Since petrol here is cheaper than mineral water (it really is), Audi had brought along only the 4200cc petrol-powered Q7s – which effortlessly propels the massive SUV thanks to 350 bhp at 6800 rpm and 44.4 kgm of torque at 3500 revs. Soon, a 233 bhp, 3000cc diesel will debut and that is what will prove popular amongst our films stars and corporate honchos. Primarily because you will need someone with 4200ccmore than a modicum of driving ability to get the best out of the FSI engine – Audi claims a top speed of 244 kph and a 0 to 100 kph timing of just 7.4 seconds, you see. Before I wrongly decided that I am good at it, we reached the Audi desert camp which was basically a nice set of tents perched on a sand dune and bursting at the seams with food.
Audi had set up a nice and simple off-road course that let journalists understand how capable the Q7 really is when it comes to difficult approach and descent angles and how deft the powertrain can be when it comes to transferring power to selected wheels that deserve it the most. That done, the suitably impressed journo bunch was driven around by expert drivers (who in normal life wield Toyota Land Cruisers to earn a living doing desert safaris). Audi probably knew that journalists cannot be flown halfway around the world (not us, there were dudes from South Africa and Australia, for heaven’s sake) and not be let loose on the sand dunes. So they did and that meant some magical movements of sideways driving under the watchful eyes of experts. Alright, we didn’t do much sideways driving or for that matter we didn’t have to drive the Q7 – it drove by itself is more like it. On the rare occasion when the tyres lacked traction, technology interfered and set us going in the right direction. But what was amazing was the show put up by the ‘experts’, as they unleashed the real potential of the massive SUV on the sands. They clambered up sand dunes, skipped through them sideways and did everything short of digging an all-new oil well. It takes some serious years in battered Land Cruisers to know how to ‘perform’ on sand, I realised.
There is no doubting the ability of the Q7, but in the same breath, there is nothing ground-breaking about it either. It will be the car of choice for those who cannot wait for the new BMW X5, those who cannot stand the looks of the Mercedes M-Class, those who think the Range Rover is too British. And on the rare occasion when they cross the path of a twister, hailstorm, sandstorm or mudslide, they will realise that they have spent their money well.
Soon it was time to head back to Dubai. Driving flat out, really as flat out as possible, was like playing Test Drive II on a black-and-white monitor. Featureless deserts, vast highways, occasional oncoming traffic (on the right side most of the time, thankfully), skyscrapers in the distance that were growing bigger by the second, suburbs to begin with and then a massive city full of traffic. As I parked the big Audi in the hotel parking lot, I half expected the MMI display to say ‘My grandmother drives better than you’. It didn’t, and that meant it was all for real.
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