Devouring curves and slicing through mountain passes is easy. Ask any racing driver where they would choose to drive given carte blanche on the matter: a limited racing track with plenty of corners but no real-world connection, or a twisty mountain pass where life-or-death danger lurks behind every turn. You probably know the answer already. Yes, said passes are pointless if the weaponry came out of a sausage factory.
What you need here, what you dream of is a compact sports car with hundreds, if not thousands of horses huffing underneath the bonnet. It has to be agile, preferably with only two doors (and even seats), low slung and with plenty of grip. Yes, the Audi R8 is just be perfect weapon to attack and survive such conditions. Front-stage enter the all-new Audi A8 then.
Say what? The A8? A 5 metre-long luxury palace on four wheels? Yap! For a total of about 30 minutes I could very well have been inside the R8 when I foraged the Outeniqua pass near George during the A8’s media launch. Cocooned inside the soft leather cabin I began my assault the way anyone driving a car of this size would: slowly and cautiously. Yet with each turning curve a sense of dissatisfaction began to ease in. Nothing wrong with the car at all. It all had to do with the fact that the A8 was asking, no, begging for more. Could something weighing just under two tonnes really devour these sweet curves?
Only one way to find out, and that’s to plant down the right foot and hope for salvation. Except this time the feedback was astonishing. The A8 handled like a car half its size, stuck to tar like cheese on a pizza and never once looked set to kill me. Impressive is an understatement.
Part of the reason of course is the quattro all-wheel-drive system which splits torque 40:60 (rear-biased) but is still quick enough to react when it’s needed the most. Steering, while a long way better than the predecessor’s, isn’t as beefy or communicative as a sports car’s. But then again, this is not a sports car. I had to remind myself of this fact each time a long sweeper came around and the A8 went through it like the Department of Science going through FIFA World Cup tickets.
One of the designers responsible for the A8 (he penned the outer skin) was at hand to explain how the Audi design team set out to create a car that was large, spacious, comfortable, yet looked and felt compact. Hence the desire to keep pushing and pretend there’s a sports car in there somewhere. The German designer said the two main exterior lines (shoulder and roof) accentuated a powerful stance without being boastful, while the bottom chromed line grounded the car. The single-frame front grille features 3D-like slits, big headlights with LED daytime running lights and full LED headlight function as optional, as well as long overhangs. How the roofline slopes about the B pillar and how the lowest line rises towards the rear both emphasise the car’s dynamism.
Of course one needs a proper engine to run a proper sports car, I mean, a proper super luxury car, and in the new 4.2-litre petrol V8 Audi has found one. Although notably short on go compared to its main rivals (BMW 750i and Mercedes-Benz S500), the naturally aspirated block does give out a healthy 273kW at 6800rpm, pulled along by 445Nm of torque at 3500rpm. Friendly with it is a new 8-speed Tiptronic gearbox which paddleshifts. Smooth as your mama’s stoep on a Sunday morning, the shifter is accessed via a unique lever whose design inspiration probably came from the walking canes of old. It also doubles up as a palm rest for easy operation of the new MMI system.
While these figures might look below-par, consider that said rivals had to use bigger sized motors to achieve similar outputs in their previous-generation cars. A 0 – 100km/h sprint time of 5.7 seconds is claimed, while top speed is 250km/h. I did tap into a speedo-indicated 260km/h region briefly, and the big A8 remained stable and relatively quiet inside. Fuel consumption is said to be 9.5l/100km and C02 emissions are 219g/km, but there was no way we would achieve that during mine and my driving partner Lerato Matebese’s three hours behind the wheel.
Keeping us company were the sophisticated interior comfort creatures expected at this level. MMI now integrates handwriting-recognition technology, just in case you don’t trust the keypad. They say it can recognise Chinese characters, and even doctors’ scribbles. Another cool feature is the gear lever which also doubles as a palm rest when accessing the MMI functions.
The Audi A8 may not be everyone’s cup of tea as far as styling goes, but the company is adamant that this was deliberate in order to help make it stay relevant for longer, and also to recognise it instantly as an Audi. That said, owners of the smaller A4 should find comfort in the fact that their cars almost look exactly like this R1 million range-topper.
Although a solid performer internationally, previous-generation A8 did not impress at the sales counter here in Mzansi. So Audi SA has taken some drastic steps towards ensuring that it at least gets the desired bums on seats. These include inviting a number of “prominent” citizens to drive the cars and to get a feel of it for themselves. Also, the petrol V8 will be the main sales focus, unlike the old 3.0 TDI which proved a disappointing brand champion. More models will be sold, including a new 3.0 TDI, an 800Nm 4.2 TDI and a 3.0T with 213kW. Along with these initiatives others will be added and executed accordingly, the main aim being to conquer sales from the BMW 7 Series and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
What Audi has is a very good product. Whether the small segment in which it competes notices and gives it a chance is all up to the marketing department. They have the next seven years to succeed.
Audi A8 Pricing
4.2 V8 (R1 096 000)
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