Q7 flattens the Alps
SOUTH African motoring journalists, it seems, carry their own automotive karma. The day before and the day after the SA contingent were to drive the all-new second-generation Audi Q7, the famous Alpine resort of Verbier enjoyed perfect early-summer weather, with temperatures in the middle twenties and clear skies.
The day we got there, it snowed; not just a warning sprinkle but a solid 10 centimetres of firm powder. The unseasonal weather played havoc with our travel plans, but it gave us an invaluable opportunity to drive Audi’s new flagship SUV in the conditions it was designed for.
Let’s face it, nobody is going to go expeditioneering in a fully leathertrimmed luxury bus with low-profile sports tyres on 21-inch alloys, Bang & Olufsen surround sound and the plushest floor-mats I’ve seen this side of a Rolls-Royce.
Which is not to say you couldn’t, but Audi’s quattro permanent allwheel drive is really all about keeping your family safe in the treacherous conditions Northern Europeans have to deal with every winter.
And it does so, magnificently. By the time we drove the 53km of narrow, twisty, hairpin-bestrewn but superbly engineered mountain road from the Sion valley to Verbier village, 1 531 metres higher up in real Heidi country, the snow had been churned up by passing traffic into almost-knee-deep islands of slush, in all the wrong places on streaming wet roads.