Audi's Top Guns are coming

The hype and anticipation surrounding the R8 V10 has been unbelievable not only in South Africa but in markets all around the world.

Based on the same platform as the Audi R8 V8 which won a string of awards including the 2008 World Performance Car, the thundering V10 is the result of cumulative know-how from Audi's string of Le Mans victories.

Its 5.2-litre, ten-cylinder FSI engine churns out 386kW and 530Nm of torque and is almost identical in construction to the one in the racing version. Combined with its legendary quattro all-wheel drive it will blast from zero to 100km/h in 3.9 seconds.

In the version with the sequentially shifting R tronic it reaches 200km/h in another 8.1 seconds. Even then its propulsive power hardly lessens: it's sufficient to reach a top speed of 316km/h.

Since its launch in 2007 Audi sold about 132 R8's in South Africa and because the new model will only be available in limited numbers rich local petrol heads are no doubt going to be elbowing each other out of the way to slap their R2-million cheques down at one of eight Audi dealerships in this country for one of the new V10's.

And in the queues next to those for the V10 will be the blue-beards with their R1,5-million cheques wanting of the most powerful diesel-production SUV's developed by Audi, the Audi Q7 V12 TDI quattro.

Again, focus is on performance with the 6.0-litre V12 engine booming out 368kW of power and 1,000Nm of torque.

Yet Audi claims this mighty oil-burner requires just 11.9 litres of fuel per 100km and they say this new 12-litre cylinder uses significantly less fuel than any competing petrol engine in the high performance SUV sector.

The Audi Q7 range was launched in 2006 and since launch Audi has achieved 2258 Q7 sales in the South African market. The first Q7's should be on showroom floors in September.