Audi to launch four RS models next year

Audi’s in-house hot shop, quattro GmbH, will break with tradition and launch four new models in 2013.

The Audi equivalent of BMW’s M and Mercedes-Benz’s AMG performance brands will lead off with the supercar-fast RS6 wagon and the RS5 Cabriolet, both of which are due in European showrooms early in the year, before hitting Australia in mid and late 2013 respectively.

While the ripping new RS7 is yet to be officially confirmed but will be launched in Europe next year before arriving here in 2014, the Q3 RS will almost certainly hit Australian roads by the end of next year.

As Audi’s first RS-badged SUV, the latter is seen as another major breakthrough for the ambitious German brand, though many quattro insiders regard the 1000Nm Q7 V12 TDI as its first performance SUV.

Quattro has been famous for launching its models after the mid-cycle facelift of its Audi donor model, though CEO Franciscus van Meel insists those days have gone and it will have eight RS models on its books in 2013.

The quickest of these looks likely to be the RS7, which could be shown as early as the Detroit motor show in January.

Fitted with the same driveline as the RS6, the RS7 is lighter than the A6 wagon-based RS6 and with its slipperier shape its unlimited top speed should stretch to around 300km/h.

The twin-turbo V8 will give it 412kW and punch it to 100km/h in around 3.8 seconds – which is faster than Lamborghini’s standard Gallardo. It will also sip around 9.8L/100km on the NEDC combined cycle – not coincidentally just beneath the BMW M5’s figure.

If Audi’s combination of the RS4 wagon and the RS5 Coupe is to be carried over, the move to the RS7 means the RS6 is unlikely to ever be sold as a sedan.

The Q3 RS is a predictable addition, given that it was shown at April’s Beijing motor show. Using a retuned version of the TTRS’s turbocharged in-line five-cylinder engine, the Q3 RS will have around 265kW of power but it has also been tweaked to deliver even more torque at lower rpm.

The push for more RS models has come directly from Mr van Meel and will add more punch to Audi’s model range, earlier.

Where the last RS3 arrived just 15 months before Audi called time on its A3 donor model, that won’t happen anymore, Mr van Meel said.

“We are having a focus on RS models earlier in the model cycle. We want to bring more RS models into more markets, earlier - particularly to the USA, China, Russia and the Middle East,” he said.

“For example, the RS6 Avant will be two years after the base model compared to four years for its predecessor.

“In my opinion, two years is ideal for the RS to come in behind the standard model. That means we can start with the standard model, then the S model and then we have enough time with the RS before the facelift at two-thirds of the model cycle.”

One key factor in the new plan is that, for the first time, RS models will receive their own mid-cycle facelifts, rather than waiting until the donor models have already had theirs. Also, booming models will no longer be taken down from the shelves before they’ve sated their buyers.

“With plans we have, the next RS3 will be on sale for longer. This one was 15 months and we sold 5900 cars from the target of 2600.

“We knew we would have to adjust things when we had an order bank of 2200 cars before the Geneva launch and nobody had even driven it.”

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