Audi range drive experience at Hosur Aerodrome airstrip

Audi makes bulky SUVs, comfortable sedans and convertibles, and breathtakingly fast supercars. The recently decided to close down an airfield, bring all of them down and let some of us drive it.

The location was the Hosur Aerodrome which has a 2.4km and 150feet wide asphalt runway, controlled by the Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Limited. The runway is capable of hosting a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320 and we had a line up of more than capable supercars and SUVs at our disposal.

The day was split into three segments – The A-drive experience, the Q-drive experience and the coveted Sportscar experience. The most important of the three was the Sportscar experience because apart from the Audi S5, TT, RS7 and the RS6, Audi had the brand new Audi R8 V10 Plus supercar available for a drive in India for the very first time. I’ll get to that shortly, but let me just glance over the others quickly.

Audi A Drive Experience

First was the A drive that started us off early in the day. The cars in the fleet were the Audi A8L, the A6 Matrix, the A4, the A3 Cabriolet, and the A3 sedan. We were allowed to take our pick and take drive from the airfield to a 34km stretch through the beautiful countryside to Thally Lake.

The winding roads with lush greenery on either sides through meadows were only half the experience. The cars however were equally brilliant with their very supple ride quality, drivability, and sumptuous luxury. Only problem was, it was just too short of a drive. But we had to head back for the other stuff as well.

Audi Q Drive Experience

Back at the airfield the Q range was waiting - the baby Q3, the bigger Q5 and the larger Q7. For the SUVs, they had set up a nerve-racking off-road course on the north side of the Runway. The track included bumps, cross-axle obstacles, large dips just to get us warmed up, followed by 45? angled steep U-turns pushing the cars literally over the edge. The use of the small cliff gave us quite a bit of an adrenaline rush when you power up the incline and then just let go and watch the car roll down easily with its Hill Descent control. In terms of the car, the Q3 felt the most agile and easiest to manoeuvre, the but Q7 felt most capable despite being intimidating on the 45? angled turn due to its sheer size as it felt it could topple over any moment. The Q5 on the other hand was sort of like a Vanilla Milkshake- capable and smooth, just not really exciting in comparison to the other two.

Audi Sportscar Experience

In the Sportscar Experience segment of the day, Audi had planned to initially use the entire 2.4km runway, but then they thought it would be better if it was only half of that. With a really early braking point. Possibly they expected people to get bored once the cars max out. But before coming to the real deal, we were given a few runs in the S5, TT, RS6 and the RS7 to gradually get used to the acceleration and the power. After enjoying our runs and practicing our launches to get a good run in the we were told to head for lunch.

When we returned they had two gorgeous Audi R8 V10 Plus supercars fuelled, lined up and ready. One by one we were each strapped into the cockpit – it literally feels like proper cockpit with all the buttons and the digital cockpit instrument cluster and all that stuff – but luxurious none the less. The car in front set of first and just vanished in a fraction of a second and I was summoned to the line for my run.

Once the runway was cleared, I was told to go for it. I didn’t bother with the launch control, and tried to do it manually with my left foot on the brake and naturally botched my start. But I had set off and there was no turning back. I floored the throttle and then felt the same sensation a human being shot out of a cannon. In a matter of seconds, I was doing triple digit speeds and leaping numbers on the speedometer up until the breaking point. Crossed the line and I went hard on the brakes from well over 270km/h. I couldn’t be bothered to look how fast my run was, I was too busy enjoying the car. The car didn’t even twitch even the slightest, it just obeyed my orders like a well groomed Giant Schnauzer. In a matter of 10-15 seconds, the entire stretch was over and was asked to get out and go home.

Also Read: 2017 Audi A4 Review: First Drive