Supercar killer. A warp-drive spaceship on wheels. An electric car with old Mercedes-Benz switchgear. Call it whatever you want, but the Tesla Model S is extremely impressive even today, almost half a decade since the first production model was made. But is it any better than its brother from another mother, the Audi RS7?
The answer to that question comes from the latest installment of Motor Trend’s Ignition, with Jonny Lieberman advocating for the Tesla and Jason Cammisa for the Audi. And the answer, as one might expect from such a chalk-and-cheese comparison, is not going to be to anyone’s taste. Spoiler alert: the Model S P100D Ludicrous+ is the winner of this head to head.
I’m an avid supporter of the suck-squeeze-bang-blow crowd, and deep down inside, the RS7 Performance is the Audi I like most. I can’t really put my finger on why, but it’s hard to deny this fellow performs as well as it looks. The interior, even though its old-gen Audi, also looks, feels, and smells the part. And then, there’s the aural pleasure put on by the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8.
605 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque are just enough for hitting 190 miles per hour, with zero to 60 mph happening in the low 3s. That extremely impressive for a luxury sedan based on the A6's front-wheel-drive platform.
The Model S, for better or worse, has the upper hand off the line. As Motor Trend points out, the P100D Ludicrous can even keep full-on hypercars at bay. But in the quarter-mile, it’s likely that the Porsche 911 Turbo S will cross the line inches ahead of the most hardcore Model S. And the most expensive, with prices starting at $135,700 or five G more than the RS7 Performance.
If it were your money, would you pick the Tesla or the Audi?
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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