One of the concepts at Frankfurt which caught our eye was the Audi Nanuk Quattro. It’s a go-anywhere super-crossover with a big, bad diesel motor and we just had to talk more about it.
The Nanuk Quattro is a sleek creation with an imposing stance, yet it isn’t too large. It features design elements reminiscent of the R8 and even bears a few hints of Lamborghini along the roof line. It doesn’t sit high off the ground and doesn’t promise rock-stomping off-road ability. Rather, it can be defined as an extreme performance soft-roader of sorts. It does, of course, include air suspension with adjustable ride-height controls which can boost ground clearance by up to 40 mm. It also features rear-wheel steering.
Under the supercar-like skin is 5.0-litre, twin-turbo V10 diesel engine mounted in the middle. It makes all of 544 PS and 1,000 Nm of torque; of which the deluge of the latter starts from just 1,500 rpm, spreading to all four wheels. Coupled to the ‘relatively low’ 1,900 kg kerb weight, that translates into some seriously eye-watering performance figures: 0-100 km/h in 3.8 seconds and the top speed is 305 km/h.
We doubt that this will hit production, but it will indeed lend design cues to future models from the company.
