SQ Me, Are You A Sports Car?

Audi’s SQ7 seven-seater luxury SUV straddles that fine line between pomp and performance.

- Jacques Kew

When every other month’s flavour seems to be some electrified thingamabob after another, there is no greater breath of fresh air for petrolheads than the new-to-Singapore Audi SQ7, with its naughty V8 under the bonnet.

The instant thrust of an electric drivetrain may seem cool at first, but the novelty quickly wears off, mostly due to the hair-trigger pedal requiring more measured ‘throttle’ inputs than a conventional petrol engine.

The SQ7’s (and soon-to-come SQ8) punchy 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 is also found in Audi’s range-topping RS 6 Avant and RS Q8 models. Those who are familiar with it know that it is a charismatic beast that delivers a whopping 507hp and 770Nm. This is enough to catapult the 2.2-tonne seven-seater luxury SUV from standstill to 100km/h in 4.1 seconds as it charges towards its 250km/h maximum speed.

Audi’s S variants are all-rounders that sit a notch below the high-performance RS models. The SQ7 is a sportier version of the Q7. The S models are engineered to deliver dynamic performance for occasional hard driving, but retain a modicum of civility for daily drive duties and long road trips.