Audi RS Q8 TFSI quattro Tiptronic

A towering feat of engineering, although the finely tuned V8 could learn a thing from the raucous SVR

Ray Leathern

Rapid and composed, if a little anodyne. Exquisitely put together like an Audi should be

Sean Parker

Violent. That’s the only way to describe the jolt caused by the Audi RS Q8’s launch control system. In many ways, the burly SUV defies all logic when rocketing ferociously off the line. Our test data confirmed a zero to 100 km/h sprint of 3,84 seconds. That’s bang on the claimed figure and utterly bewildering for a car that weighs 2 404 kg. Is Audi’s most powerful SUV all about numbers and straight-line pace or is it capable of exciting the driver when the tarmac gets twisty?

Let’s start by stating that Ingolstadt’s flagship SUV is unlikely to set a 23-inch wheel on anything other than the black stuff. Audi was so confident of its first RS-badged SUV that at one point it returned from the Nürburgring Nordschleife (November 2019) clutching the record