2018 Audi R8 vs 2020

What's the difference?

A rear-wheel-drive performance car from Audi? Unheard of. It would be like Tony Abbott officiating a same-sex marriage. Or Richard Dawkins suddenly finding God. It goes against everything we've come to know about the Quattro brand from Ingolstadt.

And yet there is no denying the massively obnoxious sideways drift currently taking place on Phillip Island's Honda Corner, the familiar tail of Audi's R8 sliding sideways like a swinging pendulum the moment the driver buries the accelerator.

Welcome, then, to Audi's R8 V10 RWS. Those three bonus letters stand for "Rear Wheel Series", which makes it not just the first rear-driving R8, but the first rear-driving anything from a brand that has been intrinsically linked with all-wheel-drive Quattro since its inception.

So just what the hell is going on?

Supercars can sometimes be seen as the divas of the auto world – delicate, over-the-top, not very good with reality. Well that may be the case for some supercars but not Audi's R8. It's affordable by supercar standards, easy to drive and still very, very fast.

Now the updated R8 has arrived, looking fiercer than ever, but remaining one of the smartest supercar buys on the market. But did you know there are two types of R8? Both have very distinct personalities and I lived with them for two days – in the reality of road works and also ideal country roads.

Here's everything you need to know...