Audi Q7 change time, change space

I've always dreamed of being free to wander back and forth in time and space, doing nothing, going as far as I want to see, and going wherever I want. In fact, I don't have such ability. I hope that there is a means of transportation that can allow me to really go back and forth like this. I don't need it to be able to go where I want to go, as long as it can arouse this feeling of time and space exchange is enough. .

A current celebrity said that SUVs are the image complement that men with physical regrets look for, and that real men will be their true love without complaint because of the ease of parking in a miniature car. Frankly speaking, this person has written a lot of articles and I admire them to the ground, but this sentence is obviously nonsense. His lack of pursuit of cars does not mean that those who pursue cars are not real men. I like SUVs, so I went to the United States to meet Audi's new SUV, the Q7, which the organization arranged for me to try out.

City

Yes, the Q7 is indeed an SUV, but I don't think it can be completely defined by these three English letters. A modern SUV means a multi-purpose sports car, and in order to be somewhat different from those hard-core off-road vehicles with the same size and the same big wheels, the SUV has more or less the brand of the city. In fact, I didn't experience the Q7 much on the streets of the city, and just drove a few kilometers and knew it.

There's no question that the Q7 is a horribly refined car, and I can subjectively but responsibly say that every Audi is a horribly refined car. It is said that the grandeur can see the difference in the details. The Q7 clearly understands the essence of this sentence and is meticulous in the details.

The design of the body is not particularly sparkling. The front of the car has the "big face" of the new generation of Audi family, which is also expected; the overall proportion is harmonious, the designers said they are depicting the top line of a coupe; the largest The characteristic of the SUV is obviously its long body. The body as long as 5 meters is indeed rare in this level of SUV. Fortunately, it does not look bloated, which is of course related to the relatively low middle of the body.

The body design of the Q7 adheres to the design philosophy of Audi civilian cars. It is not to catch the first eye, but to be carefully tasted and experienced, so the details are where they put the most effort.

The body does not have an exaggerated large curved surface, the radian is just right, and the various seam positions are very detailed. Open the door and sit in the driving position. The interior design has many similarities with the Audi family's A8 and A6, and the whole atmosphere is very harmonious. , there is no luxury, but it will never look messy and filthy. This is a kind of delicacy that needs to be felt and experienced. These are also within my expectations. Audi will never throw the word "luxury" at you, but use piles of impeccable details to prove their skills.

Turn the suspension setting to "Comfort", the Q7 is not too difficult to handle on the congested road in the city, although it is 5 meters long, but fortunately it is tall and big, I can clearly see it in a good field of vision Depending on the position, the clear reversing guidance system seems to be specially equipped for this behemoth.

The entire suspension system has little chance of performance in the city, but a few small decelerations will affect its calmness, even in the "comfort" setting, I still feel a little too stiff. The 4.2FSI gasoline V8 engine has plenty of power, but it is a little sluggish at the start due to the heavy body. After reaching a certain speed, it obviously feels a lot more powerful, especially the mid-section acceleration feels quite sharp, but it can still be used after reaching a higher speed. It feels like the power keeps coming, and the Audi V8 direct-injection gasoline technology engine has a profound heritage, and it lasts for a long time.

Although the Q7 is 5 meters long, its Servotronic steering system makes it more agile than expected, and the power is indeed strong, but these characteristics are not enough to make driving it in congested city traffic a pleasure. After a lifeless city drive, I opted for a quick and straight-forward start to the outskirts.

Country roads

Our space is changing. On the urban and rural expressways, the warm-up of Q7 has begun. The 4.2FSI heart is alive and kicking. The advantage of the mass engine is quite obvious. The new-generation radar-assisted distance control system is used on the Q7, which currently controls distance and speed from 0 to 200 km/h, so it can brake until the vehicle comes to a complete stop. The Q7 also has a very thoughtful and practical design - the lane change lateral assist system. If there is a high-speed approaching vehicle behind the side, the system will automatically remind the driver not to change lanes easily at the rear mirror. In fact, I rarely feel the superiority of this system, because no car can plug in from me at high speed throughout the journey.

Leaving the city on a country road outside of Phoenix, Arizona, I changed the suspension setting to "Dynamic", the body was lowered without knowing it, and the aero suspension felt Get tougher. The path is paved in the typical desert of Central and North America. The scenery on both sides is not just a piece of yellow sand. A large number of low shrubs and sporadic and tall Mexican-style cacti make the journey quite pleasant.

The terrain here is uneven, with occasional undulating continuous small humps, and many windings, but for the Q7, all this is a piece of cake, and it is easy to handle. My speed is not fast, and I don't want to be stopped by the American police who are hiding on the side of the road, but the Q7's excellent cornering ability and handling accuracy still give me a lot of confidence, the body roll is very small, it is difficult to imagine A 5-meter large car can have such an easy ability to roam the corners. The curves and undulating slopes in front of them are all smooth and smooth for the Q7.

The huge panoramic sunroof and all the windows of the Q7 are open all the way at this time, the air is dry but very refreshing, I listened to the Q7 theme song "Streets of Tomorrow" prepared by Audi in the BOSE audio controlled by MMI, and with one hand Driving with one hand on the cheek, all the troubles are left behind, I really want to drive to the end of the world like this.

