[CAR ENGINE]
Every city in the world can be identified
by one single shot--
Paris, the Eiffel Tower; Rio, Christ the Redeemer; and New
York, Times Square.
But what about Los Angeles?
That's right.
10 million people in Los Angeles could be identified by
the inefficient transportation system.
20,000 miles of roadway and a majority of it sucks.
Every single day, 92 million vehicle miles are driven
within the county borders.
It's one of the biggest car markets in the world, so much
so that car manufacturers design and engineer cars with
the California market in mind.
Some even consider it the car capital of the world.
All these high-horsepower cars sold within the city, and even
with eight-lane-wide highways, they sometimes come to a
standstill.
What good is all that potential performance when you
can't take advantage of it?
So what exactly is the problem?
Well, obviously, the volume of cars is one variable.
But could it also be the education and the experience
of the drivers on the road?
And to answer that question, we've come to
southwestern Germany.
Just over that way is France, in about five miles.
But we're heading to Munich, which is that way, 230 miles.
That's about the same distance between New York and Boston.
Sometimes, that trip takes up to eight hours,
on a good day, four.
But today, we're going to go as fast as we can through
Southern Germany and then on to the Autobahn.
And we're going to try to figure out, well, is it about
the education of the drivers in this country
that make it so good.
Or is it about the cars and the infrastructure?
And we've got the perfect car for the job, the new Audi RS7.
Now we only have one day to shoot this whole film and get
to Munich, so this is going to be very interesting.
All our gear is in this car, and we have one support
vehicle that's meeting us halfway.
This is a true and authentic story of getting across
Germany as fast as possible.
We started our journey on the roads
through the Black Forest.
Roads, which many of the best German sports cars have been
tested by company engineers--
long, twisty, and not so much traffic, even by European
holiday standards.
So why did we choose the Audi RS7 for this story?
Well, it's a proper German saloon.
And on all these roads, especially on the Autobahn, I
don't think I would want anything else.
You want something that's big, powerful, and especially with
all of our gear, it kind of simulates if you're taking a
week-long trip throughout Europe.
When you're going down these long country roads that do
have some dips and undulation to them, this air suspension
is actually very good.
I have no complaints.
Which is important for the journey, as while dashing
across the country, you'll never actually find the
straight shot.
They've done a great job with the suspension to make it feel
nimble on the road.
It's got a big footprint, but it feels nimble.
[CAR ENGINE]
The sound--
the sound in the cabin is not that loud, to be
quite honest with you.
But when you go outside, and you hear the car passing by on
its own, oh my god.
[CAR ENGINE]
On the car we're driving right now, we've got the equipped
heads-up display, which the more and more I use it, I
wouldn't want it any other way.
You concentrate so much better on the road.
Ah, so much power.
Now in the performance department, up front you've
got a 4-liter twin-turbo V8 pushing about 560 horsepower
and 512 pound-feet of torque.
This is the top of the line RS.
It comes from Quattro GmbH.
Again, Quattro GmbH is a whole separate company from Audi.
They have their own VIN number style.
They build cars with a performance mindset, much like
M, much like AMG.
[CAR ENGINE]
Now the purpose of today's trip is to drive as fast as
possible, legally, from one side of Germany to the other
and to discover if it's really about the infrastructure, the
roadway network, or about the drivers behind the
wheel of the car.
I think one of the greatest parts of driving in Germany is
that there are systems in place, and everyone respects
those systems.
Spirited driving on mountain and country roads, it's
acceptable.
[CAR ENGINE]
But in return, extremely low speed limits in villages, and
everyone just respects that.
Now, everyone knows that there are driving standards.
The process to get your license is much more difficult
in Germany than any other country in the world.
It's that seriousness that makes it special.
It's the respect of how the system works, and everyone
follows it.
As a driver, you're not the one, you're the one of many.
And everyone is on the same page.
[CAR ENGINE]
Unlimited speeds?
Absolutely.
But you respect the rules that do exist.
I think that's one of the biggest problems we have in
the United States is that the driver education doesn't teach
you things like this.
No one adheres to any lane etiquette.
There are no rules.
What I love about Germany is that everyone has lane
etiquette unless, of course, they're from
Poland, Italy, or Belgium.
But the Germans, they get it.
It is the most efficient way of thinking about it.
It is basic fluid dynamics.
Funny I know, but you actually have to think about traffic
like a liquid.
It flows.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You know, this is a our first fuel stop for the day.
We've done about 350K on a tank, which is pretty good for
the speeds we've been doing.
And then you get out, and you walk away from the car, and
then you come back, and you don't realize, holy god, how
big this car is.
It is gigantic.
You can't believe it's been doing the things you've just
been doing, the speeds that you've been going.
It doesn't make much sense.
And then also, think that normally when we do these
shoots, we have a support vehicle carrying all of our
camera equipment.
Not so on this trip.
We've got 200 pounds of Pelican cases and camera
equipment in the back of this sportback.
And we're doing these speeds.
And we're going through these turns.
That's amazing.
That's astonishing.
[MOTORCYCLE ENGINES]
[CAR ENGINE REVVING]
Now the thing to remember about the RS7 is that it's
actually got a limiter based off its brakes and tires.
So we've got the non-ceramic package, the steel brakes and
the non-DRC.
So we're actually limited to about 174 miles an hour.
But if you were to get the ceramics and DRC, you would
actually get that limiter up to 190 about.
I have a very strange feeling that the limiter in this car
is not 175, but it's much further than that.
Past generations of Audis have always claimed this limiter,
and then just-- they don't exist.
So let's give it a shot.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Construction work.
Every time we get a good run, we got
construction, got to slow down.
Always something.
It's very difficult to get these speeds.
Back to unrestricted.
Come on.
We can do this.
It's to 40, to 50, to 60.
Come on, guy.
Get in the other lane.
That's it.
Shut down.
The Autobahn--
as the legacy may have it, the Autobahn has a lot to offer.
But these days, it's so crowded.
Traffic and construction makes it extremely difficult to get
up to the speeds you think you can go.
It's a lot.
It takes a lot out of you.
Wow.
That was rough.
After we finished filming, we went out late at night, and we
did one more attempt at a top speed run.
And we finally did it with no traffic--
192 miles an hour.
For a little over $100,000 in the US, it's a fantastic car.
And for me, I'd stick with the standard air suspension unless
you plan on breaking the laws of physics every turn you come
to, with a dynamic ride control.
I would stay away from the dynamic steering, which,
despite all my attempts to get it into the proper settings, I
just couldn't find something I like.
I've never felt such a big car corner so flat.
Even the old R6, which basically has the same system,
didn't feel this good.
It amazes me how much a concept can be improved in
only a few years.
The base RS7 is a fantastic vehicle.
It's the ultimate RS model.
But the only option I would suggest--
European delivery.
[CAR ENGINE]