Bosch European Motors

Lights flicker underneath champagne-dry powder that dusts the old marquee at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah. When it was built, the Egyptian was a brick-and-mortar commitment by the boomtown to finer arts like theater and opera, surprisingly common among the mining outposts that dot the Rockies in Utah and Colorado. This morning, decades after the silver mines ran dry, Park City bustles with a new kind of gold rush. Sundance Film Festival organizers scurry in the cold morning at the Egyptian to ready the theater on Main Street as Hollywood鈥檚 winter home. The sun barely peeks over the Wasatch Mountains. Theaters like the Egyptian are the new star for Park City. Outside, the Q8 basks in a similar dawn. But both have bright lights for a new era. The goal for the Q8 was to sit on top of the automaker鈥檚 lineup for crossovers, but there are bigger brass rings to reach for Audi. The Q8鈥檚 exterior draws flared fender blisters from the Ur-Quattro sports cars and a thick rear roof pillar looks like the Quattro鈥檚 hatch if you close one eye from 10 feet away.

Any other similarities feel like a bigger stretch. The all-wheel-drive system in the Q8 draws a more direct line鈥攊t鈥檚 actually called Quattro鈥攁nd is a full-time system like the Audi racers of yesteryear. The system is rear-biased, too, but the Q8鈥檚 5,000-pound heft serves a 2.5-ton anchor to sink any further comparisons. The Q8 is the biggest, most expensive crossover from a brand that will sell more crossovers to U.S. Although it stops short of offering bleeding-edge, self-driving tech from the A8, or batteries like the E-tron, the Q8 will be Audi鈥檚 workhorse now and in the near-to-now. What about the R8? The view behind the wheel of the 2019 Q8 doesn鈥檛 bear the symbolic weight of Audi鈥檚 future鈥攅ven if the car鈥檚 curb weight does. Swathed in leather and bursting with ambient LED strip lighting, the Q8 glorifies and prefers deliberation. The car鈥檚 32 inches of high-definition screens (12.3 inches in the instrument cluster, 10.1 for infotainment, and 8.6 for climate and vehicle controls) are all presented in widescreen format鈥攁s long, flat, and seemingly unending as the horizon.

The steering is similarly relaxed like an unbroken sunset. The Q8 hardly relays any drama through its steering wheel, and while the standard adaptive suspension toggles between Comfort and Sport readily鈥攊t doesn鈥檛 stray too far from the former, even if it鈥檚 in the latter. Press the start button and the Q8鈥檚 turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 engine thrums quietly outside of thick dual-pane glass that wraps around a cabin that doubles as a sense-deprivation chamber. Its 5.6-second sprint to 60 mph never feels rushed, and the V-6鈥檚 335 horsepower feels confident among its contemporaries鈥攓uick but not groundbreaking stuff. The Q8 shares much of its hardware with the Q7鈥攚heelbase, powertrain, among other things鈥攂ut skips the third row in favor of more spread-out space in the second row. With more than 40 inches of rear-seat leg room, the Q8鈥檚 best for full-grown kids or better yet, no kids at all. The short of the long? The Q7鈥檚 good up until they leave for college. The Q8 is better when you don鈥檛 have to pay for college anymore.

That may be an affront to those who still consider Audi to be the poster child for all-wheel-drive blitzes up mountain passes, fueled by leaf blower-sized turbochargers and whistling wastegates. The Q8 takes a bigger trophy for Audi: it鈥檚 easily the most comfortable crossover Audi makes and one of the best on sale today. There鈥檚 more money out of that race-car fantasy and in to sales reality. Time for honesty: Crossover sales figures and brand heritage do less for me than experimental short films. When the Q8 is most exciting is when the drive isn鈥檛. Life, family, and love have given me more experience on U.S. Highway 6 in Utah than I鈥檇 like to admit in mixed company. The road that connects the Salt Lake metropolis to Moab鈥攐r for me sometimes, a shortcut to Interstate 70 en route to Denver鈥攕tarts with promise south of Provo. The achingly pretty road winds on itself through Spanish Fork Canyon, mirrored by the Spanish Fork River.

By the time the road reaches Helper and its Indiana Jones-inspired mine carved into a mountain, U.S. 6 irons out into a feature-length bore until Green River. The Book Cliffs to the east provide visual drama to a drive that feels more likely to end at Godot instead of a final destination. It鈥檚 here that the Q8鈥檚 comfort and quiet ride are appreciated more than its adherence to a bygone era of sports cars. Although the Q8 rides on at least 20-inch wheels (21- and 22-inchers are available), the flashy big dubs are tamed to veritable pillows by the time the standard adaptive suspension is done with them. The Q8鈥檚 optional air suspension? Nearly mandatory for 21-inchers, and 22-inchers are hardly advised for anyone with a family or personal history of back pain. For hours, the Q8 slicks through the high-desert air as driver and passengers flick through smartphones and infotainment hardware.