In the rarified world of German luxury sedans, being the most intelligent choice is not always a good thing. Big, bold and brash cars usually win this contest. Audi has chosen, probably wisely, not to go down that path, and instead it has come up with a car that is smooth, almost subtle, but bristling with new technology under its skin.
The all-new flagship Audi A8 continues the innovative design of its predecessor. Instead of a conventional monocoque, the A8 uses a chassis-and-frame design. The Audi Space Frame is no pickup chassis, however. The frame castings and extrusions are aluminum, lighter and stronger than steel. Those components are assembled by riveting and laser welding, resulting in a rigid frame highly resistant to torsional forces, yet 50 percent lighter than an equivalent steel chassis. The base A8 checks in at 1770 kilograms, not much heavier than some smaller cars like the Jaguar S-type.
The aluminum backbone is clothed with a sleek bodyshell, also fashioned from the same metal. Designer Walter da Silva, who revitalized Alfa Romeo with cars like the 156, drew the A8 with lines that are trademark Audi: clean, taut, and conservative. It’s not imaginative, because this car carries that Audi sedan look, but in a family that includes the A6 and A4, it’s not altogether a bad trait. The A8’s face is dominated by horizontal lines: there are plenty inside the large rectangular grille and lower air intakes. The 4-circle logo, quad headlamps and round foglamps provide some welcome contrast. A short front overhang adds some aggressiveness. The roof traces an unbroken arc, as seen in its siblings and even in the Passat. The small tail lamps look rather plain, but the sides do flow gracefully into the trunk area.
This smooth shape was worked hard in the wind tunnel, resulting in a 0.27 drag coefficient, one of the lowest for a large sedan. There’s a faired underbody as well, to suppress rear-end lift at high speeds. Triple-sealed doors and windows, thicker glass panes and even aerodynamically designed wipers help keep down wind and road noise.
Step inside the A8 and you’ll find the same conservative luxury theme: there’s plenty of wood and leather, and simplicity of controls. The A8’s interior may look restrained as well, but it has all the luxury accoutrements expected in a top-end sedan.
Key to the interior functions is the Multi Media Interface (MMI). Like BMW’s i-Drive system, MMI attempts to give the driver access to the vehicle’s hundreds of possible settings via a sophisticated controller. The MMI is located in the car’s center console, and consists mainly of a turn-and-press knob and four control keys grouped around it. The four control keys correspond to the four corners of the dash-mounted pop-up screen. There are also eight outer buttons that access the main functions of the system—entertainment, DVD-GPS navigation, communication, information and control of vehicle systems. The driver selects one of those systems and navigates using the knob and four control keys. There’s also an escape button that pulls you up through the menu system. The result is an intuitive, simple and easy-to-learn user interface.
The driver can also record his preferences for seat, mirror and steering wheel positions using the MMI. Okay, so now that you’ve set everything just right, what if your brother suddenly decides to borrow the car? Not to worry: the system is capable of remembering your settings, and you won’t even have to fiddle with any knobs. Just put your finger on the starter button, and the car will read your fingerprint. Once you’re identified, all the settings revert to your presets, including the aircon and radio. Up to four different people can save their data, including 100 addresses for each user. Stopping short of arranging for a date, the MMI will do everything for you. Spend less time tweaking the car, more time enjoying the road.
There’s plenty to enjoy under the hood, with either a 3.7 or 4.2 liter V8. The 3.7 is capable of 280 bhp and 36.7 kg-m (360 Nm), the 4.2 good for 335 bhp and 43.8 kg-m (430 Nm). Both are quick: the factory quotes 0-100 km/h of 7.3 for the smaller engine, 6.3 for the bigger one. The V8s have five valves per cylinder, and each single overhead camshaft comes with a variable timing mechanism. A six-speed automatic transmission handles the shifting chores. There’s a Tiptronic lever on the center console for manual override, and there’s an optional paddle-type shifter system, with levers behind the steering wheel.
Audi one-ups its luxury-car rivals by installing the only full-time four-wheel drive in its class. The system normally splits power 50:50 front and rear, and depending on the traction conditions, can divert as much as 75 percent to one end. If more than one wheel is slipping, the electronically locking differential can even feed all the power to one corner.
The exterior lighting also vorsprungs the technik. Taillights are fast-response LEDs, and headlamps are variable-focus xenon unfte. An optional feature is the adaptive cornering lights. Additional lighting tubes between the low and high beam units activate during cornering to illuminate the areas around bends that the headlamps don’t show.
The four drive wheels run on standard 235/55 R 17 tires. The A8 is the first luxury-class vehicle available with a run-flat system. Even with a fully deflated tire, the driver can keep running for up to 200 km at a maximum 80 km/h. Wheel sizes run up to 255/50 R19.
The A8’s chassis includes an air suspension system that adjusts the car’s ride characteristics according to driving conditions. Comfort mode softens the damping for a smoother ride. Dynamic lowers the ride height and dials in a firmer suspension setting for better handling. The car lowers itself at highway speeds for better stability. For driving on uneven terrain, the lift mode raises the car 25 mm. Of course, the auto setting takes care of most situations with no further driver input needed.
While BMW has veered toward the road not taken with its controversial 7-series, and Mercedes has been playing catch-up with a formidable update of its four-year old car, Audi has drawn up on its strengths to produce a sedan that’s been formed from a different mold: one that’s elegantly simple. Indeed, Audi states that the single idea uniting all the elements of the A8 is that of ease: in design, acceleration, handling, and operation. It’s good to be big and bold, but sharp and smart can sometimes win the day.
By Jason Ang | Photos Courtesy of Audi AG
Originally Published in the February 2003 Issue
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