Speaking anonymously at a recent press event, an Audi official let us known the future of the B8 generation RS4 is facing a steep opposition. The Audi A5 and S5 models have been such strong sellers the decision was made to use that car as the sub-supercar entry and allow the A4 to top out with the newly available supercharged V6 S4. This move is also influenced by the Carpocalypse in that heavy-duty super saloons are falling out of favor and Audi is re-positioning as a more responsible luxury brand, downsizing engines and relying more heavily on forced induction and direct injection. While the possible loss of a four-door super-sedan is a bit sad, a monstrously capable coupe should make up for it.

If this rumor proves true, it finalizes the last piece of the engine puzzle we got a peek at with the Audi engine plan leak a while ago. Hopefully when Audi waves its wand over this version of the V8, they'll fix its thirst; then it would be truly perfect. [Fourtitude via Autofiends]

Our sources say this picture — it's been floating 'round the fan-forums for the past few days — of a GT3, an RS4 and an F430 Spider sitting pretty on the El Toro airfield is in fact the first on-set picture from the new NBC-BBC-whatever team for the 'merican market. Call it "Gear," or call it whatever you want — all you need to know is you can call us interested in seeing what it ends up looking like when they're done with the pilot. [via Final Gear]

Editor-in-Chief

The CTS-V earned a convincing victory over the RS 4 in this week's Showroom Showdown. In general, style and the horsepower seemed to trump AWD and "German engineering." But my favorite quote was by Tony87: "Even if the Caddy was made in some mexican sweat shop. I'd rather have a burrito than a plate of sauerkraut, and i'm german." According to the UAW, the CTS is built in North America. Stay tuned for another match up next week.

Each engine produces roughly the same power as the other (414 horses for the RS4, 416 for the IS-F), yet it's a totally different scene when you look under the hood. Audi clearly hired some very, very good artists and industrial designers to pretty things up; note the fanatically neat wire looms, the exquisite texturing on the intake runners, the colors selected after weeks of agonizing debate. Meanwhile, when you look at the Lexus' engine compartment, you can tell that the engineers went for pure function and ease of access, with the engineering itself as a design statement (yes, yes, there's a cheap plastic cover slapped on top of the whole mess as an afterthought, but it doesn't count). What at first glance appears to be chaos turns out to be anything but. It's not OSX versus Windows, it's OSX versus Unix. But... which is more beautiful? It's a tough one for me- that Audi intake is a work of art, yet I get the sense it's attempting to hide the fact that one is looking at an engine.

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Audi press conference with two world premieres

* Worldwide transmission by satellite of Audi press conference
* Tuesday, 11 September, 12.00 midday, Audi stand, hall 3

"See what's driving tomorrow": the 62nd International Motor Show in Frankfurt (IAA) gives an insight into the automotive world of the future. Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management at AUDI AG, will present two models making their world debut and many more innovations besides during the Audi press conference at the IAA: Audi Press Conference, Tuesday, 11 September 2007, 12.00 midday, Audi stand, Hall 3, Frankfurt exhibition grounds.

The Audi Press Conference will be broadcast worldwide by satellite. We will send you details of the downlink well in advance.

As a further service, we will be happy to provide you with technical support for your TV reporting on Audi during the press days in Frankfurt. We can help you with organising a camera team for filming your interviews, with editing, with the voiceover and with broadcasting your report from Frankfurt. Please contact us in plenty of time - well before the event if possible.

We can also provide technical support for your radio coverage during the press days: editing facilities for your audio reports will be available to you at the Audi stand, together with a recording booth for the voiceovers.

Live radio recordings of the Audi press conference and additional TV footage will be available to download after the press conference from Audi MediaServices at www.audi-mediaservices.com. A password is required to use this service so please register at this address beforehand.

The Audi press conference will also be broadcast live on the internet at www.audi.de/tv.

As a penalty for living in America, I've never driven an RS4 Avant. That's because there aren't any. Luckily Audi was gracious enough to entrust me with a blazing blue RS4 sedan about a year back. I haven't stopped thinking about it since. There's a mental game I play when I'm bored. I shut my eyes and imagine driving. Pure, unadulterated driving. My hands on the wheel, my feet on the pedals, the feel of the stick as it clicks through the ratios. The sensation of speed, the roar of the motor, the rush of the brakes and of course the side-crushing inertia from throwing it all sideways. Other cars do very well in my petrolhead mental gymnastics. Chief among them, Mazda's new Miata, a Porsche 911 4S (997) and any number of bollocks-cracking Lotus Seven facsimiles. But the RS4 simply beats them all. To death.