But the end of the trail appeared, a smooth gravel road ahead, and I got out of the car, a quiet but provocative gravel road that seemed to take me to the 1982 WRC World Rally.

Back to 1982

In 1982, the Thousand Lakes Rally in Finland. The Audi Quattro racing car, which meets the Group B specifications, is unmanned on the high-speed and detailed gravel track in Finland, beating the Group B cars of other manufacturers in one fell swoop. Mouton and their Swedish colleague Stig Blomqvist won seven of the 11 rally races, earning Audi the manufacturer's title, while Mouton was runner-up in the Drivers' Championship.

The Quattro race car became one of the most classic rally cars in history, and then the Quattro race car continued to rampage the WRC and continued to create great results until the cancellation of the Group B race in 1986 and Audi announced its withdrawal. Audi in this era has developed the Torsen differential, and with the then-leading Quattro four-wheel drive system, Audi has always been the most competitive car on the field.

The gravel road

Time goes back to 2006, and the space also returns to Arizona. The gravel road just now is still quietly waiting for me and Q7. My career tells me it's a good rally track, with fine sand mixed with small rocks, mostly flat, with long straights and continuous corners.

The Q7 runs smoothly, and I am amazed at how smooth it is to handle such a gravel road. The suspension is very responsive, the shock absorber rebounds quickly and solidly, and it can feedback road sensing to the driver. Doesn't feel bumpy. When the Q7 drives on such a road at high speed, it is as relaxed as it is on the asphalt road, and the bouncing road seems to be "ironized" by the big iron of the Q7, giving people a strong confidence.

Step on the accelerator and enter a medium-speed corner, Audi's bloodline that was once infinitely brilliant in the rally field suddenly filled the whole body of the Q7, the low roar of the engine announced its fighting intent, and the speed inadvertently reached 100km/ h, I didn't look at the speedometer again before entering the corner, I just felt that the car was fully capable of completing the corner at this speed. The ride was smooth, the body dynamics didn't change, the tracking was strong and stable, there was no expected understeer, and it felt like I could get through corners at higher speeds.

Afterwards, the Q7 also showed Audi's profound skills on the gravel road in a set of consecutive corners and a U-shaped hairpin, and the suspension performance was still very sensitive. The unique technology Quattro system allows the huge body to be very flexible and stable in various corners of the gravel road. The Q7 is equipped with the latest generation of Quattro full-time four-wheel drive technology. The torque distribution between the front and rear axles is 40:60, and the power output is slightly biased towards the rear wheels, so it has excellent flexibility when dealing with low-speed corners such as U-shaped corners. , Compared with the four-wheel drive system designed by other brands currently popular, Quattro does not have much electronic equipment and adopts a more reliable and precise mechanical design, which provides the best traction and lateral stability, while reducing the The traction effect produced by the vehicle's self-aligning characteristics is eliminated.

The Torsen Differential is a self-locking turbo mechanism, the Q7's newly designed Torsen Differential that automatically optimizes power distribution to 4 wheels (the Torsen name itself is "torque" and "torsen"). feeling" combination). This sets the stage for better agility, especially when driving the Q7 into corners with little to no disturbance of steering torque, ease and confidence.

The Quattro system is a unique skill that Audi is famous for. Although there has been an Allroad Quattro before, it is still shocking that Audi's first off-road vehicle can have such a skill on gravel roads. The newly designed Quattro The system is invaluable. After experiencing the excellent performance of the Q7 and looking back on the glorious days of the 1980s, I can't help but marvel at the fact that even though Audi has left the rallying field for 20 years, the Q7 is still a true master of gravel roads and complex road conditions.

Streets of Tomorrow

“Streets of Tomorrow”——Streets of Tomorrow, the theme song of the Audi Q7, a light yet passionate song, foreshadows Audi’s ambitions in the Q7. SUV models have become more and more popular mainstream models in the world auto market, especially in North America, the Middle East and Asia. Huge sales can bring considerable profits to manufacturers. Audi, as a traditional luxury car brand in the world, certainly does not. Abandon such a market.

According to Audi's official statement, the Q7 is not developed on the same platform as the Volkswagen Touareg and its "close relative" Porsche Cayenne, but is a new and independently developed product. The Q7 with a 5-meter-long body under the unique Quattro technology has no competition. Rival, this is an SUV for tomorrow's streets. The Q7 has already been launched in Germany, and the North American and Asian markets will be launched soon. For China, where the current road conditions are extremely complex and uneven, the Q7 may be able to exert its great strength.

When I came back from the U.S., I didn't have to lose the jet lag at all, I immediately fell into overtime working day and night upside down, let's change the time, and when I "retire" many years later, then change the space and leave the hustle and bustle of the city and the air. In the office full of sweat and nervousness, I drove an Audi Q7 and drove at full speed on the gravel road in the country, then stopped the car to fish leisurely, bask in the sun, and thought nothing of it. The comfort of life is nothing more than this. .

Who says a man with a passion shouldn't like an SUV? !