The battle of the most powerful diesel engine on the market was gained in 2016 by the Audi SQ7.
It had the sprint to beat any hot-hatch on the market and room to carry seven people.

The SQ7 didn’t go for the three-liter barrier like the BMW or the Mercedes-Benz. The Audi engineers thought that a V8 is better than an inline-six or a V6 and, yes, no replacement for displacement either. So they put an engine that had more power than a Porsche Carrera and twice its torque inside a 2.2 tone vehicle.

The outside look of the SQ7 was distinctive compared with other versions of the Q7. The silver rim and horizontal lines on the grille, silver rear-view mirror cases, and the side-sills are all made to improve the aesthetic of the vehicle. It is true, that some of these features are also available as an S-Line trim level. But the four square exhausts in the back will tell a difference.

Inside, it is just like a well-equipped Q7 with sports leather seats for all seven places in the car. But the real masterpiece is under the hood, where all the magic happens.

The 4.0-liter V8 turbodiesel engine was fed by a complex system of two turbochargers and one electric power compressor (EPC). This effectively cuts the turbo-lag. It gives a punch in a quarter of a second. The two turbochargers are introduced in sequential order. There is a smaller turbo for low and mid-range engine speeds and a larger one for higher revs. And this is how the magic happens and the 2.2-ton SUV can sprint from 0 to 100 kph (0-62 mph) in 4.8 seconds.