It's the "Fast" in "Fastback".

I haven't written much about Audi here. In fact, I don't recall writing anything at all.

 But it's time to change that. 

I have to admit, I've never been a huge fan of the brand. It's always come a bit short both when it comes to design and driving pleasure in my book. There seems to be changes happening, though. On several occations over the last year or two I've been more than a bit impressed over a new Audi. Both the regular A3 and the sportier S3 have totally won me over with its keen and sober driving characteristics. And the A7 really has pulled it off when it comes to sheer looks. It was the first ever Audi to put a want in my stomach. A big one. But I've always preferred the Merc CLS to the A7 when it comes to handling and performance. 

That was until I met the big kahuna; the RS7 Sportback.

Dry facts: Four litre V8. Two turbos. 560 horsepower. 700 Newtonmetres of torque. That's a lot. But we've seen this again and again over the years; big German saloons with tons of power but no grip. All the power goes up in smoke, right? Wrong.

It's got four wheel drive, and a clever one too. 0-100 km/h is quoted at 3,9 seconds. That's well into supercar numbers. But given that the car weighs in at around two metric tons, I'd like to see it do that in real life. Even still, I'd like to see it try that on anything but hot and dry arrow-straight asphalt. 

Today is one of those days where you think: Hmmm, the weather's crappy. There's no dry roads anywhere. I wish I had a four-wheel-drive performance car with a 0-100-time to defend. That would totally make my day. And it did. Not just that, but it also made my stomach turn. The acceleration and deceleration forces created by this massive tank of a car are insane. First I tried the 0-100-sprint. Put it in 1st gear with the paddle shift. Removed the traction control. Put my left foot on the brake pedal and the right foot firmly on the throttle, thus engaging launch control. Then I removed my left foot.

It didn't take 3,9 seconds to reach 100 km/h on wet asphalt. It took 3,8. 

It's quicker in real life than most supercars ever will be. I tried the same with an Audi R8 V10 Plus, with a quoted 0-100-time of 3,5. It didn't even come close. This thing is utterly brutal. It doesn't accelerate; it lunges. It's awesome.

But do I like it? Actually, no. 

Well, yes, of course - it's a sophisticated speed machine. So I love it. But I would still hesitate if I were to choose between this and, say, a CLS 63 AMG Plus (which also has four-wheel-drive). The reason is simple: It's too shouty. All the elegance and grace with which the regular A7 carried itself, is gone. Now it looks like it's pimped by people who carry guns and place both money, drugs and people in bags. Not my sort of image, really.

But how the car looks is of course up to you. I bet you could have an RS7 that looks exactly like a stock A7, if you so wished. And then it's a whole other story: Bloody quick, yet graceful. Determined, not shouty. Until then, I'll enjoy this one a bit more from the inside. That is, until my stomach finally gives in.