Lightweight Audi packs a punch

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

Buyers in the top-end market who like everything about Audi can get a look at the new A8 at the Sydney motor show in October, six months before the vehicle goes on sale in New Zealand.

The new aluminium-bodied Audi flagship will be unveiled in Europe later this month and go on show publicly for the first time at the Paris motor show in September.

Audi New Zealand general manager Glynn Tulloch expects the all-wheel-drive A8 to arrive here in April next year, priced upwards of $200,000.

"We can say goodbye to the days of such a sophisticated aluminium car like the A8 costing under $200,000," he said.

"The new car is less expensive to make, due to improved aluminium-casting methods, but it carries much more equipment and is considerably stronger than the previous model."

Audi has provided only scant information about the A8, but it is making much of its comparatively lightweight strength.

The new car, like its predecessor, features an aluminium body built using space frame technology.

But the carmaker says technical advances have improved the torsional rigidity of the A8's body by 60 per cent.

This means the car should be quieter, and handle and ride much better than the previous A8, launched in 1994.

Audi is keeping the weight of the car to itself for the moment. But reports overseas say it will be about 250kg lighter than the Volkswagen Phaeton, its parent company's rival. The Phaeton with the W8 engine is understood to weigh 2319kg.

The A8 for New Zealand will be powered by a 4.2-litre V8 petrol engine developing 246kW (335 bhp) at 6500 rpm and 430Nm of torque at 3500 rpm.

Audi says it will propel the car from zero to 100km/h in just over six seconds and on to an electronically limited top speed of 250km/h.

A new, six-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission will direct power via steering-wheel-mounted gearshift paddles to all four wheels.

Also new to the A8 is air suspension, with continuously variable damper settings to provide optimum comfort and handling.

The driver can choose between three pre-defined suspension settings - firmer for sporty performance to softer for comfort. Other luxury makers offer similar variable set-ups.

The feature creating most interest is what Audi calls Multi Media Interface, its answer to BMW's controversial iDrive operating system.

Audi says MMI is a "pioneering approach to interacting with the vehicle's technology and its communication systems ... a logical and, therefore, self-evident operating concept [which] makes this car uniquely easy to operate, allowing the driver to concentrate on traffic".

It stops short of saying its system is superior to iDrive, but stories out of Europe early in the A8's development claimed the Audi operating system would be more instinctive.

Also new in the A8 are an electro-mechanical parking brake and an automatic tyre-pressure monitor.

Tulloch will most likely import only the all-wheel-drive 4.2-litre A8. A front-drive 3.2-litre V6 model and premium 6-litre W12 are due later in the production cycle, but he doesn't expect demand for them here.

It's the same with the three diesel models - 2.5-litre V6, 4-litre V8 and 5-litre V10. British buyers are getting the oil-burners for the first time but New Zealanders aren't expected to queue for them.

Audi wants to cash in on the buoyant diesel market in Britain where six out of 10 Mercedes-Benz S-Class sales, for example, are diesel.

It is aiming the A8 at the S-Class and BMW 7-Series. The optional diesel engines give the luxury models longer touring ranges and buckets of overtaking torque.

Audi is also planning to replace the petrol line-up of engines with direct-injection units later down the line. The new powerplants will cut emissions and be more economic to run.