Behold the new face of Audi as envisioned by the brand’s head of design, Marc Lichte, who is the man responsible for the new Prologue Concept that will debut at the LA Auto Show on Wednesday.
According to Audi boss Ulrich Hackenberg, the Prologue gives us a taste of the new styling direction for the brand with the four rings.
“When he moved to Audi [ed. note: in 2014], Marc Lichte launched a design offensive,” said Hackenberg. “His clear philosophy and precise understanding of Audi DNA let him develop a design strategy that is opening up entirely new perspectives for us. It is progressive and highly emotional; it expresses the technological competence and quality claim of the brand perfectly. The Audi prologue is its first proponent – it is a ‘signature car’ for Audi.”
The Prologue is large sports coupe measuring 5,100mm (16.7 ft) long, 1,950mm (6.4 ft) wide and 1,390mm (4.6 ft) tall, while riding on a 2,940mm (9.6 ft) wheelbase. If it were to be produced, its closes rival would be the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe.
Marc Lichte describes his creation thusly: “Audi stands for sportiness, lightweight design and the quattro permanent all‑wheel drive. In the Audi prologue, we are expressing this know‑how in a new form – we have put the sportiest car in the luxury segment on wheels. Our team took new approaches in both exterior and interior design.”
The show car is powered by a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 producing 597hp (605PS) and 750 Nm (553.2 lb‑ft) of torque that accelerates the all-wheel drive model to 100km/h (62mph) in 3.7 seconds.
Audi also tells us that it has unladen weight of 1,980kg (4,365.2 lb) and returns a combined fuel consumption of 8.6 l/100km (27.4 US mpg), which equates to CO2 emissions of 199g/km (320.3 g/mile)
It also has dynamic all‑wheel steering, in which the rear wheels can turn up to five degrees, and a new, five-link suspension on both ends of the car.
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