When it comes to the Audi RS 7, I plead the 5th. I refuse to recount who’s driving or the exact state (other than heady euphoria) in which we’re driving, somewhere near the California/Nevada border. I refuse to reveal any of these details on the grounds they may incriminate my co-driver or me as we blast down a lonely stretch of long and straight tarmac at 140 mph while tucked behind a second grey RS 7.
I will admit that somewhere in that surprisingly quick moment while the needle slides from 140-150 mph, the driver of our vehicle lets off the throttle… doesn’t brake… just lets off the throttle, and the leading grey RS 7 tears away from us at an astonishing rate. Somewhere over the next ridge the driver of the grey car will let off too, but not before an occupant of that car does something potentially very stupid and takes a photo of the 180 mph indicated miles per hour and posts it to Facebook… in order to prove they were there.
Holy mother of…
Here’s the thing about really fast Audis. They’re not very rare. In fact, there’s a long tradition of truly capable “Bahn Burners”, but never really one like this. Some have been sultry, the stuff of schoolboy fantasies – cars like the Sport quattro or the R8. Others have been, while not sleepers, more the fantasy of someone laden with the trappings of parenthood – a blitzing estate (a.k.a. station wagon) meant for dropping the kids off at school while schoolmates salivate with envy… or as part of a grocery-getting fantasy where one’s spouse might be dressed in some sort of hot school teacher garb… not that we’ve thought this through. Whatever. There’s never really been one of these hell-raising four-ringers in the middle ground between fantasy and reality. Also, short of tuner cars, there’s also likely never been one so potent. Enter the RS 7.
Wagon proponents in the USA hate this car. Maybe “hate” is too strong a word, but wagon proponents resent it. They resent the hell out of it. For all intents and purposes, the low-slung 5-door Sportback body style of the A7 lineup (including the RS 7) replaced the A6 Avant station wagon. What it gave up ever so slightly in practicality, it made back several times over in mainstream sex appeal and desire. The move transformed that segment of the Audi lineup from sales slug to serious success in both units moved and brand perception… even before adding the more potent S7 or the physics-bullying RS 7.
True story. On the subject of the RS 6 V10 biturbo, longtime Audi tuner Roland Mayer of MTM fame told me that its engine represented the end of an era. “Audi will not build an engine like this again,” Mayer summarized back in 2008 as he hatched plans to shoehorn one into an R8 coupe.
If Mayer was right, then the quattro GmbH-tuned 552-hp and 516 lb-ft of torque 4.0 TFSI under the aluminum hood of the RS 7 represents a brave new world. What it lacks the exotic configuration or displacement of a V10, it makes up in power and performance. It also levels the field in efficiency, retaining the cylinder deactivation of lesser 4.0 TFSI engines and generally running about so efficiently that the car’s owner enjoys gas-guzzler tax exemption. Speeding tax? That’s another issue.
To be clear, this isn’t simply a boosted 4.0 TFSI from the S7, though boost is certainly up from the S7’s 12.3 psi to a more liberal 17.5 psi. And, though it has power more akin to the S8-spec engine, it is not simply a shoehorned version of the dual intake setup found in Audi’s biggest S-car. For the RS 7, and also the European market RS 6 Avant, Audi’s quattro GmbH skunkwerks division has devised a more potent and strengthened mill (see attached video) and paired it with the same ZF-sourced 8-speed Tiptronic used in the S8. That transmission was necessary for its higher torque rating, though a much, much more aggressive shift program has been implemented.
Further down the drivetrain chain, by milliseconds, is the latest version of Audi’s longitudinal quattro system with the new mechanical center differential design offering an improved locking rate. Under normal conditions, this new differential also operates with a 40:60 split, though it can apportion up to 70 percent of the power to the front wheels and up to 80 percent of the power to the rear where a standard torque vectoring Sport differential actively apportions from one side to the other. This all results in the brutal and rapid rotation of the standard and seemingly B7 RS-inspired 20-inch wheels shod with 275/35 series rubber, or optional 5-split-spoke 21-inchers available in three different finishes and fitted with 275/30s. Our Glacier White test car had the latter.
