Make no mistake; the Audi A7 Sportback is a beautiful car. Essentially it is a sports version of the Audi A6 but it is also so much more than that.
There are three flavours of engine to choose from. At the bottom one of these sits a 2.8 litre petrol engine which delivers a relatively modest 201 bhp. Next there is the 3 litre supercharged petrol engine which delivers a more desirable 296 bhp and thirdly there is the diesel version, which is a 3 litre TDI is producing 201 or 240 bhp depending on the configuration of the car.
Not surprisingly you will enjoy the best performance from the 3 litre version which will accelerate you from rest to 62 mph in 5.6 seconds, which is very fast for this class of car and faster than much of the competition. The top speed of this, and all the other versions, is 155 mph (electronically limited).
All cars come in two or four wheel drive configurations and for the two wheel drive models you can You can opt for a seven speed or eight speed semi-automatic gearbox though for the four wheel drive models you are restricted to the seven speed. There is paddle shift and double clutch for close to instantaneous gear change.
As you might anticipate handling is excellent and the car grips the road well; the traction control hardly needs to do anything even when you are burning it round tight bends which it will do very smoothly. The reason for this is the so-called torque vectoring traction control system that applies very gentle braking to individual wheels at the first sign of slip.
An exciting feature of this car is the drive select system. This can be set to auto, comfort, dynamic and personal. If you want to enjoy what this car can do on bendy roads, then select the dynamic, but if you really want to set up the car to your own driving style, then you will love the personal.
Altogether the Audi A7 Sportback is a gorgeous looking car that delivers real performance for a not too unreasonable price.