Are you a concrete enthusiast? Do you admire the finish of a fresh coat of primer? Do you exclusively shoot on black-and-white film? Well, good news: Audi has taken its moderately spicy S6 sedan and S7 liftback, made them grey inside and out, and called them the Nardo Sport Editions, because light non-metallic grey is absolutely here to stay.
From the late 1990s through the mid-2000s, silver was a popular choice, until Lamborghini made the bold decision to go all-white for the 2005 auto show season. Almost immediately, white became the go-to shade, a trend that continued for quite a while. In the early 2010s, the winds were changing. Several automakers including Toyota were experimenting with non-metallic greys, and the most famous of the bunch was Audi’s Nardo Grey. It still is, having seen a meteoric rise from optional paint shade to go-to color. If you look at automaker lineups, pretty much everyone offers a non-metallic grey, but Audi’s here to assert its position on the throne.
Unsurprisingly, the Nardo Sport Editions both feature Nardo Grey paint, a shade named after the infamous Nardò Ring — a 7.8-mile banked Italian high-speed test track so gargantuan, it can be seen from space. Up until the Bugatti Veyron set a top speed record at Ehra-Lessien, Nardò was the place to go if you wanted a top speed record, since the highest lane on its banking is effectively a straight line at 149 mph thanks to centripetal force.
So, these two special editions are grey for test track dreams. However, grey paint needs a little contrast to not make a car look so monolithic, so Audi’s painted the roof, wheels, and trim of these models in gloss black. Well, not all the trim, as the mirror housings sport a visible carbon fiber finish. Still, even the headlight innards are darkened, showing some heavy dedication to this rather brutalist palette. These are serious cars with some serious power under the hood.
See, for 2025, American-spec Audi S6 and S7 models feature a 2.9-liter V6 with three compressors — two normal turbochargers and an electronic compressor that can draw power from a 48-volt mild hybrid system and pressurize the turbines for better response. Audi claims less than 250 milliseconds of turbo lag, which isn’t bad, and a total system output of 444 horsepower and 443 lb.-ft. of torque. That ought to offer some serious shove.
However, the most controversial part of the Nardo Sport Edition cars will be the upholstery, because each one gets a grey leather interior with red stitching. It’s an unusual color combination, and in 2024, grey leather in general is heavily clowned upon in several German car communities. I get it. It’s not a warm color that makes the interior look more inviting and it doesn’t hide dirt like black leather, but it’s certainly distinctive. However, is it worth the premium?
For the S6, the Nardo Sport Edition is a $9,700 option on the top Prestige trim, making one of these cars sticker for $94,895 including freight. It’s a similar deal with the S7, only with a more expensive car and a more expensive price tag on the option package. The grand total? $105,395 including freight. Regardless of whether you go with a sedan or a liftback, that’s a whole lot of money for a medium-spice luxury car meant to slide under the radar.
(Photo credits: Audi)
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no interest in any vehicle painted flat Depression Grey.
More grey? Boring…no Thanks
Audi is probably one of the few brands that an exclusive grey on grey theme makes sense on. They have a more conservative styling than BMW and Mercedes, and feature generally austere interior themes.
Anyway, it’s just a monochrome spin on the current design trend of featuring “off-gray” colors, like the battleship blue, desert beige, or dark powder blue which every manufacturer seem to offer these days.
When will black wheels go away? I’ve despised them from day one, and wouldn’t think of buying a car that has them.
I thought they’d die after the “murdered out” trend in the early 00’s. I guess despite the SEMA crowd ditching them, the OEMs still think they are cool.
this parallels the current (or roughly 5-10 years ago) trend in interior design to paint everything fucking grey. it sucks. i can’t imagine spending a fortune on such a delightful car and then shitting all over it with this drab-ass color.
the whole grey trend drives me out of my goddamned mind.
Having to close multiple automatically running videos and popup windows it has gotten to the point where I ask myself “Do you REALLY want to read this one?” when I’m scrolling through the article links.
As someone with monochrome blindness, all I see is a little red dot on what might be the front of the car. It’s triggering me. Did they forget to paint over that spot?
Soon to be parked in front of a modern house that is painted white with black trim like every other modern house. No fun or personality allowed!
Or the new trend for black houses with white trim…
Audi browns are gone and the sky is gray…
Millenial Grey strikes again.
