Test drive Audi A8 D3 2003 - 2005 Sedan

Audis

I am always lucky: as soon as I get a car on summer tires for a test drive, so wet snow with a fast freezing and a rental into an ice crust will surely make it. Or vice versa, if you like: there is ice on the roads in Moscow, and I will definitely slip a car on summer tires. Villainy rule. But if earlier the cars were cheap (within $ 15-25 thousand, a trifle, right?), Then this time the game went in a large way: on the next day, the tin was given a new Audi A8 at a price of 113.852 euros. On summer tires. Of course, there was no malicious intent here, it just just came from Germany, and there everything is in order with ice and snow on the roads. They are not here. Everything is in order and we have them ...


And I did not look at the wheels. He received a car, with pleasure plunged into his luxurious leather womb, stooped in a chair, played enough with all sorts of buttons, cut the muzon and ... and galloped. Very briskly. And how else can you jump on A8 Quattro? Well, I felt something wrong in time. Somehow, different smart things began to turn on too intrusively, not allowing the car to go astray. And ABS actively and often holled the brake pedal, and devices combined into the ESP course stability system, now and then triggered. They instantly throw the traction force from the shifting wheels to the non -consuming wheels, and when all four slip, the car as if freezes is looking for at least the slightest clue. And if it finds it with at least one wheel, then due to the electronic blocking of the EDS of the Torsen Interssex differential and using other devices (in particular, brakes of unnecessary wheels) with this wheel and the traction force clings to it completely.


No, of course, on large highways like the third ring rode well. But as soon as the center was inflamed by snow and twisted by the center, or in the Kamazy rolled by Kamazi, as the movement turned into a search for hooks. In the end, I got out of the car and examined the rubber. Crap! Not the slightest hint of the winter! A legitimate question arose immediately: testing a car or Moscow bodywriters?


Fortunately, on this day, the new eight with the Clients did not become either the traffic police or the Audi branded body service (they say it is not bad, but it is better to know this theoretically), nor to many Armenian tin -tin -tin -tin -tin -tin (it would help or not, I do not know A8 body is aluminum, and this is by no means a banal tin using the repair technology). And there is no thin one without good, precisely summer tires and ice on the road helped to evaluate the running capabilities of the new Audi A8 Quattro. The exercises were held in an atmosphere as close as possible to the combat. There are no victims and destruction.


Let's talk in more detail about the car, it is certainly worth it. Now manufacturers of a representative of the representative class are moving away from heavy and pompous forms, and Audi is no exception. The new eight is very solid and thorough (more than five meters in length after all), but it does not look like a kind of deputy wild boar, causing fear and hatred among ordinary motorists, by the way, the flashing light does not suit her. The lines and shapes are light, not at all memberships rather, even in some ways athletic. And imagine this machine in different colors in my opinion, any color is more than black. What already speaks of her humanity ...


The new A8 is not only visually, but also in the literal sense. In the representative class, she generally beats the records of lightness. The ASF (Audi Space Frame) revolutionary body technology was used here: Aluminum leaf details are again attached to a completely closed spatial aluminum frame, consisting of a pressed profile and multifunctional casting elements. In addition to riveting and spot welding, its laser laser is used for the first time its long seams (their total length of 20 m) provide higher strength than a point tack. Result: Static hardness of the body for twisting 60% higher than that of the old eight. And the stiffness indicator is the best in the class. At the same time, the body weighs only 215 kg, it is approximately twice as much as steel of the same size. And lighter than the body of any middle -class steel car. Here you have a member ...


For the new eight, two aluminum engines V8 4.2 and 3.7 liters are provided. Compared to the engines of the same volumes of the previous generation, their power is increased, respectively, by 25 and 20 hp. Thus, the first now gives out 335, and the second 280 horses. And their twisting moments are very unusual 430 and 360 nm. And acceleration to a hundred they provide a wonderful 6.3 and 7.3 seconds.


I rode a car with a top 335-horsepower engine. Naturally received a lot of pleasure. Liked everything. Especially low. At the idle revolutions, the engine is not heard at all. And, of course, no vibrations in the cabin. Only the arrow of the tachometer, frozen at the appropriate idle mark, indicates that the motor is working. I thought that the whole thing is in good sound insulation of the salon. Not all. The engine itself is quiet. He specifically lifted the hood and put the ear to hear a little, and even then only when the street stream rolled away.


