Audi has been a sporadic player in big, fast cars and, once again, we missed out on the new RS6. Don't cry. We got the RS7 instead, and it's way better.

How does 560 hp and 553 ft-lb of torque sound? Not enough? It tops out at a near-as-damn-it 190 mph. Still not impressed? Seriously, a mega-luxury

machine that looks this slinky and still hits 62 mph in 3.9 seconds doesn't impress you? Tough crowd. What about an interior that dances flirtatiously on

the line between sports car and limousine? And is filled with niceties, from night vision to a g-force analyst?

Four liters of engine never sounded this good or punched this hard. Like the rest of the RS7, it has the ability to blend in to traffic and act all genteel

or, at the push of a button, rage against the horizon until it runs away, scared. It's not that it's fast in a straight line. It's fast everywhere

. Hit the Sport button, turn off all the skid stoppers, and blast away. The rear-biased Quattro all-wheel-drive system (with the optional Sport rear diff)

just grips and goes. It feels incredibly brutal in a straight line, with the eight-speed auto ripping through the gears as the V8 howls and warbles. Hit the

rev limiter, and you're rewarded with pops and crackles like a pit-lane limiter. And it's not just quick to 60 mph. It's astonishing from 60 to about

160 mph. Punch it out of corners, and it feels like you're inside the ball in one of those spiral-on-a-spike backyard tennis games. Only louder.

Oh, the RS7 looks the part, too. On its larger 21-inch optional wheels, the RS7 has exactly the right stance, even without the fat, juicy wheel arches of

the RS6. It's as if dropping it a touch rids the big slantback of its saggy backside.

If you're looking for a gripe, there's no denying this: At 4210 pounds, the RS7 is Las Vegas buffet-line heavy. But it's not like that hinders its

performance. And you'll find that similar-performing competitors aren't a whole lot lighter, either.

It's one thing to attack with the sheer fury and thunder the RS7 brings, but it's another to do it all with such a constant feeling of

sophistication from the engine, gearbox, and, yes, even the optional steel springs (air springs are standard). There aren't many four-seat, four- or

five-door machines that will run with this in a straight line, yet it loses almost nothing by way of luxury, composure, or class to any car you could

mention. And then, when you want it all to calm down and behave, it does. It's like having a brutal military-spec dog that turns into an affectionate

happy-go-lucky Labrador at the push of a button. On top of all that, it has cylinder deactivation and can muster up around 24 mpg in stretches—a touch

better than the BMW M5 and M6 Gran Coupe.

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