recommend a good road where you'll discover exactly what I mean.