Alila Jebel Al Akhdar is 1950 m above sea level. The gauges on the TFT screen of the Audi Q8 told me that. They also told me that the new member of the Quattro team had effortlessly mapped the mountain path at an average of over 80 kmph. The Q8 must know a lot about impressive ascents – it had just climbed to the top of the Audi ladder to be the brand’s new flagship.

THE SPECS: Audi Q8 3.0L Turbo / 335 hp, 600 Nm / Top speed 231 kmph / 0 – 100 kmph in 6.3 sec | AUDI Q7: 3.0L Supercharged / 333 hp 440 Nm / Top speed 250 kmph / 0 – 100 kmph in 6.3 sec

THE DIMENSIONS: Q8 – L x W x H 4986 x 1995 x 1705 mm Wheelbase: 2995 mm Boot: 605 L | Q7 – L x W x H 5052 x 1968 x 1741 mm Wheelbase: 2994 mm Boot: 770 L

THE HIGHLIGHTS: Audi 12.3” virtual cockpit, MMI navigation plus with operating buttons in haptic feedback, Adaptive damping control, 6 airbags, Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle technology, Full LED headlights (Matrix LED headlights optional with rear lights animation)

THE PRICE: 55TFSI Quattro Tiptronic – starting AED 300,000 As tested: up to AED 385,000

THE UPSIDE: Peppy drive, Blend of sport and luxury styling, Confident handling, Glossy Technology

THE FLIPSIDE: Lazy door closure, Turbo lag, Front AC vent orientation could be better

What’s new in the design and how does it compare with the Q7?

The new Audi Q8 is different from the Q7, and you don’t need to take a second look for that. Standing out in the parking lot of the airport, where it welcomed me to Oman and bid me goodbye twenty eight hours and 550 km later, the Audi Q8 stood for a world of things different from the Q7, despite being built on the same chassis, having almost the same ground clearance and wheel base. The Audi Q8 is just short of being 5.0 m long, almost 2.0 m wide and 1.71 m tall – which is 66 mm shorter, 27 mm wider, 36 mm lower than the Q7.

If I summed up the essence of the new design into a list of five, the first would be the framed grille with eight sides to it, instead of the usual six. That’s the new design language of Audi and it’s only befitting that it starts with the Q ‘eight’! The second thing is the long and narrow headlamps – which on a closer look you realize isn’t all that narrow but the lower panel has been blacked out for those stylishly sharp eyes: just as they have done with the strip across the rear lamps. Apart from a mild a hint at the new Porsches, this black panel is a throwback at the original Quattro model of the eighties. Actually, much of the rear profile reminds one of the Cayenne and if that is the third design highlight, the fourth is the frameless doors – keeping with Audi’s brief to its designers to keep it as close to a sport coupe as possible. The fifth design element I have picked is closer to the ground: the seriously good-looking 22” wheels – something we in the region seem to have an obsessive liking for! So, like a CEO taking over the top slot with a slew of striking changes, the Q8 has assumed the top rung on the Audi ladder.

The design is half the drive. I mean, the sleek and low profile and the bold and gritty face convey all that the sculpted body with its rear haunches, lip spoilers, lower grille and fake exhausts want to instill in you: the assurance that this isn’t just a multipurpose family van and the confidence to push it to the edge. And that’s what I would do later that day, on the edges of Oman’s highest mountain roads!

 A comfortable urban drive

Driving from the airport and all the way to the foothills of Jebel Al Akhdar, one thing was obvious. Audi had taken its best ride and added a couple of cushions to it: in many ways. Despite rolling on 22” wheels, the car didn’t feel too bumpy or hard on my back. Remember that the suspension settings are actually tighter than the Q7 to give the Q8 a sportier ride. Those cushions show up during braking too, while slowing down at highway speeds or easing to a halt. The cushions are again at work with the double-glazed glass that keeps out much of the noise.

The engine in the Q8 is a turbo charged 3.0L, which is steady and swift in delivering its power, yet not without holding out initially but the torque-rich ascend in the sport mode quickly tides over the lag. In the new Q8, ‘sporty’ is not an excuse to compromise on the spacious, luxurious ride. After all, it’s a 5-seater sharing the same chassis as Audi’s 7-seat SUV. If anything, the five occupants enjoy greater comfort in the cabin and despite the mildly raking roofline, there is ample headroom, too!

A briefing, a stubborn fan, hairpins and an invisible stopwatch

Travelling a couple of hundred kilometres isn’t much these days in any cabin worth its leather and Audi’s new benchmark for the Q remained calm and unruffled by wind or road imperfections. Interestingly, the elegant grey Q8 seemed to have a made-to-order feel about its interiors, largely due to the attention to detail.

