The enormous Audi Q7 approaches the steep ramp transversely. Its front right wheel makes contact first and as the seven-seat SUV moves forward, leaning progressively and precariously to its left, its rear right wheel mimics what a dog does near a fire hydrant.
All of a sudden, the horizon wobbles like a scene out of the 2010 science-fiction movie Inception and the tarmac on the left rises up to the car’s window sills.
One of the car’s occupants turns a whiter shade of pale. “Quite scary, leh,” he utters.
Welcome to the Audi Sport Driving Experience, where you are re-acquainted with the fun aspects of driving (and, hopefully, not your breakfast). The SUV segment of the programme – which has been running since May 13 and which ends tomorrow – allows participants to tackle terrain they would never attempt with their own cars.
To be honest, there are worse ways to blow $300 ($250 for Audi owners).
Besides the said ramp, the other thrilling obstacle is a giant see-saw. You climb up a steep slope, see only sky and then tap on the brakes just after the midway point. This tilts the contraption forward and you drive off it, heart beating like an 18-year-old on his first date.
Back on terra firma, you move off to the next station – a slalom course, which you hurtle through in a 252bhp A4, trying your best not to murder any rubber cone along the way.
There is plenty of screeching from tyres, strong whiffs of burnt rubber and another huge helping of adrenaline coursing through your veins.
There is also a full-on acceleration strip, where you pretend to be a drag racer. With each run, you ask yourself, can you hold off touching the brakes for one more microsecond? It is a game of chicken no one can resist.
The star event must be the one where you drive the new R8 V10 Coupe around a twisty 800m track.
It is a tight circuit, but you would be amazed what speeds you can get up to. The new Audi supercar on hand has more than 600 ponies in rein and hits the century mark in 3.4 seconds.
Being not used to left- hand-drives, some participants have a hard time keeping in line with the lead car driven by an extremely severe German instructor.
“You are doing everything but following my lines,” he hisses into the walkie-talkie.
“Your lines are very creative.”
Audi has been organising this extraordinary driving event on and off for at least 10 years. If I recall, an instructor from one of the first events might have come straight from bootcamp too.
But the participants – numbering 1200 this time around, according to Audi Singapore – take it all in good spirit.
Either that or they are too in awe of the R8, which starts from $799,888, to care. In fact, everybody looks like he is having a blast.