We'll start with the controls, which are exemplary. Shaquille O'Neal could fit his foot on the dead pedal, which signals Audi's serious about the RS4 being a driver's car. The clutch is ideally balanced between ease of use and sporting resistance. The other two pedals are set up well for and heel-and-toeing — and what else matters? At low, around-town speeds you might detect a bit of slop in the gears and the clutch might seem a touch meaty. But get yourself on a fast road and I dare you to find more perfect implements. You can bang home gears with all your might, yet the stereotypical German precision never relents. Compare it to the shifter in an E46 M3 and the Bavarian version is like a TV remote standing upright in a bowl of chili, especially on the track. One valid gripe with the RS4 is the relative difficulty in left-foot braking. However, as the Avant is European, the flat-bottomed Lamborghini-sourced steering wheel fixes that.

The engine... What's the word? Oh yeah, hyperbolic, as well as vicious, insane, menacing, brutal, powerful, torquefied, mental, explosive, cargasmic (you have a thesaurus, use it). And the kicker is, I really can't believe it's not butter! the RS4's mill is that good! 4.2-liters and eight cylinders gives you 420 of the most rabid horsepower you could imagine, frothing enough to propel the not-quite two-ton RS4 to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds. And like the E63 AMG Wagon, I wouldn't be surprised if a bit more weight over the Avant's rear wheels doesn't drop that time by a tick of a second. Full torque (317 ft lbs.) is instant and constant through the rev range, peaking at 7800 rpm. Of course the engine keeps cranking to a 8,250 redline at which point its pistons are moving 82 feet per second. A car going 60 mph is moving 88 feet per second. I once described the FSI V8 as sounding and feeling like, "A volcano making love to an avalanche." I'm standing by that.

The RS4's mill weighs just 317 aluminum pounds, which is crucial as Audi decided to strap the dang thing ahead of the front half-shafts. So sure, if you've never driven the current RS4 you could conceivably criticize it for being front heavy (57/43 front to rear). But you would be fantastically wrong and an embarrassment to your wife and loved ones. Look, Porsche is able hang the 911's motor behind the car, yet the iconic sports car still handles with the best of them. By the same counterintuition, German black magic is at play in the Audi. And again the Avant, while a bit heavier, will be balanced even better. Suffice to say I've rarely driven a finer handling car. I remember a passenger of mine screeching, "How does it do that?" as a ham-fisted dilettante like me was able to break a few Newtonian principles. The AWD grip is positively stupefying. Those cars that do hug the road better? All owe a debt to Colin Chapman and are absolutely gutless when getting mercilessly passed by the RS4.

Still not sold? There's very little doubt that if we were to nominate an E39 M5 it would be a shoe in. Few cars have garnered more praise, exceeded more expectations and kicked more sports car ass than the last generation uber-Bimmer. Rightfully so, as the old M5 was and remains mind blowing. But here's the rub: the RS4 is better. It's lighter, it's more powerful, it's faster, it handles better, it's arguably more stealth, the interior is nicer, it costs less, it's more sure footed in bad weather, it goes 'round the 'Ring quicker, it stops shorter, etc. In truth, the E39 M5's only advantage over the smaller RS4 is a larger back seat. And we choose not to care. Finally, and I will always forever return to this anecdotal evidence, good friend of Jalopnik Emil Rensing at one point owned both an Audi RS4 and a Lamborghini Gallardo. These two cars couldn't be more different, save for the abysmal fuel economy and the brakes (the RS4's brakes are lifted right off the Gallardo). I asked Emil which of the two he preferred. You guessed it, the RS4.

But why the wagon? Why not the four-door? Subjectively, the five-door looks way more trick than the sedan. Like most German rides, beauty wasn't a priority when Audi dreamt up the A4. However, the Avant's hatch cures the A4 design language of its biggest weakness a.k.a. its blobby, A6-inspired rear end. Also, of course, wagons are just inherently smarter propositions. In the premiere issue of 0-60 too-tall editor-in-chief Brian Scotto has the following to say about the Avant compared to the 4-door RS4:

The addition of the hatch, though...is brilliant. Traveling with the same amount of equipment as we had in the sedan last year, the wagon is just so much roomier. It's also sexier.