Summer tires are your only choice for the RS 7. Given the nearly uselessness of summer compound rubber in snowy climates, some might pan Audi for only offering this compound. We wouldn’t count ourselves amongst that group though. The RS 7 is an incredibly capable car and one that requires no compromise in tires. If you’re reading this and you own or are considering ownership of an RS 7, plan on investing in a set of winter wheels and tires.
The standard suspension of the RS 7 is similar to the active air adjustable suspension found on the S7, though not surprisingly it’s slightly more aggressive. That’s how our tester was fitted and likely most RS 7 owners will go with this more livable configuration. That said, Audi is also offers a Sport Suspension Plus option – a steel setup with valving marking the only adjustment, but also diagonally opposed dampers connected via hydraulic lines and all controlled by a central valve. The latter does a highly effective job at limiting body roll because oil flows to the shock doing the heavy lifting at the outside wheel. We haven’t sampled this configuration though we hear it also makes the RS 7 incredibly stiff, something that is likely much more tolerable to someone buying an R8 or a TT. No doubt it makes the car much more potent a weapon on the track, but we doubt many are buying the comparably large and luxurious RS 7 as a track car. Most likely plan to use it for what it’s best suited… seemingly a four-wheeled machine capable of creating intergalactic worm holes on open highway.
Counter to the go-side of the RS 7 are the brakes. Standard are six piston calipers that clamp down on 15.5-inch (front) and 14-inch (rear) brakes complete with weight-saving wave rotor design that help shed a full 6.6 lbs. over a conventional rotor design. Audi Carbon Ceramic brakes are an available option that’ll help drop another 33 lbs. in unsprung weight, though they’re a bit expensive and perhaps really only necessary for track applications as with the optional suspension.
Inside the RS 7, the cabin is appreciably different from the A7 and even the diamond quilted seats of the S7. Seating surfaces in the RS 7 get a hexagonal quilting pattern meant to emulate the hexagonal gridwork of the RS-spec Auid singleframe grille.
While we find the interior of the RS 7 to be one of our favorites in the Audi lineup, we do have a few complaints. First, the car gets no flat-bottom version with newer shift paddle design as seen in cars like the SQ5. We’re told that’s due to the complicated and costly federalization process and likely it’s a little more boy-racer than Audi imagines RS 7 owners to be, but it’d be one of our first modifications if we added an RS 7 to our fleet. Next, while we find the optional heads up display to be incredibly useful, the hardware mounted above the instrument binnacle seems a bit tacked-on as compared to the otherwise uber-stylish swept dashboard. Finally, though it’s optional on the A7, you can’t order a rear bench seat for the RS 7 that would allow 5-passengers. Though we doubt the latter will hinder many buyers, we know of one disappointed multi-Audi owner who was ready to trade his Q7 TDI, but not before having enough seats for his family.
On the outside, the RS 7 strikes a more elegant form than have previous RS-cars from Audi. Critics, and we’d have counted ourselves amongst them before sampling the car in the real world, will pan the car for a lack of presence as compared to the European market RS 6 Avant and its bulging flared fender arches. Audi design chief Wolfgang Egger told us at the car’s auto show debut that his design team skipped the bulges in order to maintain the aforementioned elegance of the RS 7. As he told us this on stage in a convention hall as the car rotated behind him on a turntable, we questioned how much that comment was marinated by the PR department. However, stepping back and visually digesting the car on the Las Vegas Strip or out in the desert, we finally get Egger’s meaning. Comparably, the RS 6 has a menacing appearance. It’s not that the RS 7 isn’t menacing, it’s just less Mike Tyson scowling through tiger print brow tattoo and more Chris Hemsworth at Thor weight class and dressed in a finely tailored suit.
Though the car comes sans boxed or arched flares, the nose and tail do sport the latest in RS-car design cues. This includes the frowning air intakes with inset accenting brake ducts, hexagonal-grid grille with lower ‘quattro script’ frame and large oval tailpipes at the rear. Standard, these bits are adorned with aluminum brightwork though our car sported a more sinister-looking carbon-fiber optics package that accented well with the white paint. That package was also paired with the 21-inch wheel with machined face and gloss-black inner spoke surfaces that all matches quite well but hides some of the volume-defining shape of the wheel in the light-swilling deep black paint. In our opinion, the wheel looks much better in a similar machined and titanium paint design or painted all silver.
