Test drive Audi A8 D3F 2005 - 2009 sedan
My castle
One and a half tons of a mix of ballistic steel, glasses with a thickness with a countertop and synthetic fiber aramide are five times stronger than steel. More than 15 million rubles. Above the starting price is just Audi A8. Add to this all -wheel drive (a new word in the history of representative armored cars) and get A8 Security.
The fortress car is not afraid of a sniper rifle, nor Kalashnikov, nor a fragmentation grenade. They buy it not to ride, but because they want to live
Preventive measures
The attacks of terrorists are best avoided than restraining. A rare sedan will leave the anti -tank mine, because Audi designers wanted to hide the filling of an armored car from prying eyes.
There are no wools like security on the car, booked, or not to shoot inside the president!. The first person should keep incognito and not attract attention. Naturally, as much as the form of the usual Audi A8 W12 and a pair of escort SUVs with flashing lights allow
Armored armored brown box
The maintenance of armored vehicles is carried out in a specially equipped closed armored box, the entrance to which is carried out according to a rigid bandwidth.
Constant observation is carried out, video material is provided to the owner of the served car at his first request. In the armored vehicle there is a special lift with a weight of 5 tons.
Another thing is when three black A8 with opaque glasses go to the motorcade. In which of them is the protected subject, you can only guess. With 33 percent probability The glass of A8 Security is processed with a special polycarbonate coating that is destroyed by contact with a tint film. That is why, in order to protect the salon from prying views, tinting is carried out directly at the factory in Germany, simultaneously with the reservation process.
Audi A8 Security is protected by B6/B7 class the highest degree of reservation according to the norms of the European Union. This means that any of the glasses can withstand the onslaught of the line of bullets of the caliber 7.62, and the ballistic steel shells of the same caliber, but with a more rigid, steel core, will only be able to scratch. Four leading wheels will not stop, even if the tires torn to shreds: A8 will be able to continue moving at a speed of up to 80 km/h in a complete absence of tire pressure!
Prices
In the basic configuration: from 18,376,800 rubles (in terms of 520,000 euros at the current rate of the Central Bank)
Everything is thought out! Even if attackers are able to introduce a smoke grenade into the salon, A8 Security provides an oxygen fire extinguishing and delivery system.
But if the fortress was taken, and the guarded face decided to retire from the car, it is enough for the driver to remove the fuse from the emergency evacuation system: now special pyropatrons will help shoot any of the four doors simply simply pull the exit handle.
Front view The world that you look at the wheel of an armored car does not look the same as before. On the one hand, the image refracts a load of responsibility for a car, measured by almost two tens of millions of rubles. Secondly, special glasses are used in A8, which, although they restore the image distorted during booking, but not completely. The whole test trip did not leave me that I was looking out the window through other people's glasses and yet the drivers of such cars were lucky: they care about them in Audi. Apparently, because they are engaged in the manufacture of armored cars since 1928. Even sitting at the wheel of a 3.5-ton safe, its filling is difficult to calculate: the steering wheel rotates easily and laconically informs about the adhesion to the road; The body is relatively easily (after all, a representative of a representative class!) And it follows confidently behind the drowned accelerator pedal, moves from a row to a row assertively and is not rapidly in weight.
However, the latter is not surprising, because under an armored hood a 6.0-liter atmospheric W12 with a capacity of 450 liters is hidden. With. Due to its design, by the way (in particular, due to the lack of boost systems), Audi engineers managed to introduce a full-wheel drive transmission scheme into the sedan.
But you need to get used to the brakes. To stop the heavy A8 Security is intended for two pairs of impressive ventilated discs with powerful calipers, but the rate of slowdown is still far from the indicators of ordinary city cars whether the joke with the driver, passenger and pretext is approaching 4 tons!
Audi A8 W12 Quattro Security Technical characteristics: manufacturer data
Dimensions (length/width/height) 5 192/2 028/1 455 mm
Road clearance 125 mm
Engine volume and power 6.0 l (450 hp)
Maximum speed 210 km/h
The speed of movement at complete pressure in tires 80 km/h
Armor class B6/B7
Back view
When you sit in the place of the very first person, for the sake of which this whole design is built, you feel really calm. And not only because sitting at the wheel is now responsible for an almost 20 millionth car. And because you realize that thanks to the 80-year experience of Audi engineers in the creation of first-class armored cars, is surrounded by the most advanced technologies and modern materials.
A huge set of options and tools is provided to the back. But today I hardly have time to evaluate Valcona's soft skin, see DVD on colored displays in the front head restraints, talk on the inner phone, send a fax, drink something from the bar, pre-equipped in the refrigerator, give the command of the escort car on the internal communication system .. .
The Audi A8 Security car is provided by Audi Center Vitebsky.
Text: Alexander Korobchenko
Photo: Roman Ostanin
Source: Wheel magazine [No. 121/2007]
