Audi RS7

Few would call the 560-hp Audi RS7 underpowered. Yet Audi still felt it necessary to breathe more grunt into the RS7’s twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 engine. Dubbed the Audi RS7 Performance, the 605-hp model was introduced last year. Its extra power comes courtesy of a new turbocharger design, more efficient intercooler heat exchangers, a reprogrammed engine computer, and revised camshafts that activate new exhaust valves. A maximum of 553 lb-ft of torque is available from 2500 rpm to 5500 rpm in a temporary overboost mode. Normally, the engine makes 516 lb-ft at 1750 rpm and rides a wave that peaks at 6000 rpm—500 rpm higher than the standard car’s peak and only 800 rpm short of redline.

Unleashing all 605 horses requires that the car’s driving mode be in the Dynamic setting or that the eight-speed automatic transmission’s Sport or Manual mode be selected. In the latter mode, the driver can swap cogs by pushing and pulling on the shift lever or by pulling on the big but brittle-feeling steering-wheel-mounted paddles. Switch to the Comfort or Auto driving modes and place the transmission in its default setting, though, and the RS7 Performance’s engine opens the gate for only the basic-spec 560 horses.At 4487 pounds, our test car carried 34 extra pounds of machine compared with the last RS7 we tested, an insignificant increase in the face of the Performance model’s 45 additional thoroughbreds. Zero to 60 mph takes just 3.2 seconds, zero to 100 mph requires 7.3, and the quarter-mile zips by after 11.3 seconds, at which point the RS7 is traveling 125 mph. Those figures are 0.2, 0.5, and 0.3 second better than the standard car, and the quarter-mile trap speed is 2 mph faster. A standard dual-mode exhaust system emits salacious songs when uncorked, but it actually reduced the Performance model’s decibels in our interior sound-level measurement at idle, while the noise level at a steady 70 mph remained the same.