The “V8 for life” theme is going out of fashion, and it’s not just because electricity makes the wheels spin faster than fire. After all, why pay for more cylinders when half as many will do just fine (and the heart has no say in the choice of car)? A few German family cars are only too eager to prove this hypothesis, using the most scientific method of all: drag racing.
THE AMG The C 63 is a name loaded with historical resonance, and the latest member of this illustrious family is a fiery mongrel, otherwise known as a hybrid in car-loving circles. A classic Audi RS that still pays homage to internal combustion rises to the challenge. Better yet, it’s a V8.
While the Mercedes-AMG is a station wagon capable of carrying people and luggage anywhere, the Audi is not an Avant, as one might expect from this car. carwow but the full-fledged RS 7. The fastback sedan has twice as many cylinders as the Mercedes inline-four. It is priced higher (by a third, mind you) than the other German competitor (which is not cheap, at £100,000 / about $130,000, at July 2024 exchange rates).
The Lord of the Four Rings is armed with a fiery four-litre twin-turbo engine (the classic configuration of all Ingolstadt performance products) that produces 630 hp (639 PS) and 850 Nm to all four wheels. It is a massive piece of German automotive engineering, weighing in at 2,065 kg.
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The performance level remains below that of the Mercedes, because the hybrid powertrain involves batteries, which are not cheap. They weigh heavily on the car (pun intended), with a mass of 2.2 tonnes (4,828 lb). The two-litre turbocharged inline-four engine may be half the size of the Audi’s, but it packs a serious punch: 469 hp, 402 lb-ft (476 PS, 545 Nm).
I know it’s not up to the Audi’s performance numbers, but that’s only half the story. The Mercedes has another engine on the rear axle that draws its vitality from the 4.8-kWh Lithium-ion battery pack. Electric power adds 201 hp and 236 lb-ft (204 PS, 320 Nm) for a total of 670 hp (680 PS) and 752 lb-ft (1,020 Nm).
Yes, the sum of the two torque figures does not match the figure announced by Mercedes-AMG. The electric motor is not driven by a nine-speed transmission, like the combustion engine. Instead, it is equipped with a two-speed transmission. More power, torque and electric spontaneity for take-off – the Mercedes is the favorite.
The RS 7’s 305 hp/tonne power-to-weight ratio is just shy of the AMG’s 310 hp/tonne. Yet the fastback (Audi’s Sportback) gets through the quarter-mile first, in 11.3 seconds. Two-tenths later, the Mercedes kills the clock, and we can burn those calculations on paper and blame the drivers for this performance that doesn’t respect the calculations. Amazingly, after a 50 mph start in third gear, the Mercedes doesn’t run out of steam and keeps the Audi in its wake for the entire half-mile sprint.
