Audi RS Q8 super-SUV
FIRST DRIVE Flagship SUV has an amazing breadth of abilities
A FEW years ago the idea of a genuinely sporting SUV was mostly a thing of hyperbole, a concept dreamt up by whatever any given car maker’s marketing department needed to justify its existence.
Nowadays, though, there are lots of truly impressive, seriously fast and surprisingly sharp SUVs on the market – ones that have cutting-edge dynamics, vast amounts of power and massive performance. And many of them also cost large amounts of money.
There’s the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, for example, as well as the Range Rover Sport SVR, BMW X5 M and – the governor of them all – the Lamborghini Urus. But now there’s a new kid on the block: the Audi RS Q8.
It actually uses a lot of the hardware featured in the Urus, including a similar four-wheel steering set-up, plus versions of that car’s all-wheel drive system and V8 turbo petrol engine – with mild-hybrid tech to make it slightly cleaner and more efficient.
In this respect, the Audi could be perceived as good value beside its posher, but mechanically similar, cousin from Lamborghini. The headline figures stand at 592bhp, with 800Nm of torque; zero to 62mph takes just 3.8 seconds, thanks in part to a full launch-control system. The car’s top speed would be a whole lot higher were it not tethered by its limiter.
The hottest Q8 also features a full airsuspension set-up for its quattro drivetrain, and vast carbon-ceramic brakes. It rides on enormous 22-inch wheels with a bespoke set of tyres developed by Continental and Pirelli. If that’s not enough, these can be optioned up to a whopping 23 inches.
To give you an idea of how quick the RS is, it’s recently lapped the Nürburgring race track in an astonishing seven minutes 42
seconds – the fastest time ever recorded by an SUV. More incredible still is that Audi claims – and has proved – that the surface was damp when the lap was set, and reckons the car would have gone five to six seconds faster in perfect conditions. That means the RS Q8 can lap the world’s craziest race track in roughly the same time as a Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
Yet inside, the Q8 features beautifully trimmed Super Sport seats, a glorious MMI infotainment system with two screens, plus an elegant TFT instrument display. It also has four-zone climate control, a 690-litre boot, and a genuinely spacious rear bench seat that folds flat to increase the capacity to 1,755 litres.
On the outside, the Q8 has been extensively restyled to reflect its RS engineering, with a wider body, new grille, two different wings at the back, and a pair of gigantic oval exhausts. In the flesh it looks impressively aggressive. All up, it weighs 2,315kg.
On the road it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer breadth of the RS Q8’s ability. On the one hand you can dial it into Comfort, at which point it drives much like a regular Q8. In its standard setting it is fast, refined and relatively smooth, allowing you to sit back and enjoy the high-class interior, wafting your way from one place to the next.
But when you select one of the more aggressive modes via the two new RS buttons on the steering wheel, the Q8 turns into an absolute monster. It demonstrates insane shove, sharp steering, a wondrous V8 soundtrack, and genuinely decent handling to match. It even rides quite well in the harshest RS2 mode, providing the roads aren’t too rough. As for the way it stops? Well, it certainly isn’t lacking there either.
“The RS Q8 recently lapped the Nürburgring in the fastest time ever recorded by an SUV”