Test drive Audi A8 D2 1994 - 2002 Sedan

Three eights

The sales of the new Audi A8 will begin to begin. In anticipation of the reaction of buyers, BMW and Mercedes marketer are shocking. Yes, and a related Volkswagen Phaeton can be missed by part of the electorate.
What do car builders from Ingolstadt offer this time? The new A8 at first glance is not too different from the predecessor. But her silhouette looks more graceful and at the same time powerful. Last but not least, this effect is created by short overhangs and a smooth, clearly defined back. There is a development of a well -established corporate identity of audi - an expensive, but somewhat everyday outwardly of a car.
In order not to torment the reader, we will immediately deal with both eights: at first, there will be no other engines under the hood. Both engines, whether with a volume of 3.7 or 4.2 liters, easily accelerate almost 1800-kilogram sedan to permitted electronics of 250 km/h. So easy that the first three -digit mark of the speedometer arrow flies after 7.3 or 6.3 s after the start. At the same time, the torque is transmitted to all four wheels through a new six -speed automatic gearbox with a tiptronic function (manual control of the buttons on the steering wheel).
It would seem that such accelerated characteristics are more than enough representative car, but next year the new A8 is implanted by the 12-cylinder monster of Phaeton. A regiment of eights will be replenished with a diesel engine from ... Porsche Kayenna, and for the most economical customers a six -cylinder gasoline engine from A6 is stored.
And yet, if you distract from the engines: before us are new or facies? As the creators of A8 assure, not only aluminum hinged panels, but also a body frame, also made of winged metal, is re -developed! In any case, its rigidity increased by as much as 60%. What can not be said about the rigidity of the suspension. In fact, the passengers of the battleship did not stake to recount all the joints of concrete slabs, hatches and bumps. Therefore, in multi -link aluminum suspensions, the springs were replaced by pneumoballones.
The suspension monitors each pothole and continuously adjusts the characteristics of elasticity and damping. The driver, of course, can choose between three main modes - sports, comfortable and very comfortable and even regulate the road clearance, but ... the last word remains with electronics. On a bad road, A8 will simply refuse to sit down, at a hundred, on the contrary, he will not stand on tiptoe. And the characteristics of the shock absorbers will be automatically adjusted for the average number of potholes per kilometer of the path, no matter what you choose there.
Such a life that allows you to lay out at least 60 thousand euros for a car, it is customary to especially appreciate and protect. Therefore - all the attention of security. Firstly, active systems will help prevent the worst. To fly out of the road or not stop on time, having at your disposal an accurate steering with variable (depending on speed) with a gear ratio, brakes with the ABS, a bankruptcy bank, devices for distributing efforts between wheels and to stabilize the trajectory, headlights luminous in the bend Through an angle - this still needs to be able to! As well as fill the bump in the event of an accident, being on all sides with overlapped inflatable pillows. But, perhaps, thinking, it will be possible to catch up with a slow car in front or become a target for following? The first will not allow adaptive cruise control with a radar; active head restraints will save from the traumatic consequences of the second trouble.
It’s not accidentally sliding down when touched to the mountain will not work - for that electromechanical parking brake. He will let the wheels not earlier than the craving on them reaches the necessary value.
And what remains for a person? Yes, just go and have fun. For this, in fact, A8 is conceived, for this there are still many electronic things in it. For example, MMI- Multi Media Interface, uniting in a single audio and video equipment system, telephone and navigator, Internet and service. The latter is ready to tell you when it is time to change the oil or brake fluid and where to do it closer. But in any case - more often than once every 30,000 km or two years, you are not waiting for you at the service. Well, is the tire of the puncture and the air leaks blinks anxiously ...

With all the abundance of electronic devices, they are controlled only by a few handles.

The aluminum frame of the new body has become tougher.

Audi A8
3.7 Quattro 4.2 Quattro
Number of places 5 5
Equipped mass, kg 1770 1780
Dimensions (d x w x c), mm 5051x1894x1444
Maximum speed, km/h 250
Acceleration time 0-100 km/h, with 7.3 6.3
Working volume, SMZ 3697 4172
Power, kW/l. With. 206/280 246/335
at rpm 6000 6500
Twisting the moment, N.M 360 430
at rpm 3750 3500
Fuel consumption,
(highway/city) l/100 km 8.8/17.3 8.8/17.6
Text / Alexey Vorobyov-Obukhov
Photo / Audi

Source: The magazine "Driving"