LIVING LARGE: AUDI A7 ARRIVES IN PARIS [LIVE IMAGES]

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LIVING LARGE: AUDI A7 ARRIVES IN PARIS [LIVE IMAGES]

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By Michael Taylor

Although it made its formal debut back in July at a private event in Munich, Audi's A7 didn't show up at a major international auto show until this week's Paris Salon.

A size larger than its existing A5 Sportback and aimed squarely at the Mercedes-Benz CLS and BMW 5-Series GT, the A7 will hit dealerships in late September.

A touch less than five meters long, the A7 has remained faithful to Audi’s original concept car from the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, with its sporty-looking rear end seamlessly integrating into an instantly identifiable Audi character at the front.

Riding on 18- to 20-inch wheels, the A7 will be just 55 inches high, in spite of its limo-challenging 75-inch width, giving it the sporty on-road stance Audi promised with its concept car.

The designers have also utilized its enormous 115 inch wheelbase to bulk up the rear seat leg room and to give the car its stretched proportions and slippery aerodynamics (it boasts a 0.28 coefficient of drag).

Initially offered with a choice of four V6 engines, the A7 base will have a 201 horsepower diesel model for the European market, while the range-topper is a 295 pony supercharged V6 gas unit that can hurl the car to 62 mph in 5.6 seconds.

All four engines use thermal engine management, which stops coolant from circulating until the engines and transmissions are at the right temperature, start-stop technology, regenerative braking and Audi’s new electro-mechanical power steering system, which it insists is good for a slight fuel savings.

The front-drive 3.0-litre TDI, with a combination of aluminum and steel body construction, weighs just 3,737 lbs - a comparative featherweight for a car this size.

The interior, too, is spacious and flexible, with more than 18.9 cubic feet of luggage space that can increase to 49 cubic feet when the rear seats are folded flat.

Like the recent A8 (and Jaguar’s new XJ), the A7’s interior also gets the wrap-around “horizon line,” which skirts the cabin’s outskirts to give it a more definite visual edge.

Also like the A8, the A7’s cabin can boast up to 15 Bang and Olufsen speakers, the finger-touch pad to control the MMI operating system, a pop-up screen and even an optional head-up display.

It also works with Google, connecting the car to the internet via your phone’s Bluetooth system to give the satellite navigation Google Earth’s picture database to make finding tricky locations even easier.

It also gets the full weight of Audi’s safety systems, including infra-red night vision to identify people and animals on the roadside at up to 300 meters (985 feet), the pre-sense system which can brake the car to avoid collisions and a lane-assistance system to warn you if the next lane is already full.

It also combines its electronic brains with its engine, gearbox, active cruise control and steering systems to provide both an automatic parallel parking system and to do all the tiresome stop-start accelerating and braking for you in heavy traffic, allowing you just to steer. It also uses an automatic headlight control to gradually step its high-beam light cone back towards itself and out of the eyes of the oncoming traffic in order to maximize its driver’s vision.

The initial lack of V8 engines also gives the A7 room to move inside the Audi range, staying out of the way of the freshly-launched A8 limousine on power and stepping clear of the A5 Sportwagon and the A6 sedan and wagon on sheer size.

It will be offered as both a front-wheel drive, with the power sent through the Multitronic (constantly-variable) transmission unit or to all four wheels in the Quattro models, which have also upgraded to the new crown-gear system which recently debuted in the hard-hitting RS5.

While the front-drive models are still the most frugal, the crown-gear system for the center differential can switch the drive between the front and rear axles very quickly and can swing between sending 70 percent of the torque to the front axle and 85 percent to the rear. And every point in between.

The entry point will be the front-drive, 3.0-liter TDI which manages to average 44.4 mpg in the European cycle despite producing 201 horsepower.

The entry-level gas motor will be the 2.8-liter, direct-injection V6, also with 201 horsepower, peaking at 5,250 rpm, and 206 lb-ft. of torque in a plateau from 3,000 to 5,000 rpm.

Coupled with the S-Tronic (double-clutch) seven-speed gearbox and Quattro all-wheel drive, the 2.8 moves the big A7 to 62 mph in 8.3 seconds.

If that doesn’t sound as fast as the A7 looks, that’s because the entry-level gas engine’s forte is economy, and it travels 29.4 miles on a gallon of fuel.

Yet, for all of that, the range-topping supercharged V6 3.0-liter TFSI is only fractionally worse off in fuel consumption, but punches to 62 mph 5.6 seconds, which is more like it.

The engine, which debuted just a week ago in the A8 long wheelbase limousine, holds its 295 horsepower peak between 5,250 rpm and 6,500 rpm, plus punches in the mid-range with 324 lb-ft. between 2,900 and 4,500 rpm. It is only mated with the seven-speed S-Tronic gearbox and only comes with Quattro all-wheel drive.

Besides the U.S. and Middle East-friendly gas engines, there are two versions of the much-revised 3.0-liter turbodiesel.

The most powerful of the two is the 241 horsepower version which, with 369 lb-ft., has the most torque in the entire A7 family. It’s a Quattro-only machine and it sprints to 62 mph in 6.5 seconds – helped enormously by its torque peak arriving at a very lowly 1,400 rpm.

Even with all this crunching mid-range performance, which will make it an autobahn terror in its native Germany, it averages 39.2 mpg, which isn’t much worse than its 201 horsepower, front-drive turbodiesel sibling.

A curious case, this, because it is listed as having 295 lb-ft. of torque in front-drive form, but 332 lb-ft. if you order it with all-wheel drive, when it will run to 62 mph in 8.1 seconds.

It runs all this with a strut-style front suspension and a sophisticated multi-link rear end, though Audi can drop the ride height by 10mm if you ask nicely and it can also fit the car with constantly adjustable air suspension on all four corners.

link:

http://www.leftlanenews.com/audi-a7.html