Though it comes from the factory at a base price of $106,200 and very well equipped, the RS 7 also offers a healthy list of options. These are an Innovation Package with head-up display including navigation prompts and night vision assistant ($2800), Driver Assistance plus Package with electrically folding anti-glare memory mirrors, adaptive cruise control with stop & go, camera and/or distance sensor, front and reverse view camera, Audi pre sense plus and Audi active lane assist ($2800), a Carbon Optic Package including side mirror housings, lower grille frame with quattro script, front and rear diffusers all in carbon fiber ($4000), a Cold Weather Package with heated seats and steering wheel ($500), a Comfort Seating Package with electrically adjusted memory seats, front ventilation and massage, Sport comfort front seats and perforated Valcona leather ($2000), a black Alcantara headliner ($3000), 21-inch wheels ($1000), Bang & Olufsen audio ($5900), a sport exhaust system with black finishers ($1000), power soft-closing doors ($500), layered aluminum/black wood inlay ($1300) and rear passenger thorax side airbags ($350). Our test car came with the above-mentioned options listed in bold, which netted to a price of $125,095 including $895 destination charge.
Out on that aforementioned tarmac is where the RS 7 really re-sets your automotive paradigm. To be clear, this is a large 4475 lb. car capable of taking a family of four on a long trip in comfort… and also capable of hitting 0-60 mph in what Audi claims to be 3.7 seconds… though magazines like Car & Driver have instrument tested it at 3.4 seconds! The RS 7 swallows pavement at what seems like a positively impossible pace, yanking the far-flung desert horizon toward you with brutal abandon.
Armchair test drivers will likely pan the car’s 8-speed Tiptronic for not being the more techy and cool dual-clutch S-tronic DSG or, moreover, a 6-speed manual gearbox. Whatever. The 8-speed has impressed us before in models like the S8 and SQ5, and it does so even more in the RS 7. If there’s a difference in shift speed between DSG and his transmission then it’s frankly imperceptible, and the Sport mode’s excellent rev-matching and off-throttle backfires will leave you positively grinning.
Moreover, the transmission gets extra low gears at the bottom of the range. Combine that with the quattro GmbH philosophy of fully defeatable ESP and launch control and you have one serious recipe for pavement crumbling launches. Incidentally, you can activate launch control by hitting the ESP once to enter ESP light with its higher tolerances (holding for 5 seconds will fully defeat it BTW), then hold one foot on the brake and place another on the gas while revs build. It won’t redline though will level off, so remove your foot from the brake once you’re ready and feel the blood rush to the back of your head as you modify the rotating speed of the earth and shorten the length of a day… just make sure to flip a U-turn and do the same to get everything back into global chronological alignment.
As with the standard suspension, steering is also adjustable with ratios between 13:1 and 15.9:1 and controllable through the Audi Drive Select system. At the most dynamic setting, this means the front wheels will turn in line with the steering wheel. Feel for this drive-by-wire system is much like most other modern Audis, with weight the primary difference and a satisfying feel if not as communicative as a direct mechanical system.
Driving the RS 7 we’re struck with a few conclusions. First, an RS 7 owner needs to reset their idea of normal in order to maintain one’s status as a fully licensed driver. With seemingly no effort, the car is more than willing to double even the highest North American speed limits. While a blessing, that could also be a curse. Second, anyone considering such a car needs to reset their idea of normal regarding a vehicle’s capability. Like the RS Avants of yore, this car is large and willing to swallow up a small to medium-sized family. Then, class in session, it will set about teaching six figure exotics a thing or two about acceleration and grip while flying under the radar of the Gas Guzzler Tax (16 MPG city / 27 MPG highway). Finally, it does all this with a form that’s more fit for impressing Rodeo Drive valets than bag boys at Whole Foods.
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