Motoring in Spain - Audi Q7
BIG AND BEAUTIFUL
Audi Q7 BIG AND BEAUTIFUL
HIGH-TECH PIECES OF A DYNAMIC Q7 JIGSAW
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER… AS MOTORING CORRESPONDENT CHARLIE FLINDT REPORTS, AUDI HAVE FINALLY TAKEN THE BIG STEP AND PRODUCED A MASTERFUL VEHICLE THAT IS ALREADY CREATING A STORM IN THE SUV CLUB.
Audi seemed to take an awfully long time to enter the 4x4 war. It’s almost as if they were the last defensive trench, sitting and waiting as the oncoming hordes of mediocre off-roaders approached; waiting… biding their time. Could it be possible that they would be over-run? Not a chance. At exactly the right moment, the Q7 appeared over the edge of the Audi trench. The opposition fled in panic.
We should have guessed that when Audi finally got round to building a big SUV, it would be a good one. The Allroad – a beefed-up A6 4x4 – has been one of the most desirable Audis for years, a fantastic estate car with some astonishing off-road capabilities. Many thought that this was a far as Audi needed to go, and that they would be content with having the Allroad as the off-roader in their portfolio.
But, to Audi, "content" is only a short journey away from "complacent"; and if the world wants to drive big, powerful SUVs, then they must be given the choice of an Audi SUV.
The Q7 is certainly big. It’s just over five metres long, and a hint under two metres wide. And this gives the Q7 plenty of interior room, enough for a third row of seats in the boot, and a boot size of over 2,000 litres if both the back rows of seats are folded flat into the floor.
Driver and front-seat passenger have plenty of room, too, with a wonderful view out from the lofty driving position. This has an added advantage when it comes to parking the Q7, although it does come with all sorts of beepers and buzzers to warn you when that wall/tree/next-door car is getting a bit close to the Audi’s beautiful paintwork. You can also have the rear-view camera to help in this respect.
Oh, for goodness sake, who wants to know about parking? It’s how the Audi goes that’s far more interesting. Let’s start under the bonnet, where you can choose from a range of petrol and diesel engines in both V6 and V8 format. They’ve all got plenty of power – ranging from 171kW for the V6 diesel, to 257 kW for the V8 petrol – and, more crucially for any off-road stuff, heaps of low end torque. They are connected to a six-speed tiptronic gearbox – which has always been a good Audi feature – but one that has also been beefed up a bit for SUV use. The transmission shafts, their mountings and the parking mechanisms have been reinforced, and changes have been made to the lubrication system to ensure a good oil supply under extreme conditions.
From the gearbox, we move swiftly on to the Quattro 4wd system. It’s hard to believe that this has been around for over 25 years now. Remember how it took the rally world by storm? And now, a quarter of a century and a couple of million vehicles later, it seems to have found its perfect home. I could do a whole chapter all about the complicated differentials and baffle you with talk of sunwheels, coaxial output shafts and self-locking worm gears, but I won’t. What’s important is that for most driving situations, power is distributed 40:60 between front and rear wheels. When things get sticky or slippery, though, up to 65 per cent can be sent to the front and 85 per cent to the rear. (No, not at the same time: see me afterwards for some maths tuition.)
The final piece in the dynamic jigsaw is the suspension. Once again, it’s a feast of techno-babble so, once again, I’ll try to keep it simple. The Q7 comes with four-link front suspension, and trapezoidal link rear suspension. Aluminium double wishbones – oh blimey, I give up. Let’s just say it’s a fantastically clever air suspension, which gives the most astonishingly comfortable ride, as well as adapting itself automatically to the driving conditions. At motorway speeds, ground clearance is lowered to 165 mm – spend more than 20 seconds at above 165 kph and down it goes another 15 mm. And if you get in the mud (assuming you’ve outrun the police) you can set the suspension 25 mm above normal ride height, or 35 mm for the really rough and rocky stuff.
Now, all this hi-tech stuff could be considered to be a problem. In my yard is a Range Rover which tries all the same electronic wizardry tricks, but with occasionally disastrous consequences. It went through a stage where the lights would flash when I opened the door, and the horn would sound when I sat on the seat – perhaps that was its way of saying "one at a time please" – boom boom. And after the air suspension gave up for the fourth time, I replaced it with old-fashioned coil springs.
But the Q7 is an Audi. It may well be stuffed full of the latest technological marvels, but somehow I doubt it will let you down. It’s big, well-built, and magnificent to drive. It may well be a latecomer in the 4x4 war, but you see why it is already routing the opposition.
AUDI Q7
Engines: 3 lt V6 diesel / 4.2 lt V8 diesel / 3.6 lt V6 petrol / 4.2 lt V8 petrol Power: 171 / 240 / 206 / 257 kW Max speed: 216 / 235 / 230 / 248 kph (limited) Performance, 0-100 kph: 9.1 / 6.4 / 8.5 / 7.4 seconds Combined fuel economy: 10.38 / 11.12 / 12.72 / 13.58 lt per 100 km SUMMARY: Audi’s patience pays off big time.
