Test drive Volkswagen Phaeton 2002 - 2009 sedan
Places in the business class
Virtual duel: Maserati Quattroporte - Volkswagen Phaeton The company begins to hunt for the buyer long before the car gets into the showroom and to journalistic tests. And even before professional testers finish working with prototypes. The most acute competition begins in the design bureaus and design centers. Therefore, a comparison of design and stylistic solutions is a no less reasonable occupation and, by the way, as interesting as testing living cars.
At our training ground, representatives of the High League are a loud novelty from the Apennine Peninsula of Mazerati Quattport and his classmate Volkswagen Feton. By the way, cars are also close at the price: Italian is about 100 thousand euros in Europe, as well as a modification of a folk car with all-wheel drive and a 6-liter engine.
By clothing Volkswagen designers obviously decided not to take risks, considering that the highest class car should not be defiantly extravagant. In addition, the phaeton was created for buyers who grew up from the Passat. These can also scare away exotic. Therefore, the flagship inherited many characteristic features of younger models.
Mazerati Quattport was also made in a corporate identity. In the Pininfarin studio, an elegant dress was sewn, in which the motives of past famous models with a trident on the radiator grill are guessed: a long hood, a rapid sports appearance, a characteristic, slightly frowning head of the headlights.
In terms of wind fashion, both cars are on top. However, it is interesting that the sports with Mazerati looks slightly weaker than Volkswagen: Aerodynamic coefficient
the Germans' resistance is 0.32, and the Italian is 0.35. From the rear seat
The interior decoration options, of course, do not count. Buyers of Phaeton or Quart port can choose a long time to the skin color for the upholstery of seats, doors, dashboard. Italians offer even different drawings of the stitch! Wood for quatt -port is prepared according to the technology of piece production of musical instruments. It is not for nothing that the four -door (as the name of the model sounds from the Italian) was born in the country of the Great Stradivari.
In the rear seat, Mazerati is comfortable, as in a home chair. In such an environment, grandiose ideas sometimes come to the head. Would you like to record? In the front back is a convenient table. Want to relax? A light press of the button on the passenger console, and the front right chair will go forward. Is there a bodyguard or secretary? Grinding!
The designers seemed to conspire - in the Volkswagen you can also infringe on the front passenger. It is logical: in such cars, the main one is almost always behind. In our Phaeton, in addition, instead of a three -seater sofa, two individual chairs with 10 adjustments: electric motors will move the pillow, change the back tilt, adjust the headrest. Such arsenal Mazerati cannot boast. Both machines, as befits an elite business class, are equipped with a climate system with four adjustment zones - each ride makes the weather for himself. Are we worn to the little things? In Mazerati, the temperature range is 6 and wider - from 18 to 32 C. Contrargument of Volkswagen - a hatch with fans powered by solar panels.
From the bell tower of the techie
Under the hood of Phaeton, a 12-cylinder W-shaped engine is essentially two V6 (the overall collapse angle 72). The unconventional configuration of the block is dictated by the layout - after all, it was necessary to fit 5 liters of working volume under a not very long hood. At the same time, 420 horses weigh only 245 kg: the cylinder block and the head are cast from aluminum alloy with silicon additives.
Four camshafts with a chain drive, hydraulic power plants are monitored behind the gaps of the valves. Phase mechanisms - hydraulic adjustment with electronic control helps to get additional Newton meters at low speeds. Volkswagen Phaeton boasts the most powerful in the world (230 kW/ 310 h.) Serious passenger diesel engine. There is also a modification of cheaper with a 3.2-liter gasoline engine V6. The designers of Mazerati are true to branded traditions: under the hood of Quattport - the V8 motor, which does not very much lose to the German unit in power, but by the torque is inferior by almost 100 n.m. The missing 1.75 liters of working volume are affected. But the mass of the motor is almost 60 kg less.
Nevertheless, the Italian engine is largely similar to the opponent: the same materials of the head and block, four camshafts and four valves per cylinder, phase adjustment mechanisms, ecological norms of Euro IV.
Phaeton with the W12 engine is produced only with an all -wheel drive with an intended differential of increased friction of the torsen. If the rear wheels hit the ice, the smart mechanic will transfer part of the torque to the front axle (more than the ZR, 2002, No. 8). In addition, if necessary, electronics will slow down the right or left wheel.
The torque from the engine to the wheels transmits a six -speed (on some modifications of a five -speed) automatic gearbox with electronic control. The driver chooses a regular or sports regime; You can click and manually, using the Tiptronics system.
The creators of Mazerati and in the transmission adhered to more traditional solutions, using the transexle circuit - the gearbox stands behind and was blocked with the main transmission. The main advantage of such a layout is close to the ideal hanging along the axes (47% - on the front, 53% on the rear axle), and therefore good stability and handling and, which is especially important for machines of this class, is a smooth move. The gearbox quattroporta is a six -speed mechanical one, but with automatic switching and clutch control; The design is rare for representative cars. Interestingly, the diameter of a two -disc adhesion is only 215 mm. Manual switching is rather a tribute to fashion than convenience. Those who think differently, by pressing the M/A SHIFT key on the central console, can be eccentric to play up with steering wheel burdocks.
Despite the different architecture, the suspensions of the Quattport and Phaeton have general features. To reduce the unsubstantiated masses, most of the elements were made of aluminum. On both machines, the Skyhuk system is in charge of the stiffness of the shock absorbers: the computer softens the suspension or makes it as rigid as possible. The highlight of the phaeton is pneumatic resistance, thanks to which the car is pressed to the ground or stands on tiptoe.
Fast and massive cars - corresponding brakes: disk, ventilated, with multi -piston calipers and, of course, with auxiliary electronics. Volkswagen engineers first tested the brake discs of two halves on the flagship. The working part, in contact with the blocks, is connected to the recipes hub by floating brackets. The gap between the details reduces the risk of disk deformation from overheating during intense braking.
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From the point of view of the techie, the Italian machine loses a little German, literally stuffed with new products: from smart seats to a unique engine design. But places in the business class are by no means for practical reasons. Mazerati captivates with an exquisite-porody appearance and elegant trim. For some potential buyers, it is these virtues that will turn out to be decisive ...
The developers of the machines clearly expected that the owners of the sedan would ride not only in the back seat.
Duel of Motors: the most powerful Volkswagenovsky W12 and V8, specially designed for Mazerati Quattport.
Designers' confrontation: functional phaeton ...
... against the elegant quattoport.
Maxim Sachkov
Source: The magazine "Driving"
