Treacherous Test Conditions Bring out the Best in Audi’s Slick and Sophisticated new A7 55 TFSI quattro
Audi A7 55 TFSI — Forty years of quattro cred comes through bright and clear in this surprising new 4-door coupé.
I have a confession to make. I was completely bowled over when I walked around the back of this Audi A7 55 TFSI quattro sportback being delivered for test. Only when I noticed the new taillights did I realize that this is an all-new car. It happens occasionally, but I missed the releases. Then Lockdown came and the test car only arrived a year anon. And I was clueless to its existence!
Anyway, those rear taillights that spread right across the tailgate are now increasingly common on Audi’s top models. They proved to be animated too, which is a hoot. But there’s far more to this stylish new A7’s look too.
It has ‘large surfaces, sharp edges and taut, athletic lines’. Ours also had the optional S line package with a more aggressive grille and bolder sills, gloss black vents and front and rear diffusers. Those HD Matrix-design LED headlights with Audi laser light and high-beam assist and disco-like dynamic turn signals look the part too.
The rear end is ‘tapered like a yacht’, from which a rear spoiler extends automatically at 50 mph. Audi proposes A7 oozes dynamic and progressive style from every perspective. I honestly cannot argue with that. One lady staffer however complained that it still ‘looks a bit like a banana’.
Get in. That may be a challenge for bigger blokes through the low doorway. But if you want that sleek look, you’d likely compromise there. Otherwise, Audi offers several other cars in this neck of the woods to better handle your bulk, anyway.
Allow the power soft-closing door to shut behind you and you’re in a truly wonderful space. Heated and ventilated, twelve-way power Valcona leather-clad S Sport front seats even get four-way power lumbar adjustment. So settle down, settle in and find your perfect poise. It’s a sophisticated, sporty and intuitive driver-oriented cockpit.
Finger the button to either slide the sunscreen back to let the light in, or open the big panoramic glass sunroof. If it’s dark, choose from one of 30 contour ambient lighting hues. And of course, the 4-zone comfort automatic climate control keeps you perfectly happy in your zone. Your passengers in theirs too.
The Perfect Pass for Quattro
It was still dark that miserable and blustery morning when the 6:15 traffic report suggested I’d sit over an hour in the N1 glut to Cape Town. But they promised that the N2 was running free. What’s an extra 75 miles between friends? I turned left onto the main road instead of right, through the village and onto the pass.
Franschhoek Pass is considered Africa’s finest — you may inadvertently know it from all the global new car model photoshoots they use it for. A 5-mile run up to the peak, followed by an equally splendid similar distance down. My pass is my preferred breakfast any day. That day’s long route choice was easy.
I noticed the cloud fall right away. It’s a common occurrence over our Middagkrans, as it is on Table Mountain. The tablecloth, as some call it, is blown up by the stiff southeaster wind. This was however a black southeaster – an unseasonal storm that blows the rain in from the wrong direction.
The pass was wet. Perfect! All-wheel-drive is becoming pretty common in the car world. It’s a new thing. Well for the rest of them, that is. Audi’s been at it for ages. Since the first quattro shocked its 1980 Geneva Motor Show audience.
Bring the black southeaster — there’s 40 years of AWD experience in this A7 55 TSFI’s quattro drive and it showed! Packing the latest Ultra quattro tech, A7’s all-wheel-drive only activates the rear axle as required. Which meant pretty well all the way up and over the sodden pass.
The A7 55 TFSI adds a few extra systems to its net of sure-footedness. Dynamic all-wheel steering not only resolves the conflict between agility and comfort. It also adds immensely to that feeling of security in even those most atrocious conditions. The A7 has five-link front independent steel spring suspension front and rear. Add electromechanical progressive power steering too.
It’s all built into a stiffer and sounder new lightweight steel and aluminum multi-material construction shell. That much was clear when our magnetic test kit antenna worked on the door surround. Not the roof!