And the transmission is good. Here we have a new 6-speed automatic Tiptronic automatic box with the ability to switch gearboxes manually and sports mode. The powerful and traction messages from the engine dose filigree gear ratio are verified so that in no riding regime there is no discomfort. In addition, the DSP program specially created for this box does not allow too frequent switching. And in sports mode, it does not also allow the program to change when the driver sharply drops the gas. And if after this the ESP course stability system feels its transverse acceleration sensor entering the turn, then the ban on the transmission is valid until the very exit from this turn. Smart.


Traditional Audi Horse Proper organization of all -wheel drive. The torque between the axes distributes the self -locking (or, as the engineers of the company, blocking under the influence of transmission, prefer to express) the differential Torsen, invented for a long time and perfectly honed over many years. As a rule, the craving is distributed along the axes of Fifty Fifi, but depending on the situation for each axis, up to 75% of the moment may account for each axis. By the way, the word Torsen deciphens as follows: Torque (torque) + Sensing (feeling). The name, of course, corresponds to functional filling.


The suspension of the new A8 is essentially the same as the old version of the four -leaf in front, on the trapezoidal levers from the back, but it is largely modernized. So, the front is shifted forward by 65 mm, which significantly improved the weight. And in the rear, kinematics were redone, in particular, they reduced changes in the angle of convergence of the wheels along the entire length of the spring of the spring, this increased the course stability and accuracy of control.


Well, the most interesting: suspension mechanics helps adaptive pneumatics, with continuous adjustment of stiffness. The air suspension has four main modes of operation automatic, dynamic, comfortable and raised. The mode can be selected in the menu, but you can not choose, since the suspension itself will adapt to the conditions of movement, changing the clearance (from 95 to 145 mm) and rigidity. Suppose that in automatic mode you go faster than 120 km/h longer than half a minute by a machine with normal 120 mm drops by 25 mm (in a dynamic mode, a reference point of 100 mm). You dump the speed of up to 70 km/h cleanse returning to normal after 2 minutes. And if up to 35 km/h returns immediately. In addition, there are two additional service modes and movement with a trailer (it turns on automatically when the machine feels the load on the hook), here the clearance remains unchanged regardless of previous settings.


I really liked the electromechanical parking brake, which does not need to be turned off when touched. No, of course, you can turn off (button on/off. On the central console), but ... here, for example, you stand on a decent slope, nose up. So that at the start there is no rollback and then a jerk, you leave the handbrake on and calmly give the gas. The system captures the position of the gas pedal, engine speed, selected gear, angle of inclination, etc. And she determines when and at what speed she is to be terminated. Damn it is convenient.


In the salon, against the background of a general luxury, I would like to highlight two things. The first seat. They are simply created in order to undead the entire back of the rider from the knee bends to the neck, and even the sides in addition. Any settings and under any bodily complexion. And the depth changes, and the upper third of the back leans (which significantly reduces the load on the shoulder belt), here is harder, there is softer, it is warmer, it is cooler in general, as if you are not sitting in a car, but in a massage room. All settings are naturally electric.


The second cool little thing multimedia interface MMI. This is such an information and communication and entertainment and managerial system (in a functional sense, an analogue of the sensational Bavarian Idrive). All the necessary information is displayed on a colored 7-inch display, and the choice of the menu and settings is carried out by a swivel-tied joystick and several buttons on the central console. You can not break off this toy endlessly. The only disadvantage is that it is great from the road, even despite the fact that the location of the elements of the system is very ergonomically: the display is located, as experts say, in the primary visibility zone (I translate: I slightly squinted to the right, and everything is visible), and the joystick is visible) Strictly under the right hand.


In general, the minced meat is quite consistent with the class. Leather, full electric package, adaptive cruise control, adaptive headlights with backlighting, climate control with individual setting for four zones, Hands Free phone, multifunctional steering wheel with automatic transmission buttons, navigation, TV, CD changer, Bose Surround audio system. Sound with electronic noise compensation, heat -insulating glass, tire pressure control, an automatic trunk cover ... You can continue for a long time. Something goes in the base, something in the options.


It is clear that all this costs money. The recommended prices for basic configurations are as follows: A8 4.2 97.721 euros, A8 3.7 81.258 euros. As you can see, if you wish, you can save well if my A8 is abandoned from something, I recall, it costs 113.852 euros. Just do not save on winter tires when ice is on the roads. And then it will be painfully sorry for the spent. And in the insurance company they may not understand ...
 
Sergey Sorokin
 

Source: Motor magazine [May 2003]