It's 2017 and sloped four-door cars like the Audi A7, the BMW 6-Series Gran Coupe, the Porsche Panamera, and even the new Kia Stinger sedan attract more love than ever.  To continue the sportback legacy, Audi has a new A7 on the way, but before it gets unveiled and reaches dealerships, the automaker has some testing to do. 

In a video shared to YouTube Saturday, we see what appears to be a next-generation Audi S7 getting driven hard on the 12.9-mile Nurburgring Nordschleife.  In the clip, we see (and hear) the S7's quad-tipped exhaust as the sportback car bounces around on the course and flies out of corners. 

From the looks of things, the car maintains its sleek design lines from the previous generation, bu the front-end is tweaked a bit to go along with Audi's corporate image. 

Still, it looks pretty damn good. 

According to Motor1, the new A7 will likely be much lighter than the outgoing model.  That is thanks to its new platform—the MLB Evo platform which it shares with the A6, A8, and some other Audi models. 

The new car will likely be unveiled sometime in 2018.