Until the Audi R8 burst onto the scene last year, the German car manufacturer hadn’t put its four-ringed badge to a car that would speed the driver to motoring euphoria since the 1980 quattro. Unbelievably, after leaving rival road cars and rally competitors floundering in its wake with the original four-wheel-drive performance car, Audi had lost its Midas touch.

But what a way to rediscover its mojo. The R8 is the must-have sports car of the Noughties. Yet for every R8 owner who’s ecstatic, there’s another who is malcontent. Why? Because the one-upmanship that drove them to the Audi showrooms in the first place means they want theirs to outpace other R8s. Audi will oblige with the delivery of a more potent V10 petrol version and a V12 diesel, but that’s a year away.

In the meantime, a German tuning company called MTM — Motoren Technik Mayer — has produced a supercharger conversion for the R8. Lifting the performance from merely impressive to “wave bye-bye to Ferrari and Lamborghini drivers” (a strictly technical term) MTM’s work on the 4.2 litre V8 engine sees the power surge from 414bhp to 553bhp. This decreases the numbers that count: the 0-62mph time drops from 4.6sec to 3.9sec, propelling the MTM R8R into the genuine supercar league.

And the good news is, whether you have a standard R8 already on the driveway or are still awaiting delivery, MTM can carry out the conversion for € 38,901 (£31,628).

In return you get a car capable of holding its own against the latest Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, without the hang-ups of medallion-wearing men — or the price. Where the Lambo is a cool £143,350, the standard R8 works out at £109,928.

To save Audi too much embarrassment it seems likely that MTM has overestimated the 0-62mph time at 3.9sec; the car feels much faster. The 0-124mph time of 12.5sec is far more revealing, as is the top speed of 197mph. Floor the throttle and the gently burbling V8 rips into life and sends the car flying down the road like a lion chasing for the kill.

The supercharger attached to the 4.2 litre V8 delivers a big hike in torque, from 317 lb ft to 428 lb ft, and although it peaks at 5500rpm there’s a wave of torque from tickover that provides the kind of surging accelerative force previously associated only with upper-echelon supercars.

This means the car pulls in any gear from any revs, its engine changing tone from guttural and rumbling to the hollow bark of a race car. Running through town, unburnt fuel catches and ignites with a pop and a bang — the kind of supercar signatures that take the R8 to the next level.

And sensibly, MTM has opted to keep the engine conversion simple. By settling for a compromise in terms of power, little else needed changing internally to strengthen the V8. The company has been working on this engine in the RS4 saloon for a number of years, and claims reliability is second to none.

The MTM test car comes with a six-speed manual transmission, a welcome change from the semi-automatic R tronic that makes up the majority of R8 sales. The short shifts through the aluminium gate are as good as any in the business, and despite the gearchanges being slower than the R tronic paddle-shift, they make the drive more fun.

However, in other areas the increase in performance has caused something of an upset to the R8’s usually impeccable composure. The MagneRide adaptive suspension, key to the standard R8’s blend of sports car thrills and dayto-day driveability, finds itself struggling to compute the speeds the R8R is capable of on a racetrack. This makes its handling a tad nerve-racking at the limit of the tyres’ adhesion. And although it walked away from the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera on a recent track test, the driver emerged white and shaking after several potentially serious incidents.

Tail slides produced by body roll see the car slipping and sliding and your knuckles turning whiter than white. Roland Mayer, MTM’s founder, claims the standard springs are set too soft and he is confident sports springs are all that is required to remove the knife-edge from the experience.

At more sane speeds, the Audi feels more composed than Mozart’s best. The car’s four-wheel-drive system feeds more power to the front wheels at the first sight of a slide — abandoning the rear-drive bias of normal driving conditions.

And on the road, because it’s on standard suspension, bar the bigger wheels, this is as compliant and usable as the standard R8, which stole the Porsche 911’s crown as the ultimate big gun you could drive to the office. But the contrasting black-and-white sports seats, a € 4,400 (£3,580) option, are a bit of an overkill. As is some of the exterior styling.

The optional carbon-fibre splitter, side skirts, roof spoiler and 20in bimoto rims add a cutting edge to the softly sculpted Audi, and the colour-coded “blades” for the air intake shrouds were on order when we drove the car. Surely it would be more satisfying to adopt stealth tactics and take supercar drivers by surprise when they find they can’t shake off the R8 in their mirror? Or am I just fantasising?

For those who have fallen for the R8’s spell, but crave more power and can’t wait for the factory to produce the higher-powered V10 petrol and V12 TDI models, MTM’s R8R is a quick fix — in so many senses. However, unless you happen to be related to the Stig and are blessed with his driving genes, make sure you order an uprated suspension package to tame the supercharged performance. Either way, just take care.

- The MagneRide adaptive suspension struggles to compute the speeds the R8R is capable of on a racetrack and the result is body roll and tail slides

- The R8R comes with a six-speed manual gearbox. This means the shift times are slower than with Audi’s semi-automatic R tronic paddle-shift but the car is more fun on the road

Vital statistics

MODEL MTM Audi R8R
ENGINE4163cc, eight cylinders
POWER553bhp @ 7750rpm
TORQUE428 lb ft @ 5500rpm
TRANSMISSIONSix-speed manual
FUELn/a
ACCELERATION0-62mph: 3.9sec
TOP SPEED 197mph
PRICE£109,928
ROAD TAX BAND G (£400 for 12 months)
VERDICTThe R8 with added bite