Plays Well By Itself; The Audi R8 is a superbly balanced, classically styled, high-powered sports car. Even in this rarefied community, it has no peers.

Byline: Dutch Mandel

What is a supercar, and how do you qualify it? Is that moniker bestowed because of the money spent, its performance or the expectation of exclusivity? Do all these determine supercar status?

For now, we make that decision, and while there are vastly more expensive rides, some slightly quicker cars and others that will sell in fewer numbers than Audi's R8, this clearly qualifies for such class ranking. Interestingly enough, it does not suffer from the traditional concerns that carmakers have in terms of targeting competition, because there was no target for Audi engineers; they were to craft a flagship without regard to competition. ...