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| 500bhp from supercharged V8 |
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What's good for the eye is equally good for high-speed stability; the aerodynamic changes lower the drag coefficient to 0.31Cd, allowing the car to sustain a top speed of 186mph on the autobahn. We didn't get the chance to verify that on our rain-soaked day up on the moors near Macclesfield, but there was ample chance to savour the car's accelerative abilities.
The B7 has a kind of two-stage throttle pedal. The first three quarters of travel unleashes the sort of grunt that the owners of big V12-powered saloons will be familiar with, wafting the car past ordinary traffic rapidly and relentlessly as the charger spools up, with no let up in the acceleration. When you do finally garner the nerve to push past the natural resistance barrier and press pedal to carpet, though, you'd better have plenty of room because this is where the B7 leapfrogs from the realm of the merely very fast into the rarefied world of bona fide supersaloons. Prepare to punch a tank-sized hole in the horizon. Lordy, this thing's quick.
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| A bona fide supersaloon |
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If the sheer raw acceleration is what sucks the breath out of your lungs, then it's the smoothness and clarity of response that comes back and delivers the coup de grace to your solar plexus. That such a small engine can produce so much pulling power, yet package it up and deliver it in such a refined, accessible manner is nothing short of a landmark in the field of powertrain engineering.
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