Someone must like these concrete gray colors, because everyone apparently needs to offer one. I think it looks terrible in just about every application.
Gray interior – anything but black is my preference. The black leather void interior is the last thing I want. It is hot in the sun, it looks bland. Brown is #1, but so few offer it.
As someone else mentioned, is the goal here to make it look like a base model A4? Because that is what they’ve done. Nothing here screams high performance car. I cannot imagine spending $100k on a performance sedan and have this in my driveway.
Yes, another vote for anything but black. I recently checked out a 1984 Dodge sales brochure. There were numerous interior color choices, but black wasn’t even an option.
Not if you’re a Buckeyes fan.
The only university where The is part of the official name (The Ohio State University)…
And they remind us of that fact every chance they get. Every. Chance.
It seems to me that the German auto industry is in for some rough times, not to mention ours here in the US. I wonder what the landscape will look like in 10-15 years.
Ze Germans are in huge trouble. VW is apparently going to be closing plants, if Audi’s latest cadre of new models don’t make up ground they may be on the chopping block, Mercedes is in complete disarray and is losing market share rapidly, it’s bleak. Really only Porsche and BMW are doing well and it wouldn’t shock me if Porsche tries to find a way to break away from VAG.
I think they all just lost the plot. VW and Mercedes went WAY too hard on EVs early. They rushed out a bunch of aggressively mediocre ones and decided that they needed to be techno spaceships…then for god knows what reason they decided to move the dystopian tech overload from their EVs to the entirety of their lineups, resulting in a fleet of glitchy cars that are a nightmare to live with.
I genuinely don’t know how either turns it around at this point. Audi got away from its enthusiast roots and tried to make the most inoffensive products possible. Unfortunately they wound up making the majority of their offerings completely anonymous as a result…and 2020s luxury buyers don’t want anonymous. Old/stealth wealth is dying off. Nouveau rich is now here and the goal is spend as much money as possible in the most ostentatious way to attract attention.
A sea of indistinguishable white and gray crossovers isn’t going to do it. Audi’s 3 new models (A5/S5, Q5/SQ5, and the Q6) seem to be steps in the right direction but whether or not it’ll be too little too late remains to be seen. BMW is winning because they have plenty of obnoxious lease machines with every amount of electrification you can want. EV diehards kvetch about non ground up EVs as being a waste, but BMW offering full EV, ICE/mild hybrid for boosted efficiency, and PHEV versions of the same cars is fucking brilliant.
And despite what a lot of enthusiasts say they’ve still got fire breathing stuff for those who want it. The M2/3/4 are all fully ICE, rear wheel drive, manual transmission hoons. Would you rather have that or a 5,000 pound turbo 4 cylinder/PHEV abomination from Mercedes? It’s not a difficult choice. Hell they’ve still got V8s aplenty in M and M Lite cars.
If they actually built their EVs to take advantage of the fact that they are EVs, keeping the different constraints in mind vs ICE, I don’t think they would be having a problem right now. VW has this nifty, decently efficient platform called the XL1, that they won’t mass produce or use their electric drive system in as a pure EV, which could get incredible range per kWh of battery on board.
Building tech-laden monstrosities in effort to copy Tesla are making the EVs a weak, less-reliable, less durable, greatly more expensive platform than they have the potential to be. So much so hat thy are arguably inferior to the ICE powered offerings. This should not be, because electric drive systems have greatly less failure points than ICE.
A functional electric car should have a drive system that is no more complicated or difficult to maintain/repair than a 1970s golf cart, using hand tools. An EV could be greatly simpler and easier to work on than an old-school OG VW Beetle. If VW screwed that up, that’s not a fault of EV drive systems being in the car. That’s the fault of VW’s upper management. This can unfortunately be applied across the entire industry, regardless of brand. Perhaps that’s the intent, so the automakers can then tell the public that EV technology failed and won’t work. If that comes to pass, don’t believe it.
At least Tesla’s products can compete with ICE for longevity. I cannot honestly say that about any other electric cars available, and that’s a shame because the unnecessary tech bloat is ultimately what will send most Teslas to the landfill even when they have 500k miles on them and are loaded with otherwise functional components. Good luck repairing that shit when something breaks!
I guess we can define this as a “sleeper”? Because I passed out at my desk for a moment after just looking at it.
I feel obligated to point out that $100,000 is CT5 Blackwing territory.
