Where is that dynamic drive button
 

Okay...so I am driving in my new Q7 on the highway...and some fool with an old banger dares to race my Q7 beast. So we both step on the gas and I am expecting to leave him in the dust. Lo and behold, his rusty old banger shows what it is made of. As the race continues, the back side of his car slowly starts coming into view. talk about embarrassing. While the humiliation continues, I am frantically trying to figure out why I am getting such a lousy performance from my Q7 supercar. Then I discover that the damn thing was in efficient mode. So I start pressing around the cabin trying to keep my eyes on the winding road and of course, putting the car into dynamic is no easy task. First you have to press the drive select, then turn the little knob around until it gets to the right selection...then click ...then you got it. By the time i got it into dynamic, my opponent was long gone.

From now on, I am not going to try to show off in my expensive Q7...

I usually drive in Comfort. If I want Dynamic, I just tap the Drive Select down button twice and job done.

Usually, I just flick the gear into sport as that does the job in most situations.

Can't you just put it in manual and then use the paddles?

These things need tunes tuned for extra pep

Ya know most cars (let alone large SUV's) can break 6 seconds 0-60.
The fastest large SUV is the Cayenne turbo S at 3.8 seconds only about 2 seconds faster then the Q7. Of course there is the Nissan Juke R that will go full chug to 60 in 3 seconds flat. For a cool $665k its all yours.
When you really start investigating fast cars, outside of super exotics, 6 second 0-60 times really didn't become common in "lower" priced cars until about 10 years ago and even so you gotta through down a lot of coin to get a fast car.
In perspective the Lamborghini Countach LP400 did 0-60 in 5.8 sec.
I don't know what the beater was you were racing but it must have been a sleeper or an beat up old fast exotic like an AMG benz.

And I think Top Gear outed Lambo for lying about their performance stats back in the '70s anyway so I'd bet the Q7 could actually get to 60 quicker than a first gen Countach

I still will want a tune...=)

Does a tune reduce the life of the engine?

Depends on how much tuning is done and how hard you run it. Just tuning it won't but, running it hard with with a high tune will.
I just hit 1500 miles and I swear my Q7 switched on the performance tune. Grated I have been babying it but initial throttle response has gone way up.