Apart from a few
sporty add-ons, the cabin is standard A7
What does
that feel like? Imagine someone grabbing your forehead and shoving your skull
into a soft velvet cushion, and then pinning it there till you release the
accelerator. The RS7 doesn’t have launch control, but it doesn’t need it. Hold
the brake, build some revs, release the brake, and it will scamper off the line
frantically. The front end goes a bit light initially, as the immense torque is
shuffled around the axles, and when it hooks up, it comes in so strong that you
even get some torque steer. Once in its stride, it just pulls and pulls, the
engine screaming sonorously to its 6,800rpm redline. The performance isn’t
brutal like a supercar, but it sure is relentless. With enough road, it could
easily reach its 250kph top speed; 280kph if you ask Audi to raise the limiter.
With the 21-inch
wheels come 16.5-inch petal disc brake
Overtaking
on the highway is a deeply satisfying experience, one that I’m revelling in right now. I put my foot down, the gearbox
takes a moment to pick the right ratio and suddenly the car to my left is a
speck in my mirror. The 40-100kph is dispatched in 3.24sec; 20-80kph takes just
2.7! The transmission isn’t an S-Tronic dual-clutch like in the S6, but the
familiar ZF-sourced eight-speed torque-converter auto. It works like a ninja in
the RS7 – quick, clever and unnoticed, and only in really hard driving do some
of its shortcomings start to show, like its unwillingness to downshift to the
redline in manual mode.
2014 Audi RS7 Sport
back - Trunk
Just ahead,
I see the start of some ghats. Now, the assumed
course of action for a twisting mountain road is to set the Drive Select to
Dynamic to get the most out of the engine, gearbox, steering and suspension,
but you shouldn’t. Instead, use the customizable Individual setting and leave
the steering and suspension in Comfort, even if you do turn the rest all the
way up to the max. I learn, quite literally, the hard way, that the suspension
in Dynamic mode is just plain frustrating on this mountain road, which to the
naked eye seems smooth as stainless steel. The RS7 jiggles and shimmies about
on its 21/30 R21 tyres, whether you’re doing 20 or
120, on any surface. In Comfort, however, the ride is a revelation. In this
mode the RS7 reverts to being an A7, a luxury sedan, despite the bonkers wheels and wafer-profile tyres
(they are optional though; 20/35 R20 is the standard size). The adaptive air
suspension has a nice soft edge, and gently pummels almost every manner of bump
you can show it. All but big, sharp ones, where the dampers simply don’t have
time to react and the slim tyre sidewalls don’t offer
enough purchase. For a car of such sporting ability, however, it is in a
different league. Refined too, with not so much as a squeak entering the cabin.
