Rory Reid reviews the new 2020 RS7 Sportback, the hatchback version of the RS6 estate. It’s powerful and fast, but does its lack of practicality mean the RS6 is still king? Rory goes for a ride to check the handling, 0-60 acceleration, exhaust sound, interior and exterior details.
You there are two types of people in this world people who love the audi rs6 and people who are clearly insane it’s a brilliant car although i will understand if there are people out there who maybe can’t get on board with it because it’s an estate but to you people i would say audi has just a thing this is the rs7 sportback a fire snorting super audi that has
The heart of an rs6 estate but the body of a five-door hatch and the looks of a coupe a it’s designed to go head-to-head with a porsche panamera turbo mercedes e63 and promises smooth rapid performance at any time anywhere and i do mean anywhere look around you we’re in the atlas mountains right now morocco seven and a half thousand feet above sea level dry
Dusty hot as you like and the rs7 just cause like a training power comes from a four litre twin-turbocharged v8 that knocks out 600 metric horsepower and 800 new meters of torque and because it’s an audi it’s got quattro so all of that power is being sent to all four corners of attraction it’s just relentless their body styles might be different but you can
Tell it’s got the same motor the same soul and makes the same noise as the rs6 it’s not the most sonorous engine note and it’s definitely not the loudest when it is gruff and the turbos whooshing and whistling add a nice line mentioned in gear acceleration is just tremendous it really is peak torque comes in between two thousand and four and a half thousand
Rpm and there’s no need to wring it out even though i have wringing it out it just encourages you to drive a bit like a thug really but you don’t need so you can let the turbos do the work and when it’s in the power band there’s no delay in the acceleration it just comes on strong every single time you get anywhere near the accelerator ld say it will do up
To a hundred and ninety miles an hour with the limiter removed and will accelerate from a standstill to 62 in 3.6 seconds serious numbers for a serious machine but does it deliver those numbers in the real world and in a place where heat and altitude might just be against it right put your money where your mouth is time the road is closed no one else around
Launch control activated timing screens engaged that’s 100 that says zero to 62 and 4.9 c that’s a lot slower than audi claim i’m gonna blame the fact that we are at altitude and it’s a hot day and i don’t know what kind of fuel you put in this did they put in the good stuff is it available in morocco so it’s fast and will give it the benefit of the doubt on
That performance but is it fast enough to justify a purchase in a world that’s teeming with some very strong competition specializing in speed and style one of the problems with the rs7 is that its rivals exist you know and there’s plenty of good reason to buy this cars rivals you buy a mercedes e63 s because you want a german muscle car you buy a porsche
Panamera because you want to look like a boss you buy an rs 7 because i don’t know you forgot that the rs6 exists and that’s this cars biggest problem there’s nothing wrong with it other than the fact that it lives in the shadow of one of the most iconic cars to ever exist and because of that it might be a reasonably difficult sell having said that i don’t
Think there’s a person out there with a pulse and working eyeballs that would deny that this is a gorgeous looking car i love the evolution over the previous generation model same ingredients but just a different flavor highlights for me include these headlights which are much more skinny and more sinister than before then you’ve got this big grille much more
Angular in its design and the power bolt on the bonnet hinting at the fact that it can barely contain the 600 horses underneath around the side you got new skirts new wheel designs car comes with 20 ones as standard but these are 22s the kind of size that you might get on a massive suv but somehow they don’t look out of place on this then the rear half of the
Car this is what really separates the rs 7 from the rs6 it’s got a swooping roofline and they’ve given it the wide-body treatment not quite as wide as say a liberty walk car but they’ve stretched it by 20 millimeters on either side much more aggressive much more muscular than before then round the back you’ve got new lights new bumpers an led light strip that
Runs the full width and the whole thing just kind of hangs together really nicely for me this is better looking than the rs6 ya don’t at me sadly that fancy body style does negatively affect practicality the boot is a reasonable 535 litres but it pales in comparison to the rs sixes more importantly perhaps rear headroom is pretty poor that sloping roofline
And the enormous sunroof really do eat into the headroom those up front won’t have any such issues driver and front-passenger have all the room in the world and will enjoy a good looking feature filled cabin although don’t expect all this car’s best features to come for free the basic car cost 94 thousand pounds power door closed at 675 head-up display 1400
Ceramic brakes 9700 sports exhaust 1450 sports suspension 1300 and 22 inch rims 2,200 pounds but that’s the price you pay if you want the very finest that’s the price you pay if you want a car that makes you feel special whether you’re standing still or going flat out to me the rs7 has always lived in the shadow of its rivals and especially in the shadow of
Its own cousin i mean it’s always been first don’t get me wrong but it’s one thing to be fast it’s a whole different thing to be fast and desirable but with these new changes the rs7 is a completely different animal cinderella is lord rest up she’s going to the ball and she could throw some shapes it’s a real pleasure to drive this car it really is it’s got
A mechanical centered if that can shuffle the power around so by default it can send 40% of power to the front and 60 to the rear but in extreme cases it can actually shuffle up to 70% of the power to the front to make it predominantly front-wheel drive but in dynamic mode you can actually send up to 85% of the torque to the rear so effectively it becomes a
Rear-wheel drive car it’s never going to be quite as by namek as say a bmw m a competition or a mercedes e63 but it is playful it really is it feels like it’s giving you enough rope to hang yourself but then at the last minute the safety net kicks in and quattro just saves your backside really all-wheel steering plays a big role to the rear wheels turn up to
Five degrees in the opposite direction to the front wheels to help reduce the turning circle at low speeds and in the same direction as the front to improve stability meanwhile a sports differential helps send torque to the outer wheels when cornering as a result of that the car feels really light really chuckle despite the fact that she’s a big old girl
It weighs about 2,000 65 kilos and that’s over a hundred kilos more than the old car it doesn’t really feel it at all if anything it feels lighter somehow and i guess part of that is down to the fact that the steering is actually really like even in dynamic mode it’s probably a bit too light to be honest what a machine these breaks are astonishing as well 10
Piston ventilated and they’re massive 14 and a half inches on the back 16 and a half inches on the front that’s bigger than some people’s wheels these are the carbon ceramics and they might be a little bit expensive but if you can afford it worth every penny strong not even a hint of fame the reason the rs6 has always been so successful so loved is because it
Was the underdog estates weren’t meant to be as much fun as sports cars and yet here’s a car that delivers sports car performance in a family estate form factor it was the ultimate hidden gem but here’s the thing in today’s world the irs six is ordinary now everybody knows about it it’s gone mainstream that doesn’t make it any less special any less capable but
It does make it arguably slightly less cool and that’s where the rs7 comes in if you can sacrifice a little bit of practicality okay a lot of practicality for arguably slightly better looks then this might be the best fast audi out there
Transcribed from video
New Audi RS7 Sportback Review: All Style No SUBSTANCE? | 4K By AutoTrader