Dark Horse 2014 - Audi RS7 Sport back (Part 3)

2014 Audi RS7 Sport back black diamond quilted seat

Three point nine. That’s how many seconds it takes this two-tonne luxury car to get to 100kph, which is astonishing by any yardstick. And it’s not just some fairytale manufacturer’s claim that’s, as is often the case, impossible to achieve in the real world – after our test run earlier this morning, our VBOX verified that we did a 3.93sec sprint.

“The standard A7 looks a bit hunch-backed, but this car’s added muscle balances things out.”

All this just urges me to push harder up the winding road, which is when I start to notice the steering. It’s not that it doesn’t work – in fact, it’s really precise as I thread the RS7’s nose through a series of hairpins – it’s just that it’s fallen prey to the same affliction of numbness as most recent Audis. And this is a constant, no matter which mode you have it set to, which is why I’m glad I’ve toned it down to Comfort, where it is at least lighter than Dynamic. Still, once you get accustomed to the steering, this thing will tear around corners ferociously, with surprisingly little body roll. Unlike the rear-drive super-sedans we’ve tested in the past, the RS7 is all grip thanks to Quattro AWD. But even here, all that torque is a bit unsettling  as it’s being transferred around the four wheels, and I do feel the need  to back off a little on some of the faster corners.

2014 Audi RS7 Sport back - Badge

You’ve seen cars like this before, and you know they don’t come cheap. At $ 214,041.60, the RS7 doesn’t either, and that’s before you start playing with the options list (this matte-grey paint costs $ 21,404.16, for example). It’ll cost you at the pumps too; it may have stop-start and a ‘Cylinder on Demand’ feature that only uses four cylinders, but drive it like it’s meant to be driven and it will empty its tank alarmingly quick. Our 400km excursion today – at a mostly enthusiastic pace, admittedly – needed more than two tanks of fuel; that’s over 150 litres!

Its true rival is the BMW M6 Gran Coupé (which you’ll also see in the pages ahead), but we hear the Bimmer is going to be a fair bit more expensive when it goes on sale soon. In isolation, the RS7 comes across as one of the most accomplished of its kind – plush, posh, techie, daftly quick and yet surprisingly comfortable, refined and manageable. The bigger revelation here though is that Audi is no longer an also-ran in the super-sedan race; it’s right up there on the front lines.

2014 Audi RS7 Sport back Daytona –Drive On Road