Sink the right foot and there’s a slight pause before the RS7 Sportback explodes out of the blocks, even in its most potent and reactive Dynamic drive mode. Left to its self-shifting devices, the eight-speed automatic upshifts crisply and seamlessly, the quattro system firing a maximum of 80 per cent torque rearward, shimmying the coupe’s tail through the first three ratios.
The auto isn’t completely flawless on the move, though. Modulate the throttle and the combination of sheer engine torque and considerable vehicle mass can leave the transmission occasionally thumping during upchanges and downchanges. In manual mode, the eight-speed will occasionally and belligerently shift without given the command by the driver.
And launch after launch, it’s a stunning, startling performance of clockwork-like consistency. The same tireless prowess is clearly demonstrated in braking, with our test car fitted the optional $20,940 420mm-diameter carbon-ceramic brake package. From 150km/h, the retardation force of a full-ABS activated emergency stop is simply heart-pounding.
Stopping power is, as you’d expect, Herculean, even when the discs and pads are stone cold. And their staying power even on a fast circuit such as Phillip Island in inexhaustible. Most impressive, however, is their low-speed usability: no loss in feel or progressive take-up compared with steel brakes, none of that squeaking like times and designs of old.
Dig in and the pace the Audi RS7 Sportback can generate around the fast and flowing Phillip Island circuit is truly impressive. It’s a properly fast device.
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