Clutch, brakes, shifter and steering are all top-notch, though the speed-sensitive steering leans toward the light side, at times feeling over assisted. Just about my only gripe. I have a suspicion this car will understeer a bit much on a track, but the balance allows for plenty of public-road-fun.
The plane is waiting in Cologne, Germany, and we're late. The autobahn clears, and the Audi TTRS gets whipped back to third gear.
The thump in the back is instant and brutal, with basically no turbo lag. The five-cylinder burble gets deeper, the turbo whistle convinces you it's working hard, and the Audi launches past the commuters. Fourth gear rips it past 125 mph, fifth doesn't seem any less urgent, and it's just a seamless, dieselesque flat surge toward ever more speed.
When a distant van moves into the fast lane, forcing us onto the best Audi brakes this side of the R8, the TTRS is still hurling itself forward, even with 178 mph on the speedo.
But that's not the whole story. The surprising thing is that the car sits flat, comfortably soaking up the bumps and expansion joints without flinching, jinking or feeling nervous, ignoring crosswinds, arrowing straight ahead and feeling absolutely at home at very high speed.
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Audi was late to the luxury-SUV ranks, watching for almost a decade as BMW and Mercedes-Benz took the initiative with the popular U.S.-built X5 and M-class.
But since the Q7 launch in 2006, Audi has made quite an impression. In three years, the Q7, which shares mechanicals with the Porsche Cayenne and the Volkswagen Touareg, has had sales of almost 230,000 worldwide. Not bad.
Now, with the global credit crunch, Audi is introducing a facelifted Q7, which, at prices similar to those charged until now, is claimed to offer greater value while providing the choice of a frugal new 3.0-liter V6 diesel. This pitches the Q7 against BMW's X5 xDrive 35d and the ML350 CDI Bluetec from Mercedes.
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