On sale towards the end of the year, the five-door coupé features new design details including the single frame grille – seen on the facelifted A7 that was unveiled last month – with the black honeycomb typical of RS models.

Like its lesser-powered A7 siblings, the RS7 also gains new headlights with LED technology as a standard feature and Matrix LED technology as an option. There’s also new tail-lights at the rear and 20‑inch forged lightweight alloy wheels as a standard feature, with 21‑inch cast aluminum wheels in three color versions are optionally available.

Inside, there’s changes to the instrument cluster and the shift paddles behind the steering wheel. Meanwhile the standard MMI navigation plus with MMI touch now uses a graphics processor from Nvidia for improved operation.

The 4.0 TFSI remains unchanged, delivering 560PS, with a constant 700Nm of torque at engine speeds between 1,750 and 5,500rpm. An eight‑speed tiptronic auto is standard with quattro permanent all‑wheel drive. On request, Audi will combine quattro all‑wheel drive with the optional sport differential on the rear axle.

Audi claims a 0 to 100km/h time of 3.9 seconds. Top speed is 250kph whilst the optional dynamics packages allow top speeds of 280 and 305kph respectively.

Meanwhile the cylinder on demand (COD) system, which can shut down four cylinders during partial load operation, gives official combined fuel economy figures of 9.5l/100km with 221g/km of CO2.

The RS adaptive air suspension, together with adaptive damping, is standard and lowers the body by 20mm. Audi offers the tauter RS sport suspension plus with Dynamic Ride Control (DRC) as an alternative. A further option is dynamic steering, with its continuously variable steering ratio.

‘The Audi RS7 Sportback confirms the reputation of the RS models as the superior, top athletes of our brand,’ stated Prof Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, member of the board of management for technical dDevelopment of Audi AG. ‘The combination of a powerful four‑litre V8 engine with cylinder on demand technology, quattro drive and intelligent lightweight design makes the RS7 Sportback an outstanding piece of sports equipment for any fan of dynamic and yet efficient driving.’

The Audi RS7 Sportback can be ordered in Germany from Q3 2014 with a base price of €113,300.