The Q8 continued to keep a straight face as the speedo climbed closer to what should be its limit. As I was getting used to the car, the Q8 felt a tad too eager at some turns, because the progressive steering responds more directly as speed increases. Further, Audi offers all-wheel steering but only as an option. This tech can turn the rear wheels to aid steering. When you turn the front wheels at low speeds, the back wheels turn up to 5 degrees in the opposite direction – this adds up to reduce the turning circle by a whole meter (3.3ft)! At high speeds, the rear wheels turn up to 1.5 degrees in the same direction, which translates to greater stability in maneuvers like changing lanes.

I stopped at Nizwa for a quick video shoot to be used during my radio segment that evening. Just when I was winding up the shoot and was walking back to my car, it happened. An object whizzing past the nearby road suddenly yanked the brakes and made a detour down to where I was parked. It turned out to be a sport bike and the rider turned out to be err… an instant fan of the Q8 and a persistent one at that. What sprung up as an eager wish to click a few pictures of the Q8 soon became tireless pestering to get behind its steering wheel. Suddenly I felt – I’m sure the Q8 shared the same feelings – like I was being pushed and pursued by paparazzi (a strange feeling for a motoring journo to have, I assure you!) and just about then, a phone call arrived from top base. “Hey Sudeep! Have you crossed the checkpoint yet? It takes over 45 minutes to get to the resort from there.” Well, I didn’t know how far I was from the checkpoint. But I knew I was hardly 45 minutes from the product briefing and I didn’t want to miss it. I poured my determination into the skeptical ears of the event coordinator and the ready spirit of my valiant ride, and without wasting another second, revved the Q8 up the mountain, past the breathtakingly beautiful passes, the chasms and a forlorn cyclist who threw his fist at me – beseechingly or threateningly, I didn’t slow down to find out. The checkpoint came soon enough. With practiced neglect to an expected response, the checkpoint official asked me if the Q8 was ‘four wheel’ as only 4-wheel drive vehicles were allowed beyond that point. Audi’s new Quattro 8 continued its journey to the peak of Jebel Al Akhdar.

Dusk fell, and darkness descended rapidly as I approached my destination – Alila Jebel Akhdar. The LED headlights of the Q8 cut through the night and illuminated the road, long and wide. While these are standard, HD Matrix LED technology is an option. The latter senses approaching traffic and selectively switches off parts of the headlights so that they don’t beam into the face of approaching drivers – selectively, so that you still have the advantage of a high beam.

The last stages of the drive got more perilous with sharp hairpins and edges that were too narrow for comfort. All along, the Q8 showed evidence of traction management that would prove itself beyond doubt the next day. As an invisible clock ticked inside my head, I flogged the speedy SUV except where the road was too narrow or steep. The Q8 seldom had to shuffle down from the mid-gears and the gearshift was in automatic for most part of the way up. As I drove into the porch of Alila Jebel Akhdar, the Product Expert was still setting up his projector in the briefing room.

Quick yet fuel-efficient, with a hybrid touch!

The journey started at the airport with a range of almost 700 km, and after a blazing three hundred kilometres, it was still showing 210 km. Apart from the efficient 8-speed transmission, an interesting technology that saves a few drops is the ‘mild hybrid electric vehicle technology’ (MHEV) that allows the Q8 to coast along while cruising on highways between 55 kmph and 160 kmph or going down a slope. During braking, the system can recover up to 12 kW of power and feed it back into the battery. While 0.7 L saved for every 100 km might seem meagre, for a car doing 20,000 km per year, this would mean 140 L of petrol saved, emissions included. As a bonus, the 48 V electric motor can also provide up to 7 Nm extra torque when required!

After mountain roads, roadless mountains!

The next day got to a rolling start as I climbed into a black Q8 with an earful of cautionary briefing – keep the gearshift manual; stick to the lower gears; and brake judiciously to avoid overheating. Better pay heed, because the way down is always more treacherous than the way up!

The Q8 seemed fine in third and fourth gears except in sharp turn-ins and slopes, and the traction generated was very reassuring for the adventure that lay ahead. Generally, the front and rear wheels share the power at 40:60 but it can push up to 70% power to the front and 85% to the rear, depending on which wheels have more traction.

