Road & Track has published a comparison between the Lexus GS 350 F Sport and the Audi A7 3.0 TFSI Quattro:
Romping through some uphill bends, the Lexus feels fleet and certainly has a handling edge on its heavier Quattro-equipped competitor whose natural propensity is to understeer at turn-in. But as it literally starts to rain on our parade, the advantage skews heavily the other way. Kim notes, “The GS’ high-tech suspension may be too sophisticated for its own good.”
The F Sport does shine over the A7 in lateral support, thanks to 16-way adjustable form-fitting bucket seats. These easily qualify as the best factory seats available today.
On a purely emotional front, it’s the F Sport that gets our attention, as it’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.
While the A7 is eventually named the better of the two cars, it’s by the slimmest of margins — in the end, the GS F Sport finished with 380.6, just 6.7 points behind the A7 and its 387.3 final score. Going by the points breakdown, the difference is all in the performance — the Audi’s supercharged 3.0-liter V-6 ends up being the deciding factor.
Here’s the accompanying video that summarizes the review in under four minutes:
Of course, all this ignores the obvious comment — these two cars don’t really line up as true competitors, and when price is figured into the Road & Track equation, the A7 tops the GS 350 F Sport by just 1.6 points.
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