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[This is the last time until 2008 the Jalopnik Fantasy Garage will appear on a Tuesday. Because of Monday Night Football, we'll be switching to every Wednesday. Readers vote the cars in or out. The idea is that we'll have 50 cars in our Fantasy Garage, the world's greatest mechanic and endless wads of cash. Would you like to nominate a car for the Fantasy Garage? Write tips@jalopnik.com with the subject line "Fantasy."]

The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage, So Far:
RUF RT12 | 1978 Aston Martin V8 Vantage | Honda 1300 Coupe 9 | 1931 Daimler Double Six 50 Corsica Drophead Coupe | Ferrari 288 GTO | Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 | 1970 Buick GSX 455 | First Generation BMW M Coupe | Bugatti Veyron 16.4 | Ford GT | Citroen SM | Porsche 928 | Jensen FF | DeTomaso Vallelunga | Audi Quattro S1 | Buick GNX | Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R | Honorary Fantasy Garager: The LS1 Powered Rotus | Lamborghini LM002 | Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe | Ferrari 250 GTO | Bentley Speed Six | Talbot-Lago T150C SS Figoni et Falaschi Raindrop/Teardrop Coupe | Porsche 917

Dear Jalops:

For years my dad worked for a pharmaceutical-marketing company and eventually got a company car to commute. Ready?: An '86 Firebird with a V8 (mind you, not a GTA or Trans Am).

Neither then nor now can I equate anything about the character of the car with his duties or position. It wasn't even a very good commuter's car.

I notice the Jalopniks do a fair bit of driving around and I wonder what readers think the hypothetical Jalopnik company car should be. (The marketing man in me can't help but point out this will give you an indication as to how familiar your readership is with the Jalops. You will also discover, based on who relegates you to Toyota Corollas or used Segways, who next to execute). "Bumblebee"

First the good news. Since the RS4 droptop is going to be so rare, there aren't any options. That means you get stuff like bi-xenon adaptive headlamps, front and rear seat heaters, an iPod hookup in the glove and all the tacky carbon fiber interior bits found in the sedan are replaced with (somehow) more tasteful brushed aluminum pieces. Plus, you know, the top comes down and the only thing between you and the sound of that glorious 4.2-liter FSI V8 engine is the hood and a little windshield. OK, OK, here's the bad news. The price starts at $81,900. And there's a $775 destination charge. As well as a yet to be determined gas-guzzler tax. Which is a $15,000 premium over the four-door. Which is the base price for the M5. Which may or may not be worth it. Who are we kidding? Of course it'll be worth it. Now, about that Avant... – Jonny Lieberman

Audi of America Announces 2008 RS 4 Cabriolet Pricing and Equipment [Fourtitude]

Related:
Audi RS4 Cabrio Coming to America; The Audi RS4 Lives! [Internal]

There can be no doubt that Audi is making two of the very hottest vehicles in the world. So hot are these cars, that I don't even need to mention names. Which we still find odd, as Germany's other luxury automobile has long been the official car of architects, graphic designers and therapists, not tail-out, tire-smoking hoons. But the cars speak for themselves. Or rather, the lustful, sinful, Pope-angering 4.2-liter FSI V8 they share speaks for them. The RS4 is a true giant killer, stealing the formula first developed for the E39 M5 and improving upon it in every way. And of course the R8 is the new girl who transfers into the 11th grade, upsetting and turning the hot chick pecking order on its head (we still reserve the right to think it's funny looking). But in each car, it is the engine and the engine alone that elevates these cars into the stratosphere. Automobile Magazine placed both of them on a dynometer and we couldn't be less surprised by the results. The dry-sumped, smaller flywheel R8 revs a bit quicker and puts down 7 more horsepower (338 hp vs. 331in the RS4) at the wheels. However, the "when I grow up I wanna be a freight train" RS4 makes a little more torque a whole lot lower down in the revs: 276 lbs. ft. @ 3,750 rpm for the 4-door, 275 lbs. ft. @ 5100 for the dolphin head coupe. – Jonny Lieberman

Dyno Test: 2008 Audi R8 vs. 2007 Audi RS4