At first glance, peeps with little interest in cars may believe that an Audi RS 7 Performance is a completely different animal from the Lamborghini Urus. On the other hand, both of them are Volkswagen Group vehicles underpinned by the very same MLB platform.
That's not all, though. Under the hood, the 4.0L twin-turbo V8 is pretty similar as well. Internally referred to as EA825, the force-fed lump is connected to a ZF-supplied automatic with eight forward ratios. The gearing is shared as well, with sixth flaunting the perfect 1:1 ratio. Be that as it may, the final drive ratios differ, with the Urus rocking 3.16s compared to 3.204s for the five-door liftback from Audi.
Under normal driving conditions, the all-wheel-drive system of the Lamborghini sends 40 percent of the available torque up front. When required, up to 70 percent can go to the front wheels or up to 87 to the rears. The RS 7 Sportback in Performance specification is pretty similar, with the maximum amount of rear-axle torque listed as being 85 percent.
Given the aforementioned, you will understand why both Mat Watson and Sam Maher-Loughnan of carwow describe the Urus in ways that Lamborghini does not like. The question is, can the Raging Bull prove its worth against the German model in the standing quarter mile and the rolling half mile?
Not surprising in the least, wind resistance and curb weight did not play into the Lamborghini's favor. Despite being 20 metric ponies up on the RS 7 Performance, this fellow is more than 100 kilograms heavier and is quite a bit taller as well. To this effect, the original iteration of the Urus could not do any better in the quarter mile than 11.6 seconds compared to a best of 11.4 for Sam in the sleeker Audi.
Photo: carwow on YouTube
On paper, the Urus tips the scales at 2,197 kilograms (4,844 pounds) and generates 650 cavalli vapore (641 horsepower) versus 630 pferdstarke (621 horsepower) for the RS 7 Sportback Performance, with the Audi weighing in at 2,065 kilograms (4,553 pounds). Be it automatic or manual shifting in comfort or the sportiest mode available, the Lamborghini also had to settle for second place from a rolling start to the half mile.
The most damning test, however, was the braking test. You wouldn't believe how much farther ahead the Urus came to a complete stop, but that may also be down to the tire type and wheel size. This particular Urus, for example, is rocking 24s compared to the factory-issue 21s with 315/40 by 21-inch tires.
Had it been the lighter Urus Performante, the RS 7 Sportback Performance might have been forced to learn to eat some of that humble pie from a dig. The plug-in hybrid Urus SE is even more likely to come out victorious in the quarter mile, for its hi-po setup makes a whopping 789 horsepower and 701 pound-feet (950 Newton-meters) of torque. Of those, its transmission-mounted electric motor contributes 189 horsepower and 356 pound-feet (141 kilowatts and 483 Newton-meters).
Not long now, the RS 7 will go plug-in hybrid as well, for the internal combustion A6 series will be rebranded as the A7 in 2025 for model year 2026. So far, the carparazzi have spied the RS 6-replacing RS 7 in sedan and wagon flavors, with the charging port located on the left rear quarter panel.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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