Petrolhead heaven

Driving days are a regular feature of a motoring writer's working life. A car manufacturer takes examples of its range of vehicles to a central location with good roads nearby, and invites us to spend a day driving, assessing and photographing as many of them as we can fit into the available time. A day of petrolhead heaven, in other words.

Today our hosts were Audi, and nobody does it better. The day ran like clockwork, its activity oiled by a marvellous team of good-natured guys who organise the cars with military precision. The venue was Walton Hall, a stately pile of a hotel near Stratford-upon-Avon that was once the lavish home of Danny La Rue.

I drove a variety of the newer models but lingered over my old favourite, the fabulous Audi R8, with a glorious sounding V8 engine, supercar performance and a price not far off six figures!