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Our friends over at GermanCarBlog sent us a link to this image earlier today, said to potentially be a leaked shot of the upcoming D4-based S-car. First and foremost, the picture is most decidedly a photoshop render and we hear it was originally posted on WorldCarFans.
Why It's a Fake
First, the styling is inconsistent with Audi Design. The wheels are lifted off of the R8 V10 and Audi doesn't re-use R8 wheels in the rest of the line. If a wheel design is to be shared it will likely spread between the S8 and other S-cars and the S8 would likely lead-in with an entirely new S-car wheel design. The car in the image shows itself to clearly have the all-LED headlight array optional on all D4s but also has a secondary LED array near the lower intakes - something Audi hasn't done since the last S6 and completely redundant. Last, the grille shows the older eggcrate S-car grille with vertical chrome struts while a new S8 will likely use something more similar to the recently shown facelifted TTS grille with horizontal bars.
Last, and most damning, here's the original press photo on which it's based. Audi PR simply doesn't re-use backgrounds like this nor would they go for the exact same angle.
/A8%20-%20D4/Exterior%20(EU)/fourtitude-2010-audi-a8-011__scaled_600.jpg)
Also Bad Intel
Seemingly everyone from WorldCarFans to Jalopnik has run this story today and most hint at a biturbo V10 powering the next S8. Our intel tells us they're wrong and that the S8, S6, S7 and likely RS versions of any of these will all make use of the upcoming 4.0T biturbo in some tune or another.
Read more via the links below.
GermanCarBlog
Jalopnik