There’s driving, and then there’s driving a car that thinks it’s a racer. Thing is, the Audi R8 has the credentials to back that up, born from an unmistakably noble family of champions and given the same name as a Le Mans winning sports car. For the 2017 R8, Audi turned to the same engineering team that developed the Nurburgring 24 Hours-winning R8 LMS race car, including half a shared parts bucket. It’s something I found hard to forget when Audi invited SlashGear to Portugal, to be among the first to try the new R8 on the track.