Remember waiting for the train to rumble past as a kid? Remember the effect as the locomotive thundered through the station. How your jaw dropped . . . how the ground beneath you shook . . . the awe tinged with fear. Of course, you do. Audi, it seems, wants you re-live these emotions with the design of its new Q7. The new SUV is nothing if not locomotive. Imposing to put it lightly.

So it’s no surprise that you expect it to drive like the two-and-a-half tonne beast it is. Every visual clue tells you to expect to have to concentrate and pay attention when you steer it. Over five metres long and more than two metres wide, the Q 7’s size is daunting, especially if you’re driving in typically unruly Indian traffic. Life gets tougher on a narrow single-lane highway.

So I pay a little more attention, check the width of the mirrors and glance a couple of times at the rear windscreen to imprint the size of the Q7 in my mind. Then roll the steering wheel to the right and merge in with the traffic. This road is as serpentine as they come, and it rises and dips periodically as well. Just the sort of road you don’t want to hustle an SUV on. The Q7 takes up much of the single-lane highway, and I happen to notice that the Tata 407 truck we have just driven past is not that much larger.

The road opens up, more right foot, and a quick twirl and dab on the Multi Media Interface (MMI) to put the air springs in dynamic mode. Audi’s screen-based MMI control system is the best of the lot, clear and legible and intuitive too. The Q7’s ride height is now significantly lowered, body control feels tighter, and there’s less wallow too. It’s quick to change direction, the steering is quite direct and the thing that smacks you in the nose is just how much this car shrinks as you drive it quickly.

It is not easy to make a huge vehicle drive beautifully. But ask any Boeing 747 captain, there is a way. It’s all about achieving a fine balance between agility, stability and an ability to change direction accurately. And Audi seems to have found it. Feeling no larger than a Skoda Octavia, the Q7 when driven hard is neat, the steering quick and direct, and overall ability of the package to impart confidence is simply amazing. Audi’s Quattro system has been set up with a strong rear bias and the ability of the air springs and dampers to stiffen themselves negates much of the weight. Then there’s the leech-like grip from four huge contact patches, the super push-button gear selectors behind the steering wheel and the fast-reacting auto ‘box.

It is very easy to drive the Q7 really hard. You soon find yourself setting the car up for corners, using the well-weighted brakes to carry as much speed as possible. That is until you start to feel some of the inevitable weight transfer and remember that this car is a heavyweight. No, yet again, the Q7 can’t quite match BMW’s spot-on X5 when it comes to the twisties, not the Porsche Cayenne either, but this car is almost a full size larger. For what it achieves carrying all that excess baggage around, it is agility personified.

Okay, for a car that costs upwards of Rs 60 lakh, the performance of the diesel Q7 is nothing spectacular. The Q7 has 230bhp and with its weight is a mere 99bhp per tonne. Thank God for all that torque and the six-speed auto that fortunately always has the right gear on hand. A hundred kilometres an hour comes up in under nine seconds and it did crest 200kph, but if you want power, it’s the 350bhp 4.2-litre FSI V8 you need to opt for. This direct injection petrol motor is a gem, probably one of the best medium- capacity V8s out there. So if you’re not hypersensitive about your fuel bill, this would be a good option.

For the most part, the common-rail-equipped diesel Q7 drives just as well. Its effortless cruising ability is due to the massive 51kgm of torque available from 1400rpm, with around 35kgm available almost as soon as you tap the throttle at 1100 or 1200rpm. The manhole-cover-sized rims you see on this car are a colossal 20 inches in diameter. Usually this would mean an excessively thumpy ride but with its air suspension set on comfort mode, the ride over broken sections of road are quite acceptable. Of course, you are made aware of big holes and some knocks filter through, but none of those sledgehammer blows that you normally get with large rims such as these. It’s all down to the massive weight, the long travel suspension, those air springs and the adaptable shock absorbers. We even found the Q7’s ride to be quite acceptable at low speeds over damaged tarmac. Still, we think 19-inch rims would be a tad more practical. And they would still look fabulous too.

Parking the beast, as you can imagine, is a nightmare. Most gaps are just too small to squeeze into and unless you’ve been a bus driver, backing into a slot is taxing. Opting for the reversing camera, with its predictive path display, is essential. Still, rear visibility isn’t too bad, certainly better than most SUVs. Like most Audis, there’s that difficult-to-put-your-hands-on thing, something special about the cabin. In isolation, the leather, plastic and chrome are nothing extraordinary, just bits of very high quality, but the sum of all parts, as the saying goes, is greater. A perfect blend of design, quality and overall comfort, there is almost a touch of genius about it. This is especially true at night, when Audi’s patented ‘red glow’ back lighting gives it that extra special feel.

The front seats just can’t be faulted, and offer a super driving position as well as day-long comfort. And refinement from the common rail motor, that uses a special silent mode until halfway up the powerband, is incredible as well, almost petrol-car silent. However, I didn’t particularly care for the steering that could easily have come from the A4, but the size is just right.

Rear seat passengers get a lot of space in terms of legroom but the Q7’s low roof means they are sat a tad low. Still you never feel uncomfortable and, importantly, the extra air con unit for rear seat passengers is very effective. There is a third row of seats you can opt for too (not featured on this car) and the well-made seats fold into the floor as well. But space is at a premium and access difficult. The Q7 we drove was fitted with a massive front as well as rear sunroof, and opening it on a breezy evening was really super, almost as airy as a convertible with none of the penalties. This is especially true when you’re going off-roading and have the wilds all around you.

With its independent suspension raised, this built-for-the-road SUV doesn’t manage too badly off-road either. Sharing platforms with the Porsche Cayenne and VW Touareg, and built at the same plant in Bratislava Slovakia as well, the Q7’s focus is clearly on-road. Still as long as there are no excessively steep angles or large ramp-overs, the Quattro system does a fabulous job of managing traction, even with the road tyres this car came shod with. There is plenty of torque and if the need arises, the Audi can use a pseudo differential lock that utilises individual wheel braking. There is, however, no low range available as standard. Overall, the Q7 is not a patch on the Range Rover Sport we drove off-road recently (see October 2006 issue), but then it doesn’t pretend to be.

What will inflate the egos of most owners will be the effect the Q7’s presence has on the surrounding environment. Let’s just say we had many ‘open-mouthers’. You’ll look and feel like Genghis Khan, descending from his war wagon, and this has to do with the design as well as the vast acreage this SUV covers. The cowl is simply Himalayan, chest-high and as mean as a bulldog. Especially if the Q7 is standing up on tiptoe, its adjustable air suspension up high in off-road mode.

Audi’s ‘Bulgarian Beard’ once-piece grille goes especially well with the SUV theme and the almost-vertical drop from the top of the bonnet to the chin adds to the bulk. Adding to the sense of mass are the high-mounted ‘slit eye’ headlamps. The entire bulk of the body is placed within the wheel arches and the roof slopes back and low.

And check out how short the ‘D’ or the last pillar of the car is. Like the nose of the car, calling the rear pretty or attractive is to use an unlikely adjective, but the design is certainly not one you can ignore. The Audi Q7 has the look, amazing ride quality, superb refinement, good comfort and reasonable performance. It drives well in ‘Dynamic’ mode, you can opt for a third row of seats and build quality and finish are top-class. It may not be the best SUV to go off-road in, it may be huge and Audi’s dealer network may be restricted in India for now. But find yourself a good dealer, and you’ll find the Q7 is the type of SUV Indian customers desire. That’s probably the reason why buyers are Q’ing up!