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Ever thought about strapping a cruise missile to your back? No, neither have we, but we have a bit of an idea of what it might be like.

Cue the Audi R8 V10 plus.

Here’s some of the critical numbers. There’s 404kW and 540Nm; the S tronic we drove weighs 1595kg empty (50kg less than the ‘regular’ R8 V10) and can rocket to 100km/h in just 3.5 seconds.

There’s also seven gears, two clutches, four driven wheels, one driver’s seat and one for the passenger.

And there’s an on-the-road cost approaching half-a-million bucks. Those are some intimidating numbers, to say the least.

And intimidated is exactly how I felt standing in pit lane at Phillip Island, waiting for my turn in the R8 V10 plus. After hearing it howl down the front straight for several minutes I was champing at the bit to get behind its flat-bottomed wheel.

But also a little apprehensive. After all, Phillip Island can be an unforgiving track.

It’s a fast circuit. Most supercars will handle turn one at speeds in excess of 170km/h, and by the end of the front straight the V10 plus would be nudging 270km/h.

But hey, opportunities like this don’t come along often and we would be failing in our duty (yes, tough gig) not to open up that glorious V10 in the interests of ‘accurate reporting’.

So of course we drove the R8 V10 plus as hard as we dared. Here’s what we discovered.