The Audi S8 TFSI quattro tiptronic, is Audi’s latest luxury super saloon. Tiff Needell and Paul Woodman take you through 10 things you need to know about the 571 horsepower V8 saloon, including everything from it’s odd door handles, to how it behaves at an Evas Angels Charity track day (
Let’s go this is the all-new s8 audi’s latest luxury super saloon and this is an old racing driver from hampshire together we’re going to tell you 10 things you need to know about this car hi it’s got a lamborghini engine okay so it’s not the far breathing v12 that you’ll find in aventador but it’s the same twin turbo v8 that you’ll find in the lamborghini
Urus albeit with only 571 horsepower as opposed to eurasia’s 650 and just 800 newton meters of torque 50 less than in the uris but it’ll still launch this car to 62 in just 3.8 seconds which is actually only a tenth slower than the entry-level r8 it’s big in case you haven’t noticed this is a big car it’s 17 feet long which is 5.2 meters in new money which
Makes it only a foot shorter than the new rolls-royce ghost it’s not exactly lightweight either topping the scales at 2.2 tonnes but in this case big actually has some upsides because you can fit five people in absolute comfort in style and with 505 liters of boot space there’s plenty of room for your camera equipment and your cameraman cheers matt it doesn’t
Look very quick unless you catch a whiff of the quad tail pipes or the subtle s badges on the rear in front really wouldn’t think that this was a 579 horsepower car with supercar baiting performance the aesthetic improvements the standard a8 are subtle to say the least and personally i’d rather audible boulder adding some wheel arch extensions or maybe a power
Bulge in the bonnet perhaps the odd air intake here and there but then this sleeper specked exterior will appeal to a certain type of buyer and perhaps in this world of shouty styling it’s nice that there are still cars that can fly under the radar it’s brimming with tech the audi has a ton of tricks up its sleeve matrix led headlights that avoid other motorists
Motorized vents that hide away in the dash until you need them 22-way adjustable electric seats greeting lights that look like something out of a marvel movie and you could even spec your own mobile espresso machine their head-up display in audi’s brilliant virtual cockpit comes standard with this car which means you’re surrounded by these three massive digital
Screens cutting edge tech good user interfaces and high quality materials make audi’s interiors some of the best in the business it’s very quiet when it wants to be in comfort mode the s8 is quite serene place to be addy have gone to great lengths to make sure that it’s as quiet as possible with acoustic double glazing to help with the wind noise thank you tiff
Active engine mounts to soak up the engine vibration and they’ve also got foam lined tyres to help reduce the road noise as well they’ve even created an active noise cancellation system a bit like you’re getting those posh headphones they’ve got microphones in their headliners that listen out for any undesirable noises and then they play an opposing frequency
Through the speakers to cancel it out but sadly it doesn’t work on noisy passengers in the back excuse me it corners like a sports car despite its size the s8 actually takes corners with surprising agility even with him driving now that’s partly due to the active rear steer on the back of the cars as we’ve turned this corner the rear wheels are steering out
Helping it turn quicker and make it feel much like a much smaller car then there’s the active suspension with its electromagnetically controlled dampers which limit the body roll keep it corning much flatter which brings us to the next point it has very clever suspension keeping itself flat in corners is not all that this audi can do the s8 suspension is the
Most advanced suspension ever fitted to an audi for a start in comfort plus mode it’ll lean into the corner a little bit like a bullet train just to keep your occupants upright and feeling nice and comfortable it also scans the road ahead and avoids anything that it doesn’t like the look of by lifting the wheels accordingly so speed bumps or potholes for example
And it’s quite incredible when you go over a speed bump and you hit those front wheels you expect the whole car to jolt up you just smoothly and effortlessly glide over them and the car even raises itself up by a couple of inches to help you get in and out of the car when you stop so perfect when you’ve got a vip guest very considerate it costs a fair bit this
Is the tsfi tiptronic version which is all yours for 000 pounds and as you’d expect it comes with all the bells and whistles you could want from a luxury limo but it’s still not enough you can spend another 16 400 pounds for the vor spring edition which ticks actually every box on the spec sheet and for that money it’s up against the likes of the bmw m760i and
The mercedes amg s63 both are well up there in terms of luxury performance tech and prestige an entry level s63 amg will cost you about 130 000 pounds whilst an entry level bmw m760i will cost you around about 138 000 pounds so even if you went full out with a ball spring edition of this you’ll still be saving 15 to 20 000 pounds bargain it’s got unusual door
Handles not on the outside but on the inside which i think works rather well however paul disagrees it does not work rather well it’s the most bizarre thing to go like that you wouldn’t go like that you would go like that do you know another card that you go like that ask our viewers well if you know of another car that you go like that and not like that please
Comment below prove a point for me it’s quick but the question is how quick the s8 boasts some impressive stats but the real test of any wannabe performance car is a race track so we’ve come to attract a to see how the s8 stacks up against some competition a track day with master we look like a pair of bandits in a getaway car corner here paul old admit corner
Not your everyday track carter i’ll be honest with you but there’s an amg merc ahead of us we’re staying with that that’s pretty impressive it is that’s a lot lighter than this two point two stay away you could have had him there oh how’s the handling oh it feels it doesn’t roll much on the track of what you’re calling at 85 miles an hour whoa right now more
Power more power more power more power tightly now go full throttle so tiff are you going to trade in the formula ford for this no no i still feel although i’m impressed with its handling it’s not as frisky as i’d like but it’s very short-footed isn’t it it’s amazing for such a big old piece yeah so there we have it the s8 impresses whether you’re cruising country
Lanes or thundering around a racetrack and it really does perform far better than any car this size and weight has any right to it might not turn heads but it does provide comfort and speed in equal measures just don’t expect to see many at your next track day foreign
Transcribed from video
Road and track in the Audi S8 – 10 things you need to know /w Tiff Needell By Lovecars