Or Panamera territory. They even offer them in colors!
Just my humble opinion, but no color in the visible spectrum can make the Panamera look good.
A Bird of Prey version, maybe?
The CT5 Blackwing is much more value for the money. And in the USA, less expensive to repair/maintain. If I needed a small-family-hauler car, that would be among my list of choices.
It’s a crying shame that GM won’t put the Blackwing’s engine in something under 3,000 lbs with a CdA value comparable to a GM Precept. Because that would be amazing, and would keep stupid CAFE requirements from killing the V8.
As long as we’re dreaming, make mine the LT6 rather than the LT4.
Less cooling (and associated weight) needed with the naturally aspirated powertrain, and the high revving nature fits a light car better IMO.
Of course neither will happen as long as the Corvette exists.
Corvette is a massive, large, imposing, overweight thing.
I saw one while riding the electric mountainbike I built around yesterday. The Jeep Wagoneer it was next to at the red light was about the same width and length. If that is what modern “sports cars” have become, let the implications of that sink in for a bit…
GM could have kept the Fiero alive and given us a 3800 supercharged V6 in the 1990s. Such a thing would rip off 11s in the 1/4 mile, cost less to build than the supercharged 3800 Buicks sold, and return 25+ mpg. And the Fiero’s aerodynamics were utter crap, meaning there was potential to get close to double that fuel economy changing little else. Then consider the top speed potential of something made so slippery so as to halve the drag. 200 mph potential on about 300 horsepower isn’t exactly new or unheard of in the one-off salt flats racer world. Imagine if that came with a $30k-ish price tag in the 1990s, and it got 50 mpg doing 70 mph on the highway. Keep in mind the Fiero was originally marketed as a 50 mpg car, but never delivered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anHmoiS6QeY
It COULD have delivered with some changes that would have also improved performance and reduced costs. Perhaps with a 3.8L V6 or even a Corvette V8 behind the driver, 30+ years ago.
I will contend that the C5 and C6 were peak Corvette, unless GM offers us something lighter and more aerodynamically slippery, with the V8 retained…
The current C8 ZR1 is even more wasteful than a Bugatti Veyron with regard to how it uses its horsepower. If that is the pinnacle of what GM is willing to offer today, they won’t be getting my money…
I’d love to own a C8. I think they’re terrific. And despite being 69, I don’t wear New Balance sneakers or jean shorts.
I will forever be haunted by the fact that we didn’t get an LT1 in the CT4V BW and instead got a more complicated, less efficient over stressed V6 instead. It’s mind boggling.
What we got is repeat business for both GM and the stealerships once that warrantee is up.
This is where the “smaller engines are better for the environment” argument kind of loses me sometimes. If a turbo engine only lasts half as long or needs a bunch of maintenance and extra parts to keep it going at one point is the slightly smaller carbon footprint negligible?
Boooo! BOOOOOO! Audi already offers like 3 different grays that are indistinguishable. Nardo Gray was cool like 10-15-years ago. Now literally every car is gray. You could give me 24 hours to study all of the automotive grays out there and I still probably wouldn’t be able to tell them apart if you tested me.
The Germans are some of the most egregious offenders as well. Complicate, add weight, and paint ze car gray. They’re hellbent on sucking every last ounce of soul out of their cars on the way to our dystopian future of nothing but grayscale EV transportation pods.
I’m at the point that I literally get angry when I see cool cars in gray. It’s such a waste, especially when Honda, Nissan, etc. will happily sell you a Nardo or Brooklyn gray equivalent painted car for like 25 grand. Cool GRAY 911, bro! I’m so glad you decided to skip color and soul entirely rather than choose from a delightful palate of options.
Fuck gray cars, and get off my lawn.
Couldn’t agree more. I hate gray cars. And I hate the dealers that order massive fleets of them.
Preach on brother! I am so sick of every car being gray now.
Completely agreed…so damn boring. I’m even sick of gray AND grey ha ha
Give us COLOR and more COLOUR!
That reminds me of my corny joke:
“So are tyres the same as tires?”
At least it is a shiny grey.
I want mine in Candy Apple Grey
Love Husker Du
https://youtu.be/gVR4r32mKFE?si=aHcMoIGJE1LK2AhL
That grille and those wheels are eyesores. And this car is an obese eyesore.
Truth.