Audi A7 Sportback concept news - Detroit show: Audi A7 Sportback - 2009

Don’t be fooled by the ‘concept’ label – the Audi Sportback is going to happen. It’ll arrive next year – most likely named the A7 – and though the roof will be touch higher and the wheelarches a touch less flared, it’ll be more or less as you see here, which is all good.

So what is it? The A7/Sportback is Audi’s take on the four-door coupe formula – think of it as a competitor for the Merc CLS and Jaguar XF – so it’s a big car: the same size as the A6, in fact.

There are plenty of clues to Audi’s next-generation styling cues, too – take a look at those narrow-eyed, tapered headlights (all LEDs, of course) and that chamfered single-frame grille, which looks very similar to the front of the A1 show car we saw in Paris.

The car shown at the Detroit show is powered by a very realistic-sounding three-litre V6 turbodiesel putting out 225bhp and 406lb ft of torque, but expect the A7 to get Audi’s full range of big drivetrains – and quattro, of course – when it reaches production. How about a V10 S7, then? Yes please. Yes please indeed.