2025 Audi RS Q8 Performance Super SUV First Drive: Because You Can, Even If You Don’t Need To

Right off the bat: If you’re reading this, you’re a particular kind of car enthusiast, the kind we’ll hazard a wild guess doesn’t spend a lot of time scouring electric-car battery specs, charging times, and driving range. Or maybe you do. But you’re also a big-time performance person who wants to know about the wildest, quickest, and fastest vehicles on the street and on racetracks, regardless of trivial considerations like where in the flying hell in your real-world life you might actually extract anywhere near the full capability of these kinds of cars, let alone mega SUVs. Mega-performance SUVs like, for instance, the 2025 Audi RS Q8 Performance.

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What It Is

The 2025 Audi RS Q8 Performance is the freshly updated, freshly more badass offering now topping the manufacturer’s five-passenger Q8 luxury SUV lineup. The standard RS Q8 is reworked as well, but Audi won't sell it in the U.S. so all our first-drive time occurred in the new Performance model, on nice roads and a racetrack in Spain’s Montserrat region where we also recently had our first taste of the 2025 Audi RS3.

The headline-making gist of the new RS Q8 Performance is that it’s the most potent gasoline-powered series-production Audi of all time. Its twin-turbo, 4.0-liter 90-degree V-8 makes 631 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 627 lb-ft of torque between 2,300–4,500, 40-hp and 37-lb-ft advantages over the regular 2025 RS Q8.

The better numbers come courtesy of slightly more turbo boost pressure, relocated catalytic converters, and a new backpressure-reducing exhaust system that can be ordered to sound even more aggressive if you tick the box for the optional RS sport pipes. With an Audi-cited curb weight of 5,467 pounds, the RS Q8 Performance uses its big torque, power, improved shift speeds from the eight-speed Tiptronic gearbox, and Quattro all-wheel drive to accelerate to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and an electronically governed Vmax of 190 mph, according to Audi.

Other performance enhancers include the obligatory and standard gargantuan carbon-ceramic brakes (17.3 inches in front with 10-piston calipers, 14.6 inches in back with single-piston floating calipers), plus refinements to the air suspension, damper setup, and self-locking center differential. The suspension can adjust its ride height over a range of 3.5 inches depending on driving mode and conditions, naturally.

What’s more, the 2025 RS Q8 Performance boasts Audi’s electromechanical active roll stabilization as additional standard hardware, a system that uses a small electric motor on each axle to connect and disconnect the front and rear anti-roll bars as required to achieve reasonable ride quality over less-than-smooth roads (disconnected) and sporty handling through corners (connected, and turning each half of the bars in opposite directions to combat body lean). Rear-wheel steering is standard as well, suspension toe settings are revised, and the throttle mapping is tuned for better response times, Audi says.

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Other Additions

As with any notable model upgrade—and without driving too deep down the equipment rabbit hole here—the 2025 Audi RS Q8 receives changes to its exterior and interior. The former carries new front and rear lighting solutions and graphic elements (like a checkered-flag pattern unique to the Performance), a new front splitter and redesigned intakes, and the Performance version gets honeycomb grillework similar but not identical to that of the new RS3.

Don’t look for a “Performance” model badge anywhere, however. Along with the grille work, the standard matte gray-colored exterior window surrounds, mirrors, front spoiler, front side flaps, and rear diffuser are the tell-tale indicators you’re looking at the rung-topping model. If matte gray isn’t your bag, you can write a bigger check for things like gloss-black and carbon-fiber finishes. These specific visual cues and the lack of badging are destined to make the RS Q8 Performance one of those “If you know, you know” cars that knowledgeable enthusiasts relish pointing out to their friends and family when car spotting.

Cabin highlights include things like the RS Design Package in red or gray with contrast stitching in those colors, Dinamica (microfiber) surface treatments, an even more extensive RS Design Package Plus, new panel inlays, and LEDs that illuminate to display “RS Performance” at your feet on the ground when you enter the SUV. There’s plenty of optional interior and exterior trim with which to bleed your cash holdings if the standard fare isn’t good enough. In terms of actual or at least arguably useful performance, there is now a shift-indicator light display in the virtual cockpit screen when you drive the RS Q8 Performance in manual-shift mode. 

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What Is It *Really*?

When nearly a year and half ago we tested the previous Audi RS Q8 in its regular guise, we described it as being right for customers who find “a Bentley, Lamborghini, or Porsche super SUV is too performative or too harsh,” and recorded a 0–60 time of 3.5 seconds and a quarter mile time of 11.9 seconds at 116 mph.

We slathered it with praise like, “The RS Q8 shines in its ability to cover all the bases simultaneously: performance, luxury, comfort, technology, and styling. ... It confidently chased down sports cars in the mountains with its active roll stabilization. Then with its air-spring adaptive-damper suspension and dual-pane laminated glass, it silently floated over the highway under the control of adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assist. The intuitive and responsive dual center console touchscreens and Virtual Cockpit instrument panel are among the best offered. Finally, its stealthy fastback styling will remain tasteful for years to come. For those who can afford it, we think this is the best all-around pick in this niche category.”

The new RS Q8 Performance snaps up the green flag of this baseline across-the-board all-around appeal and waves it notably harder. Considering we tested that older version to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, it’s reasonable to think this new Performance variant will be even quicker than the 3.4 seconds Audi officially estimates, given its additional 40 hp and 37 lb-ft of torque while only weighing 18 pounds more than before (though we’ll have to put this new one on our own scales to verify Audi’s official curb-weight claim).

