CLUBHOUSE | DRIVING RANGE
IN A Class of its Own Ben Oliver profiles the Audi A7 Sportback, a practical four-door coupe with the ability to turn heads
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uying a car was once so easy. They fell into easily defined ‘segments’, as the car industry likes to call them. We had hatchbacks, saloons, estates and sports cars. Later, people-carriers and SUVs added more choice. You simply picked the body style that best fitted your needs, decided on a size – medium-sized saloon, sir, or large? – and then chose between the various offerings in that category. Now it’s a lot more confusing, the car makers expanding their ranges with ‘niche’ models that sit between the segments, often combining their attributes to make a unique new model that doesn’t really have any direct rivals, might only sell in small numbers but suits some buyers perfectly. Mercedes-Benz invented the four-door coupe ‘niche’ back in 2004 with the first generation CLS. BMW has joined in with its four-door Gran Coupe based on its 6-series, but Audi has produced two: the A5 and now the A7 Sportback, based respectively on the A4 and A6 saloons. The theory behind four-door coupes is appealing: that many buyers need four doors and four seats to carry family and friends, but are willing to sacrifice a little rear head- and leg-room for a much lower, more rakish, more stylish, sports-car profile. Long tails mean you won’t sacrifice much golf-club space in the boot. Audi’s A7 is arguably the most successful execution of the theory: a really striking, elegant, powerful-looking car that asks for little compromise in return for its ability to turn heads. It’s long and low; you get down into it the way you enter a sports car, and all four doors have frameless glazing to emphasize that coupe feel.
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But at the rear there’s a practical hatchback giving easy access to the capacious boot, and your rearseat guests will only finds their heads brushing the headlining if they’re over six feet tall. You sit noticeably lower too, but the ride isn’t sports-car firm, the chassis providing a fine balance between precision and comfort, not something Audi has always got right in the past. And the cabin is pure Audi: stylish, constructed with an obsessivecompulsive attention to detail, quality and material choice, and with an element of theatre in the way the satellite navigation screen motors out of the dashboard. For Hong Kong, there’s a choice of two engines. The 2.8-litre six-cylinder with 204hp comes with Audi’s excellent S-tronic twinclutch gearbox giving either seamless auto changes or full, instant manual control. Or there’s a 300hp 3.0-litre which rockets to 100km/h in just 5.6 seconds, yet still produces excellent fuel economy figures with its advanced combination of turbocharging and direct fuel injection. Both HKGOLFER.COM
come with Audi’s legendary Quattro four-wheel drive system giving sure-footed grip in poor conditions – ideal for tropical downpours – yet optimized to produce the same handling as a rear-wheel drive car. Put all this together and the A7 Sportback is an immensely appealing package: little wonder Automobile magazine in the United States made it their Automobile of the Year. We suspect that the four-door coupe ‘niche’ won’t stay just a niche for long.
Clockwise from top: The 3.0-litre version rockets to 100kp/h in just 5.6 seconds; the Audi’s stylish cabin; the striking lines of the A7 emphasize that coupe feel
SCORECARD (based on the 3.0 TFSI quattro) How much? HK$860,000 Engine: 2995cc V6 Transmission:
7-speed S-tronic dual clutch
automated manual
Performance:
5.6sec 0-100kph, 250kph
300hp @ 5250-6500rpm
How heavy? 1,785kg
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