2011 Audi A8 revealed amidst the stars at Design Miami 2009
Audi launched its all-new 2011 Audi A8 at the Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami Beach, where the automaker is a major sponsor of Art Basel December 3-9, the sister event of a show in Switzerland. Actress Lucy Liu emceed the gala.
The Audi A8 launches in North America about this time next year, a few months after the summer ‘10 release in Europe. While Western Europe gets a 3.0-liter TDI V-6, a 3.2-liter FSI V-6, and 4.2-liter turbodiesel and gas direct-injection V-8s, we get the car only with that latter engine, upgraded to 372 horsepower and 328 pound-feet.
The direct injection allows a 12.5:1 compression ratio and Audi’s “modular efficiency system” converts kinetic energy to electric power, buffered in the battery, upon deceleration. A computer monitors actuators for the ideal distribution of the heat flows between the engine, transmission and interior. At cold start, the system uncouples the engine temporarily from the cooling circuit to shorten the warm-up phase with its high friction losses.
The 4.2 may be a short-termer, however. Audi is preparing a supercharged 4.0-liter V-8 gas direct-injection engine to supplement, for the time being, the 4.2. While we don’t have a timeline, an insider assures us it comes very soon after the luxury flagship’s launch. Also rumored to be in the pipeline is a hybrid model.
The power is transmitted through a new eight-speed automatic to the quattro all-wheel-drive system. Audi claims a 0-62 mph time of 5.7 seconds and an electronically controlled top speed of 250 kp/h, or, in the automaker’s exactitude, 155.34 mph.
The dynamic shift program now networks with the optional MMI navigation plus system to anticipate curves in its gearshift strategy and avoid unnecessary gear changes. Taking a swipe at BMW’s and Mercedes’ modern gearshifts, the A8 comes with a selector lever on the center tunnel, shaped like the thrust lever of a yacht. You can change gears with a quick tap of the lever, or use the rocker switches on the steering wheel.
he standard quattro system sends 60 percent of the power to the rear, under normal conditions, and finds the wheel with the most traction under wheelslip conditions. An optional sport quattro system continuously varies the torque split front and rear.
Speed-dependent servotronic steering comes with a 16.1:1 ratio, and drive select lets the driver choose from “highly comfortable,” “gentle rolling” and “sporty and exciting,” by integrating the adaptive air suspension, the engine and the eight-speed tiptronic. It also lets the driver custom-build the system for a fourth, “individual” mode. Brakes are sports car-like, with internally ventilated discs and front stainless steel pins connecting the friction rings to the aluminum brake caps to save 8.27 pounds per wheel.
It’s a pretty simple design, “elegant” for those weary of the BMW 7 Series. The taillamps, geeky high-tech as they may be with their 72 LEDs per lamp, look straight off the new A4. Look at the 2011 A8 closer and you’ll see some pretty interesting surfacing, a front fenderline that wraps tightly between the hood plane and the front wheels.
Some of the surfacing is downright surprising; a kick-up in the hood and trunk lid offset by an even more subtle counter-crease, the type of sheetmetal work not possible not long ago. It’s easier to do with the A8’s aluminum bodywork, and it fits nicely with the check-mark LED headlamps. The aluminum construction, by the way, makes the quattro all-wheel-drive A8 about 200 pounds lighter than a RWD V-8 competitor like the 7 Series or Lexus LS, though exact mass figures weren’t immediately available.
Back seats capacious enough for executive compensation packages and rock/hip-hop star egos, buttery leather and severely modern styling are all a given in today’s flagships. So the competition tries to set itself apart with enough high technology to fill a health care reform bill. The new Audi A8, targeting the BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XJ and anticipating the segment’s standard-bearer, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, does not disappoint.
[source:Audi]
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