If this rendering is any indication, Audi's new concept is going to be an impressive production car.

Just days before its scheduled debut at the Los Angeles Motor Show, Audi is giving us a peek at what’s to come when it unveils its new A9 model – which some German media anticipate will also be called the Prologue.

There’s been plenty of speculation about what Volkswagen’s luxury brand might have in store, and some creative imaginations have been at work in recent weeks creating their own ideas of what the A9 might look like. But if these official renderings carry over into the sheet metal, Audi is about to deliver one very big surprise.

Rather than coming up with a coupe-like take on the familiar A8, or simply adding a few extra inches to the popular A7 four-door coupe, these sketches suggest the maker is going for something much more edgy, along the lines of a two-door grand touring coupe.

That might justify the name, Prologue, which German publication Autobild claims is meant to show that the A9 is the first model to adopt an all-new Audi design language developed by the brand’s new styling chief Marc Lichte.

Audi's new concept may be called the "Prologue," according to the German media.

There are a variety of unusual styling details, including what appear to be a set of four portholes – perhaps to carry over Audi’s signature four-ring logo.

The nose is low slung and aggressive, with a very different take on the familiar Audi single-frame grille. It is lower and wider than on just about any other product but the maker’s R8.

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The roof line has a chopped, almost hot roddish appearance. And the ultra-low-profile tires would clearly pluck the strings of the hip-hop crowd.

The reality is that these renderings are almost cartoon-like and almost certainly started out as sketches meant to set a design direction for the project, rather than serving as an actual blueprint for what the concept A9 will look like, never mind the production model all but certain to follow.

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Sadly, we have no interior renderings to go by, though odds are that Audi will use the A9 Prologue to build on its traditional position as one of the industry’s leaders in cabin design.

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But it appears we’ll have to wait for the maker’s news conference at the L.A. Auto Show later this week to find out for sure.