The Audi Sport Quattro Concept is back

Audi Sport Quattro Concept Remember the Audi Sport Quattro Concept of 2010? A chopped down, lightened RS5 with squared-off design, a 408hp five-cylinder turbo from the TT RS and a good old-fashioned manual gearbox it's perhaps the most PH-worthy car of recent years Audi has never built. More's the pity too.
Like the Terminator though the Sport Quattro Concept is back, meaner and more heavily armed than before. And this time it's in a partying mood, Frankfurt marking 30 years since the original Sport Quattro was unveiled.
Out goes the five-cylinder turbo of the 2010 concept and in its place is the RS6's 4.0-litre V8 with 560hp and 516lb ft, attached to which is a disc-shaped electric motor bringing an additional 150hp and 295lb ft to the party for a combined system output of 700hp and 590lb ft. Enough for 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 189mph, even with brick privy aerodynamics and physique that adds over half a tonne of beef to the 1,300kg of that original Sport Quattro Concept. Now weighing in at 1,850kg it has grown somewhat too, the wheelbase 184mm longer than the previous concept and overall length up by 322mm, diluting some of the Sport Quattro referencing stumpiness.

Interesting to note that, even with all that extra power and the inevitable eight-speed auto, it's only a couple of tenths faster to 62 than the manual five-cylinder car too. What price progress, eh?
This more exciting range of ability is accessed in the inevitable Sport mode but this is Frankfurt 2013 so even if it looks like a vein-popping hard nut the Sport Quattro Concept has a sensitive side and can trickle along on pure electric power for around 30 miles, a halfway house hybrid mode waking the V8 when required, its familiar Cylinder On Demand system contributing to the 113mpg and 59g/km.
The rest of the car is classic show concept stuff, all LED headlights this and 3D configurable displays that with promises that the more muscular elements of the styling, including the aggressive new grille, will be interpreted in future Audi road cars.
All very impressive but given the choice between a lightweight modern-day Sport Quattro with an evocative five-cylinder warble and manual gearbox and bells and whistles hybrid, albeit with 700hp, which would you choose?
Source: PistonHeads