Test drive Audi A8 D2 1994 - 2002 Sedan

The eighth dozen

The choice of limousines with twelve cylinders under the hood is as small as the choice of a dozen bets. Today is the most prestigious rate in a car roulette - Audi A8 L 6.0 Quattro.
The Audi company today can repeat as much as you like that six liters and twelve cylinders are a ramage of a long -standing ferret. We know what six hundredth set the tone in the highest segment of the automobile market, but gave up positions-in any case, that part of them, which concerned power and dynamics.
Judge for yourself. W12, installed on the Audi A8, develops 420 hp, and the car starts up to hundreds in less than 6 seconds. So the Mercedes S600 with its 367 hp. and 6.3 seconds - out of work. There, the BAV-BMW and Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph, equipped with Bavarian V12. Jaguar XJ12 has long been discontinued. Toyota Century with the right wheel and V12, developing miserable 280 hp drives around Japan. There is also a 430-horsepower BMW Alpina B12 6.0, but it does not count, because it can hardly be considered a serial car. Audi plans to build and sell about five hundred six -liter A8 per year. Although most of them will be, according to forecasts, conventional short -packed cars that will be $ 12 thousand cheaper than L.
So, the six -hundredth of Ingolstadt is today an unconditional leader. Plus, she is the only one of all of the above cars is all -wheel drive.
Why is it necessary. Those who have been using A8 with an eight -cylinder engine of 4.2 liters, and even more so S8 with its turbocharged version, know that their dynamic characteristics are quite enough to make, say, safe overtaking. And the maximum speed of these machines, like the Ingolstadt six hundred, is limited to a mark of 250 km/h. Make everyone, leaving to the point from the traffic light? Hardly. Few people will argue that a limousine with an elongated body is a car for a passenger. Imagine: a personal driver presses the gas until it stops, a car with cosmic acceleration tears from a place, the owner in the back seat bursts cervical vertebrae, and a slammed laptop painfully beats on the fingers. Rave.
Then why? Let us take the courage to assume that exclusively for the sake of prestige. Audi prestige to all of the above competitors who will now be forced to come up with a symmetrical answer. And, of course, the prestige of the owner of the car, which can rightfully be proud that his limousine is the fastest and most swift.
VANITY FAIR. In order to emphasize this prestige, the designers and engineers of the company made a lot.
Let 13.5 cm by itself - it seems to be a small value, however, that this A8 is long, even with the naked eye. The radiator grille received twelve vertical rods made of polished steel, as if continuing on the air intake of the front spoiler. In the sun, brilliant dashedrs resemble streams of the fountain. How beautiful it is, I will not judge, but they all notice them and immediately understand that they are not at all simple A8. On the left on the wire w12. The same is on the moldings of the front doors. The vanity fair completes the trunk lid, where they sparkle the chromium inscription A8 L and 6.0 Quattro. Well, we also add here specially made for six hundred 18-inch wheels with five holes.
Inside, everything is not so much defiant as solid and useful. The front of the interior of the innovation bypassed: it is characteristic that even a make -up mirror on the back of the sunscreen visor is an option that must be specially ordered. The same applies to heating the steering wheel, Airbeg for the front passenger and other excesses that can only divorce the maintenance personnel. But behind is a complete minced meat, although in our case it is a plebeian word is hardly the most suitable. The passenger compartment was filled with all kinds of multimedia for almost $ 15 thousand. In addition to the phone and fax, the rear passengers have the opportunity to control the navigation system, watch TV or DVD on liquid crystal monitors built into the head restraints, listen to music from BOSE or engage in some important business, Putting the button by pressing the individual table and placing the feet on a special stand.
TWELVE. The poem of the cylinder block. If you climb the selector on D and just release the brake, then two tons of weight A8 L 6.0 Quattro will barely move. Unlike others, equipped with an automaton of pelods, here it is necessary to put pressure on the gas. To a hundred, the car accelerates in less than 5.8 seconds, after another 14 seconds. It can already rush at a speed of 200 km/h. As for the maximum 250 km/h on which the electronic limiter is triggered, their A8 L 6.0 Quattro reaches in 38 seconds. from the moment of the start. Each horsepower carries only 4.7 kg of car weight is an excellent indicator even for a sports car.
The car is equipped with a five -speed automatic transmission with a Tiptronic function, but there seems to be no need to use the latter. At a speed of 100 km/h, the tachometer arrow ranges in the area of \u200b\u200b1,500 vol./Min. Nine tenths of the maximum torque begin at 1800 rpm. (maximum 550 Nm - from 3500 to 4750 rpm.), So to accelerate it is enough to press the pedal more. By the way, only in this case the engine roar will be heard, which is practically not heard when working at small revolutions.
Of course, the installation of such a powerful power unit forced the designers to strengthen the brakes, which really perfectly cope with their task. True, when braking at low speeds at the tested machine, the pads were lingering long, which, with a run of 6 thousand km, was somewhat strange. Probably, this can be attributed to the fact that this copy was mercilessly operated by colleagues in the workshop.
The Chancellor is resting. In Germany, the price of A8 L 6.0 Quattro starts at $ 95.5 thousand. The short -term version, which will go on sale a little later, will cost $ 12 thousand cheaper. As for Russia, as the Audi Bureau told us, domestic buyers have already they are written in line. They are not embarrassed by the unclear price - according to forecasts, it should amount to $ 120 thousand - not the fact that the model that appeared on the market seven years ago is equipped with a new engine and therefore it looks somewhat old -fashioned and in the near future it is waiting for facelifting.
By the way, to talk about prestige. Our Test-Drive took place in Germany just on those days when the Audi A8 user Gerhard Schroeder was going to Russia. So, there will be no armored version A8 L 6 Quattro, and he, apparently, will have to be content with V8. Therefore, any owner of the twelve cylinders from Audi will feel cooler than Chancellor Germany.
Text Dmitry Gronsky, photo of the author and Audi AG
       
In the large family of cars produced by the Volkswagen group, there was already a ready-made 12-cylinder engine-from Lamborghini Diablo. However, for A8, this classic V12 was hardly possible: firstly, due to its impressive dimensions, and secondly, because the Audi has a motor compartment in front, and the drive to all wheels.
The VW-Audi specialists worked on the development of a compact duodenal engine for a long time. On the concept of Audi Avus, shown ten years ago, there was already a six -liter engine, the twelve cylinders of which were located in three rows. Then there was another sports car - Volkswagen W12. Finally, it came to the series. The current W12 is the two Volkswagen VR6s merged into a single whole. Its dimensions are only 2 mm higher than the size of the V8 with a volume of 4.2 liters, the mass is more by 35 kg, so that the motor compartment A8 has not undergone changes.
Next year, the same engine will be installed on other VW models - the limousine of the representative class D1 and the Colorado SUV.

 

Source: "Autopilot"