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2016 Audi RS 7 Performance Quick Spin

Audi's roster of Sevens – the A7, S7, and RS 7 – gets a new and overachieving member with the new RS 7 Performance. The big story is that it ups the RS 7's 560 horsepower to 605. And while the advertised torque rating of 517 pound-feet doesn't change, Audi says the car will actually produce 553 lb-ft during moments of overboost. Hunkered-down with 21-inch wheels filling the wheel wells, the RS 7 Performance has a top speed of 190 miles per hour, and runs to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds – our informal stopwatch tests suggest that may even be conservative. We drove the RS 7 Performance in Florida, which included an eventful lap around Daytona International Speedway's road course, just prior to the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. More about that in a moment. Driving Notes The RS 7 Performance is pretty rough-riding at its softest, a problem only on bad pavement and roads with dips. It isn't punishing, but it never lets you forget this is a performance luxury car, in that order. The eight-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission is a sweetheart, never confused and always standing by to maximize the 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8's muscle. It would have been nice to be able to dial in a little extra exhaust sound – what you can hear makes you want more. The RS sport seats, with optional Valcona leather and Alcantara inlays and steering wheel cover, are excellent. There's a reason why Audi is a template for automotive interior designers. Rear seat room is a little tight but tolerable. As for that lap at Daytona: We were only given one, so we went for it, and hit 164 mph on the back stretch before having to wade deep into the ABS for the bus stop turn. The engine was still pulling hard – we have little doubt the advertised 190 mph top speed is accurate. While the big ceramic brakes did their job, we weren't given a cool-down lap, and the combination of 4,500 pounds and 164 mph seemed to have set the front brakes on fire. No, really. It took a spritz of water to drown them out. We were told that it isn't unusual for ceramic brakes, the first time they hit 800 degrees, to burn out some impurities. Afterwards, the brakes worked fine, but we sure got a lot of attention from the IMSA Rolex crew on pit road. The RS 7 Performance is a viceless car, one we'd cheerfully drive for a very long time.

Audi's next R8 snapped running the 'Ring nearly naked

Following the debut of the Lamborghini Huracán, work is now well well under way on its cousin. That, of course, would be the next-generation Audi R8, the followup to the model that put Ingolstadt on the supercar map in 2006 and has been on the market ever since. That's an eight-year lifespan, though to be fair, for 2014 it has gotten a pretty meaningful update. Still, that's a long lifecycle, even if the Gallardo with which it shares its underpinnings was around even longer. In other words, it's about due for replacement.
Fortunately, that's just what Audi has in the cards. We've seen prototypes wearing heavy camouflage lapping the Nürburgring a couple of times over the past few weeks, but now it's been snapped nearly completely undisguised, with largely bare black bodywork giving us an even better look at what to anticipate.
So what are we looking at here? A sharper-looking take on the existing design, for starters, so onlookers and customers alike shouldn't have any trouble identifying this as an R8 - but a newer one at that. It seems to take some cues from the new TT, particularly around the headlights, with more squared-off elements throughout. There's an adaptive rear wing poking out the back and more pronounced side-blade intakes between the doors and the rear wheels, which themselves are wearing ultra low-profile rubber.

Who doesn't want an Audi RS7 with turbo horns?

Very little is known about the origins of this exhaust-horned and turbo-eyed beast. The guys at Road & Track tracked it down as far as a Russian tuner named Total Race. Aside from that, what we have here is video of an Audi with no hood and two huge turbos sitting on top of its 4.0-liter V8 instead of nestled in the engine's vee where they belong. And those crazy and haphazardly routed exhausts. We also don't know how much power this thing is making, but from the way it launches away from the camera, we're going to go with "a lot." The YouTube clip claims this is the Stage 10 tune, but who knows. Granted, the drivetrain probably can't take everything this Frankensteined engine could theoretically put down, so there's likely some kind of electro-wizardry at play limiting output until it at least hooks up. And if traction control still exists somewhere in there it might be helping keep the tires from melting. Chances are some part of the driveline will grenade itself if you try this too many times, but hey, as long as you get one or two decent YouTube vids first, right? Even if it doesn't add any meaningful power output beyond the RS7 Performance's already plentiful 605 ponies, we can't bring ourselves to care. The high-pitched sound of the exhaust from those heat-wrapped pipes jutting out like the horns of a crazed antelope are simply priceless. Thank you, Russia. Related Video: