Some of the autobahns in Germany are delightfully free from speed limits and that’s where we put the new Audi S7 through its paces. Needless to say, we came back wearing an ear-to-ear grin
THE FIRST TIME I SAW AND drove the Audi A7 was in sunny Sardinia and one could say that this was one of the best-looking cars to come out of the Audi stable. The size of the car is well suited to someone who wants all the luxury of the A8 and the fun-to-drive attributes of the A6. The A7 had everything going for it except for a very powerful power-plant and now that has been taken care of in the new S7.
It was a bright and crisp day in Germany and the dark blue S7 looked stunning with the sun shining and snow in the background. The exterior gets subtle changes such as air dams that have bigger air intakes along with new alloys that give the car a sporty look.
As for the interior, you get sports seats with Valcona leather with the S logo embossed on them. The seats provide excellent side support and comfort to the driver and passengers as well. The sound system is further enhanced by exclusive Bose technologies such as enveloping surround stage signal processing, weight-saving powerful Nd-woofers and Audio Pilot noise compensation.
The 3,993-cc twin-turbo intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8 allaluminium engine with direct fuelinjection produces an impressive 420 PS at 6,400 revolutions per minute and a hefty 550 Nm of torque at just 1,400 RPM. The twin turbo motor is mated to a seven-speed auto box with manual mode and the power is put on to the road via the Audi Quattro fourwheel-drive system.
The best part of driving in Germany is that you can use all the performance on tap as some of the autobahns still don’t have speed limits. The S7 can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.7 seconds and its top speed is electronically limited to 250 km/h. The S7 accelerates with such ferocity that you get pinned firmly in the leather seats with G-force and before you know it, the car has hit the 250 km/h speed limiter. It is not all high-end performance thanks to the flat torque curve starting from 1,400 RPM, because of which the car responds to the slightest throttle input at even low speeds.
The Servotronic speed-sensitive steering weighs up as the speed increases and is nice and light at low speed, so you don’t have to wrestle with the steering to manoeuvre the car. The sport adaptive four-link front and multi-link rear air suspension system with continuously adaptive damping is electronically controlled. The suspension can be adjusted via the MMi system. In the ‘Comfort’ mode the ride quality is very luxurious and when you select ‘Sport’, it does not only stiffen up the suspension and make the steering direct, but also improves the throttle response. With the adaptive suspension and Quattro all-wheel drive the S7 is a dream to drive whether it is cruising or driving flat out, pedal to the metal.
The drive was a little over 200 km and was thoroughly enjoyable as the road conditions allowed me to push the car to its limit without having to worry about getting caught speeding.
The cabin is very quiet even at speeds in excess of 200 km/h. I got a chance to do some hard cornering on the country roads and the S7 stuck to the line like a leach thanks to the
Quattro, there being no over- or under-steer. This is the best combination of sport and luxury.
Story: Aspi Bhathena
Photography: Aspi Bhathena & Press Audi
