It may all be a bit much, but what the RS7
does is impose upon you an ‘I am special’ sort of idea, even before you’ve
pushed the ‘Start’ button. And that generally stands in good stead because once
you push that button there’s no turning back. The engineers have managed to
sneak in a 4.0-litre V8, bi-turbo under the enormous bonnet and, this is the
fun part, they possibly got drunk and thought it would be great fun to give it
more power than the R8, by some distance. As a result, this four-door coupe
with four seats and a boot with enough luggage room for a weekend drive was
packed with 552bhp and 700Nm of torque. On the road, in the real world that
translates to an incredible amount of earth creasing power coming through the
four-wheel drive system, or Quattro, to catapult a two-tonne car to 100kph in
under four seconds. That’s four leisurely steps, or a round of knuckle cracking
on one hand, or the time taken to draw four rings in the Audi logo. You get the
drift.
552bhp,
4-litre turbo petrol V8 on the RS7 sets you off on one hell of a power trip
Essentially it is fast enough to bang your
head off the headrest through every gearshift and if you happen to have stuck
it in ‘manual’ you better be quick because it will be a thwack on the back of
the head followed by an incessant motor screaming at the rev-limiter. The RS7
is a bit of a bully like that, it doesn’t miss a chance to ruffle up your hair
or give you a little tap on the back of the head when you are going at full
chat. In fact it even chewed up and spat out some DSG gearboxes along the way,
which is why it uses a standard tiptronic auto ’box which can keep up with the
power. Suspension is stiff, as you’d expect, but it still comes with an option
to make it stiffer in ‘Dynamic’, and if you aren’t built like a marathon runner
then get ready to have every ounce of jiggly bit make itself known and for your
head to move around like one of those spring-loaded dolls on the dashboard. Or
you could simply, leave it in ‘comfort’.
The
redesigned 3.0 TDI certainly provides the effortlessly authoritative thrust
implied by the A7’s looks
The acceleration sure take some getting
used to and it’s only after a couple of times of having your head banged around
and your eyes sunk in their sockets that you realize that there’s an excellent
sound track coming out of the twin exhaust pipes as well. There is something
absolutely endearing about a car that barks when you start it up and pops on
the overrun between gear changes, apart from letting out a tremendous growl
when you have your foot flat on the floor. The aural pleasure of a fast car is
of huge significance and the RS7 has me floored. The only flip-side, if you can
call it that, is the fact that you are travelling at such great speeds by the
time you hit the next gear change that the noise is all but drowned out by the
wind.
As
standard the RS7 comes with heated, electrically adjustable sports seats that
are comfortable and supportive
The RS7 is very much a point and squirt
car. You can feel yourself praying for the traffic light to turn red just so
you can be the first one at the line. Unleashing the bi-turbo V8 with a stomp
of your right foot is an epic all-hell-breaks-loose sort of sensation. In fact,
the RS7 almost feels like a time machine. All you need to do is pick a spot
where you would like to head and in an instant you will be there. It’s like
having the world stand still as you choose your line past everyone. This works
quite well around corners too, but the RS7s stiff suspension and our poorly
surfaced roads can throw up a few surprises, so it’s best to keep a lid on it
through the twisty bits.
0
The
seating position of the A7 is low and the seats are comfortable
While the A7 is a style statement for the
conscious enthusiast who is trying to work out some sort of balance between
being responsible and having fun, the RS7 is just flat out bonkers with dollops
of fun written all over it. What is amazing is how two cars from the same gene
pool which look pretty much identical and have so much in common have turned
out to be oh-so-different. The RS7, despite having the four-doors and four
seats is unlikely to appeal to the same sort of person looking for an A7. you
need to have a diabolical side with a devil-may-care sort of attitude to lean
towards the RS7 knowing full well that your co-passenger and possibly even your
dog will be spending a lot of time terrified of everything the car does unless
they happen to have a similar wild-side to them. There may be many A7 aspirants
who are content with a good enough car, but there will be very few RS7 kind
leader-of-the-pack who will settle for nothing else.
