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Audi thoroughly upgraded the A6 and A7 last year, and as usually happens, the German luxury automaker has followed those arrivals up with the performance versions of those cars—better known as the Audi S6 and Audi S7. The German brand hasn’t announced when the new cars will hit U.S. dealers, but European-spec cars will arrive in showrooms on the Continent later this summer.
The most notable change with the S6 and S7 lies with the powertrain. In the US, Audi is replacing the outgoing car’s V-8 with a 2.9-liter V-6 with an electrically-driven supercharger, which should improve efficiency and allow peak torque to manifest sooner. The system will produce the same 450 horsepower as the old car’s eight-pot, but torque sees a bump of 37 pound-feet to 443. European version will receive a 3.0-liter turbodiesel V-6 with 349 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque, which we’ll sadly go without here in the States.
Both feature a more aggressive styling inside and out than their base-level counterparts in addition to the enhanced power output. As with the A6 and A7, the S6 boasts a more traditional sedan body style, while the S7 has a sloped, fastback-esque roofline.
Audi left a good deal of the US-specific data out of the initial press release, so we don’t know what the pricing for the new models will be, or when they. (The previous S6 started at $71,900, while the S7 started at $81,200.) Performance data for the gas-powered versions didn’t appear in the release either.
On the positive side, back in March, Audi coyly tweeted about the possibility of bringing its Avant wagons back to the US. The release didn’t rule out an S6 Avant here, only noting that S6 and S7 models sold in overseas markets would “reflect local customer preferences and driving profiles.” Keep those fingers crossed.
