You've seen one massive orc army, you've seen them all. Likewise, drag races between fast Audis are pretty common, and now Top Gear is getting in on the action with what one of the editors calls a Lord of the Rings challenge.
The R8 is supposed to be the star of the show. One of the last entry-level supercars with a naturally aspirated engine delivers 610 PS, 5 more than the RS6 and S8 performance. However, it's way down on torque compared to its twin-turbo V8 rivals. The upshot is that it's also about half a ton lighter.
We've watched so many of these drag races that we got tired of telling you straight line speed isn't everything. But that could be because we realized that for a certain group of individuals, the lifestyle really does include the occasional airstrip V-max shootout.
About a month from now, the S8 will be declared obsolete, as an all-new generation of the A8 flagship will be revealed. But we're not sorry to see it go, especially when it never obtained the cult status of the RS6 has. Despite the early jitters coming from a downsized engine, the world quickly realized how devilishly fast Audi's mighty wagon could be. But there's a Mercedes-AMG E63 T-Model that does the same things.
If you want to see just how good modern automatic gearboxes are, check out the way the RS6 and S8 dig in. There are only 0.3 seconds between them and the supercar. Sure, the four-door models are slower, but also much cheaper and more practical.
You guys already know how fast anything with a 4.0 TFSI can be. Pretty soon, the Lamborghini Urus have its fair share of drag races, and we're curious to see how its 650 PS version of the V8 competes with the one Porsche puts in its Cayenne Turbo. Will the naturally-aspirated supercar still matter in such a world? Let us know what you think.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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