The Audi RS7 review—the last ride of a dinosaur

Enlarge / I’ve had a soft spot for Audi’s RS7 for at least a decade now. Will Audi replace it, or is this the last in its line? (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

The arrival of competent electric vehicles is a boon for car enthusiasts as much as those who consider driving a chore and their vehicle a driving appliance. Electric motors can respond faster than the revviest naturally aspirated engines this side of a mid-2000s Formula 1 engine, and with more immediate torque than the mightiest of turbochargers. They are the way forward, for performance as well as energy efficiency. Such is apparent after spending some time behind the wheel of a $128,000 Audi RS7 Performance after a diet of mostly EV performance cars.

For a long time, the RS7 was the Audi to go for if you wanted something with more than two doors, because the R8 doesn’t work with your lifestyle. Based on the more humble A7 fastback sedan, it was worked over by Audi Sport, the four rings’ racing offshoot based up the road from Ingolstadt in Neckarsulm, Germany. The designers there gave it a restyle, with aggressively flared arches to envelope larger wheels and tires, and new aerodynamic features to keep the car planted at speed. The result is one of the brand’s handsomest creations, at least to this observer.

Under the hood, a twin-turbo 4.0L V8 is now even more potent than when we first drove the RS7 in 2019, with 621 hp (463 kW) and 627 lb-ft (850 Nm) at your right foot’s beck and call, sent to all four wheels via an eight-speed ZF 8 HP transmission and, at the rear axle, a torque-vectoring rear differential.