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"1st - 2012 Audi A7 3.0 TFSI Quattro Points 387.3   The one-word answer is &amp;quot;torque&amp;quot;\u2014325 lb.-ft. at 2900 rpm to be exact, backed at the top end by 310 bhp at 5500 rpm. And it puts a lot of distance between the A7 and GS for a negligible penalty in fuel efficiency. As you bring foot to firewall, you suddenly feel what&amp;#039;s missing in the GS equation, which adds up to nearly a second and 4.4 perform\u00ADance rating points by the time both cars hit 60 mph. The A7 blisters to 60 in 4.7 seconds, while it takes the GS 5.5. To have this supercharged 3.0-liter V-6 serve as a &amp;quot;base engine&amp;quot; is akin to ordering the SEAL Team 6 in to quell a domestic disturbance.        2012 Audi A7 3.0 TFSI Quattro    Beyond the power gap, the rest of the A7&amp;#039;s drivetrain and chassis show few areas of genuine weakness. Audi Drive Select allows for three varying levels (Comfort, Normal, Sport) of throttle response, shift parameters, steering assist and, oddly, seatbelt pretensioning in lieu of suspension damping. Although their highway performances were comparable, Audi&amp;#039;s 8-speed automatic noticeably outshines the Lexus&amp;#039; outdated 6-speed in shift response and quickness. And on those same newly drenched roads, it was the Audi&amp;#039;s oversized four-ring grille in my rearview mirror and Kim&amp;#039;s crackling voice over the radio reporting, &amp;quot;You don&amp;#039;t feel the Quattro all-wheel-drive system until you really need it, and these Yokohama Advan Sport tires work great in the wet!&amp;quot;        2012 Audi A7 3.0 TFSI Quattro    It&amp;#039;s when road conditions dry that you start to notice how softly sprung the A7&amp;#039;s nonadjustable sport suspension is, and the amount of lateral body heave that saps slalom speed with each successive cone you thread past. Despite its compliance, the A7 still manages a laudable 68.0-mph slalom run and pulls 0.93g on the skidpad, versus 0.89g for the Lexus. But as Kim reports, &amp;quot;The suspension&amp;#039;s high-speed damping makes for a surprisingly choppy ride on rough pavement.&amp;quot;   With regard to interior design, personal preference leaves much to debate, though Kim and I both favored the tighter, classic look of the Audi&amp;#039;s wood-grain trim in contrast to the aluminum-accented modern d\u00E9cor of the Lexus.        2012 Audi A7 3.0 TFSI Quattro    Comparing the infotainment systems is to compare Apple to Windows. I preferred Audi&amp;#039;s smart layout with usable redundancy and intuitive touch control to the more feature-laden, joystick-navigated menus of Lexus&amp;#039; setup, one a self-professed geek like Kim can appreciate. I too enjoyed the advantages of a joystick-controlled system but found the haptic menu feedback to be cumbersome at times as I navigated through its less user-friendly layout.      2012 Audi A7 3.0 TFSI Quattro    So what of the results? This race was closer than they usually come, but Audi&amp;#039;s ultimate victory was certainly hard earned and well deserved. Lexus, however, doesn&amp;#039;t leave empty-handed either, finally earning some contender street cred that further separates it from its somewhat staid, uninspiring image. On a purely emotional front, it&amp;#039;s the F Sport that gets our attention, as it&amp;#039;s the car both Kim and I are most excited to drive at the end of the day. But for now, our hats go off to the Audi A7. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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