The Battle of Audi S7 2013

Back in October, I eagerly reported that the new Audi S8 spanks all short of a Corvette ZR1 in a straight line, and beat most cars in handling. I closed by noting that Audi, after years of throw shots at BMW and Mercedes-Benz, had lastly landed a direct hit. Now, like a board game adversary who is ready to drop your Battleship, Audi's leaving for the kill, and the next shot out of the mortar is the all-new 2013 Audi S7.

The new S7 hits 60 mph from zero in a blistering 3.9 seconds and charges during the quarter-mile mark in 12.3 seconds at 112.1 mph. Let that descend in a minute. This is the S7, not the imminent and even more powerful RS7. It's a high-style luxury vehicle that will grime the likes of the Camaro SS and Mustang GT all day long.

It's only four-tenths of a second off the Corvette ZR1, a GT-R, or the ridiculously fast S8. It's even faintly quicker in a directly line than the 400-pound-lighter RS5. All from a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 producing a assert 420 horsepower and 406 lb-ft of torque (though like its big brother, the S8, it may be underrated). That's the attractiveness of AWD launches, folks.

The major target is the segment originator, the Mercedes-Benz CLS550. The last one we tested was rear-wheel drive, but worry not, we'll be difficult an all-wheel-drive model soon. Going with what we have, I can tell you the S7 is the easy winner on presentation stats. The S7 is four-tenths of a second faster to 60 mph and half-a-second and 2 mph earlier in the quarter. It pulls higher continued gs on the skid pad, is faster around the figure eight, and even gets superior fuel economy.

In fact, the S7 will even run with Mercedes' big attach, the CLS63 AMG. The two are deceased even to 60 mph and the AMG increase only two-tenths of a second on the Audi in the quarter-mile, though it's traveling almost 10 mph faster when all that extra horsepower hits its pace. The Audi, though, drag high gs, was faster around the figure eight, and out-stopped the AMG from 60 mph by 10 feet; require only 103 feet to come to an idle.