There comes a point where calling something an Audi RS Q8 starts to feel slightly misleading. And ABT Sportsline’s RSQ8-LE 1000 is probably past that point.
The company has taken Audi’s already rather excessive performance SUV and pushed output to around 1,000 hp, while giving the exterior enough carbon fiber and gold detailing to make sure nobody mistakes it for a standard car in the supermarket parking lot.
Only 30 will exist. This is the final car in a three-model series celebrating ABT’s 130th anniversary. The RS6-LE 800 started things off, followed by the smaller RS3 630. Finishing the trilogy with the largest and most powerful member seems appropriate.
Underneath, the familiar 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 remains, but quite a lot has happened around it. ABT’s Power R conversion adds upgraded turbochargers and a new intercooler, along with more extensive engine work. There’s also water/ethanol injection, or IWI in ABT terminology. The end result is roughly 1,000 hp.
That’s a remarkable number in any road car. In something that can still carry a family and their luggage, it borders on ridiculous.
And yet power isn’t really what makes this particular RS Q8 interesting. Plenty of tuners can extract enormous figures from modern turbocharged engines if a customer arrives with enough money.
ABT has tried to make the entire car feel like a finished special edition rather than an RS Q8 that spent an enthusiastic afternoon in a tuning shop.
The exterior gets a substantial aerodynamic package made from matte exposed carbon. Wider fender extensions change the proportions, while the wheels are hard to miss: ABT’s forged HIGH PERFORMANCE IR23 design finished in satin gold.
Gold wheels on a 1,000-hp SUV could easily look absurd. Here, strangely, they work.
There are more anniversary details inside. Each of the 30 cars is individually numbered and gets an ABT 130th Anniversary Coin. The limited production run means seeing another one on the road should be considerably less likely than seeing an ordinary RS Q8 Performance — itself hardly a common sight.
That’s also what separates the LE 1000 from a normal power upgrade. You could take an RS Q8, add horsepower, fit wheels and end up with something brutally fast. This car is trying to be collectible as well.
Whether a tuned SUV becomes genuinely collectible is something we’ll only know years from now. But ABT certainly has the history to make the idea credible. The company dates back to 1896, long before anybody had dreamed of putting 1,000 horsepower into a luxury SUV.
The RSQ8-LE 1000 is therefore a wonderfully strange way of celebrating 130 years. It is enormous, extravagant, limited to 30 cars and powerful enough to embarrass plenty of dedicated sports cars.
Subtle? Not remotely. But subtlety would have been a rather disappointing way for ABT to finish its anniversary trilogy.