Previously a mid-pack super SUV in comparison to its MLB Evo platform mates like the Lamborghini Urus, Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT, and Bentley Bentayga, the 2025 RS Q8 Performance has improved to the point that it set a new Nürburgring SUV lap record with a time of 7 minutes, 36.698 seconds, besting the insanely impressive, fun-to-drive Cayenne Turbo GT’s previous benchmark by 2.227 seconds. Given the ’Ring’s length and the impact variable conditions have on lap times on any given day, well-informed observers can reasonably call that a veritable wash, but the point stands in terms of the Audi staking its claim as a serious performer.

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How Is It to Drive?

Driving the car on some fun Spanish country roads, we tried it first with tunable settings flipped to the preset “RS1” mode (you can select individual settings as you desire), with the powertrain, suspension, differential, Quattro, and steering set to “balanced,” with engine sound tuned to “subdued.” With this setup, the new RS Q8 Performance functions mostly as a super-quick and sporty but relatively docile performance SUV, reducing its noise output to a level that won’t offend others in your neighborhood or elsewhere, yet still delivering incredible point-to-point acceleration and certainly a gobsmacking level of roadholding.

This relatively restrained running lasted all of 10 minutes, whereupon we dialed up RS2 mode, which is what you really want if you’re looking to have fun. (If? Again, this is the entire point of a ridiculous SUV concoction like this.) With every variable setting dialed to their most extreme allowances, the RS Q8 Performance comes alive in your hands and under your feet and butt. The eight-speed hits surprisingly hard when downshifting aggressively from high rpm, the exhaust simultaneously doing that now nearly ubiquitous performance-car belching thing. The steering, even in Dynamic mode, appreciably remains relatively light, Audi not falling prey here to the misguided idea of equating “dynamic” with “stupidly heavy.”

Throw your reservations to the wind and put your foot down and your top driving effort into the entire endeavor and, yes, the RS Q8 Performance is loud, aggressive, and outright rude. This is where that whole, “What’s the point?” question probably takes over a typical person’s thoughts, because you rarely if ever have any logical business going this hard, this quick, this fast in vehicle like this, be it in a thunderous straight line or an asphalt-abusing fit of cornering mayhem. But if you’ve read along this far with interest, you understand: That is exactly why. Even if you have the means and buy this SUV and never push it to more than 10 mph beyond the posted speed limit, it gives you more than enough tactile and aural feedback to tell you what it’s really capable of. That’s a type of fun and satisfaction unto itself. If, you know, you get it.

One caveat to the SUV’s general all-arounder character is that there’s no getting away from its massive wheels—22-inchers are standard but we drove on the optional lighter-weight forged 23s ($1,500 when purchased as a standalone option and available in three different finishes, as well as being offered as part of a couple larger packages including additional trim). With these upgraded rims that are lighter by about 11 pounds each than the base 22s, you save significant unsprung weight but we’re still talking about large hunks of metal, and you sometimes feel oscillations over bumps and ruts to go along with the general suspension setup’s firmness. As with most über SUVs in this vehicle category, drivers who buy the RS Q8 Performance simply to flex on their fellow suburbanites while expecting typical luxury-SUV ride quality will discover immediately that everything comes with a cost, despite the Audi’s generally well controlled body dynamics and best attempts to mask its weight, be it of the sprung or unsprung variety.

Audi also afforded us a brief three laps around the Circuit Parcmotor Castellolí racetrack, a quick-flowing, up-and-down layout with several heavy braking zones. As expected, it’s a laugh riot to discover just how hard you can huck the RS Q8 Performance, handling with an inherently (and expected) understeery balance that skilled drivers can manipulate enough to induce enough corner-entry rotation to keep the grins going. But its overall weight is omnipresent, a whispering voice in your brain reminding you to always leave yourself some margin when creeping close to what feels like the limit of dynamic possibilities, lest you find yourself at the helm of a 2.75-ton cannonball careening off a racetrack or, worse, a public road.

In fact, from a broad view, despite the RS Q8 Performance besting the Cayenne Turbo GT’s Nürburgring lap time, the approximately 500 pounds of additional weight it carries doesn’t allow it to feel as responsive or spry as the Porsche or similarly lighter Lamborghini Urus. In other words, we may be able to lap the Audi quicker than those offerings around certain tracks, but our first-drive experience indicates we don’t feel quite as confident or comfortable doing so.

Continuing briefly with the weight theme, and as we discovered during our drive of the new RS3, the brakes generally seem astounding, with good pedal feel that’s neither too stiff nor too soft. It’s appropriate for a car like this, and the overall braking system means you can really attack challenging roads. On the track, though, while the braking effectiveness didn’t seem to fade much if at all, the pedal tends to lose some of its instant response, serving to raise the volume on that voice in your mind telling you to make sure to not overstep. Another positive, however, is the ultra high-performance Pirelli P Zero 295/35 R23 tire upgrade, which you get sans any extra charge with the 23-inch wheels and is of course the tire used to set the ’Ring time. They were hugely grippy and hugely predictable during our own racetrack lapping session. 

On Sale

For dreamers and real buyers of super-duper-mega SUVs alike, choices such as the Cayenne Turbo GT and Urus may remain the sexier and more badge-prestigious picks, but the 2025 Audi RS Q8 Performance shoves its nose demonstrably further into their performance realm, even past it in certain conditions, while objectively offering as much “value” as you can ask for in this game. It starts at $137,495, an easy $65,000–$130,000 less than those two, and can be ordered now, with deliveries planned to commence before 2024 concludes. Taking that into account for perspective, maybe it’s all at least a little less ridiculous than it seems to some people at first glance, even if they still don’t really get it.

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