Nothing to prove, like a true aristocrat I'M afflicted with a severe case of performance anxiety. Looking down at the sleek new Audi R8 - and I mean down, as this svelte and sporty 1.2m-high two-seater really does hug the road - I sense my inadequacies. My palms begin to sweat, my pulse to race. I've driven Alfa Romeo, Volvo and Jaguar, but I have never, ever, driven a high-performance car of this pedigree. It is, in effect, a commercial road version of the famed Audi R8 race car, five-time Le Mans winner in the early 2000s. With a powerful and responsive 8-cylinder engine and a lightweight aluminium chassis, the factory-fresh R8 with a price tag of more than $300,000 is engineered to reach Formula One speeds of 300km. It will leap to 100km an hour in 4.3 seconds and could, if allowed, eat up the Hume Highway in an afternoon. That's one seriously hot car.