2007 Audi RS4 Preview

Every Previous Compact Sports Sedan is Merely Child's Play

BMW M3, meet your match... and then some. The all-new Audi RS4 has arrived. This is the latest RS-badged machine, little

Watch out world, the all-new Audi RS4 has arrived in Geneva. (Photo: Audi Canada)

brother to the almighty RS6 and the successor to the devastatingly quick RS4 Avant of 2001.

Built from the ground-up as the ultimate compact luxury sedan, the RS4 returns for yet another generation with the confidence inspiring grip of all-wheel drive, nothing new for Audi of course. But the new model also presents new technologies which make this rendition one of the most advanced sports sedans to date.

The biggest change that developer Quattro GmbH implemented with the new RS4 is the switch from turbo to natural aspiration; that's right, this is a first for Audi's RS series. Instead, the RS4 will feature FSI direct-injection, the same power-optimizing technology that helped the brand's R8 racer achieve four wins at the 24 hours of Le Mans. Aside from the W12-powered A8, the RS4 is the most powerful Audi currently in production: its 4,163 cc V8 powerplant produces a total output of

The RS4 has been built from the ground up as the ultimate compact luxury sedan. (Photo: Audi Canada)

420-horsepower and 317 lb-ft of torque. Though the motor is capable of revving to 8,250 rpm, low-end torque hasn't been sacrificed to do so with 90 percent of its maximum pulling power available between 2,250 and 7,600 rpm.

Routed to a short-throw six-speed manual gearbox and driven through Audi's five-star quattro all-wheel drive system, the new FSI V8 is capable of catapulting the compact sedan to 100 km/h in a hair-raising 4.8 seconds. The 200 km/h mark is reached just a short while later, taking a mere 16.6 seconds. While Audi voluntarily limited the RS4's top speed to 250 km/h, in theory the car could reach speeds approaching 300 km/h!