The new Audi Q8 benefits from the Quattro drive, the short overhangs, hill descent control and the ground clearance – a maximum of 254 millimeters (10.0 in) with the adaptive air suspensions and 220 millimeters (8.7 in) with the standard suspension. The adaptive air suspensions offer two set-ups to choose from – comfort or sport. They can adjust ride height by up to 90 millimeters depending on whether you are parked (to make it easier to get out of the car) or how fast you are going (the vehicle lowers itself at high speeds). While adaptive air suspensions are optional, adaptive dampers come as standard in the Q8 for our region.

The Q8 I drove the previous day did not have adaptive air suspensions, but not knowing that perhaps helped me put more faith in the car! Sometimes ignorance can lift barriers of bliss. On day two, I was about to experience the bliss from ignorance, yet again. En route to the Al Hota caves, we scaled another mountain that was half the height of Jebel Al Akhdar. But it was more challenging, as the roads were the same colour as the mountain! On the 22” wheels that were designed to look good when they rolled into a hotel porch, the Q8 tackled loose gravel, winding dirt roads and steep hairpins, as grazing sheep gazed on from their safe perches. The Q8 made good speed, while slowing down where it seemed tricky. Actually, this wasn’t Martian terrain but it nevertheless demonstrated the car’s surprising off-road abilities. The Quattro was locked and the hill descent control was on, and my Q8 and I were absolutely fine – until I was told that this version was fitted with adaptive air suspensions and therefore had an off-road mode! Blithering me.

So what would have changed if I had engaged that? Choosing the ‘Off-road mode’ in Audi drive select would have set the electronic stabilization control to stability, traction and braking control modes that are optimized for off-road driving. The standard hill descent control would be automatically on. Braking would have been supported by the car on slopes greater than 6 degrees and I could set a steady speed up to 30 km/h, so that I could fully focus on where the car was going. Impressive, but as I said, my Q8 and I crossed the mountain without it!

Cabin and controls

The elegant, glossy, angular, and dual screens introduced in the Audi A8 are replicated in the Q8. They sleep in black elegance (when not appearing trampled with fingerprints) but confirm any command with haptic feedback – whenever you get to feel it, if you wonder how does the screen seem to ‘respond’ to your touch, well, there is a small motor beneath that does the trick! The upper 10.1-inch display is for infotainment and navigation while the 8.6-inch display below controls air conditioning, seat comfort, quick functions and you can use it to write your input by conveniently resting your wrist on the console or gear selector.

The Q8 has all the technology that wowed us in the A8. The camera has a 360º view and you can turn the graphic car around your finger, quite literally, to study the surroundings in detail! Another useful feature is how you can drag & drop a shortcut to the top of the second screen. So, all I had to do to start navigating my pre-set course from the airport was to press the icon that said “Alila Jebel Akhdar”. The Q8 cabin also allows for Internet access.

Perched at the top of the Audi ladder, the Q8 gets virtual cockpit as standard country setting. For those not familiar with the virtual cockpit, that’s the 12.3” digital instrument panel that sits in front of the steering. You can shuffle the gauges around and also get a panoramic view of the map, from end to end! Audi claims that its new cabin has the talent to understand you, thanks to ‘natural language voice control’ – for instance, instead of asking to find the nearest restaurants, you can simply state aloud that you are hungry. So I guess you can set the cabin temperature by just saying “Phew! It’s too hot in here!” (I should admit I didn’t get to try this feature but voice commands for destinations have seldom worked to my satisfaction! So…) And talking about the weather, the air-conditioning vents blend into the dashboard design, nice and narrow but that seemed to make it hard to turn the air vents my way. Well, to complete the tech talk, yes, there is a whole package of driver assistance from a blinking blind spot monitor to rear traffic or obstruction alert to automatic self-parking.

Family Drive

While I had the new Q8 all to myself on my way to the peak of Akhdar, a couple of passengers enlivened the journey back to the airport. The rear was quite spacious and the seats very comfortable – what do you expect when you build a 5-seater on the same platform as a comfortable 7-seat vehicle? Despite a lower profile, there is still headroom of about a metre and 605 L of boot space that grows to over 680 if you slide the rear seat forward, and to a copious 1755 L if you let it fall flat. A bug in the blissful cabin was the need to deliberately press the doors shut often, except when equipped with the automatic soft-close option.

The essential Audi Q8

In terms of space, capability and ‘showizardry’ the Q8 is the new benchmark for the 2019 Audi range. Some might argue that given a chance the Q7 would use its Quattro to clamber up mountains. Given a chance, and that is the point. It is the aura of ability that enwraps the new Q8 that inspires you to take its abilities as seriously as its ride comfort.