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Collected the S8 today


Chris_B
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OK, in three words: I like it!

Very early days yet, I've only been for a few miles run in it, and it's as tight as a drum yet, but I'm liking the experience so far.

Toys: Reversing camera works great! I didn't trust it enough first time round and parked like a complete arse, then I tried again and let the marker lines guide me into the space I was backing into - perfectly lined up! There's also a parallel parking mode that I haven't played with yet, I'll ahve to find somewhere to give that a go. The fingerprint recognition is a fun toy - it saves seats, mirror position etc, but it also stores (AFAIK so far) AC settings, sound settings, MMI/Nav/Audio preferences and it even stores a different Name directory for each of the four drivers.

Performance: I can't really report on this yet, as it's still being run in. However, the V10 seems to spool up a bit more rapidly than the larger W12 engine, and so far, keeping it to 3000 rpm means it's still pretty drivable, with a little over 4000 rpm left to unleash later. The engine sounds great too - a strange high-pitched whine (ever heard a new Mini negine? A bit like that), plus the offbeat woofle of two times five pots firing.

Ride: Noticably harder than the W12, round town it does make a bit more tyre noise and most bumps are soaked up while a very few give a surprising thump. I'm hoping this will fade a bit with some miles as the suspension components loosen up.

Handling: Not tried my regular route yet, but the steering feels heavier at low speeds than the W12 did, partly due to the revised ratio (less turns lock-to-lock), and partly due to the wider tyres. Oddly enough, because of the revised ratio, when the servotronic power steering kicks in, it feels lighter and twitchier than the W12 at speed. It should be a bit quicker to flick about as a result.

Looks: Drop dead gorgeous! smlove2.gif No pics yet, I went for a quick play, then had to shoot to the office, and the South side of Lincoln isn't pretty enough for some shots. I might try to grab a few quick snaps on the way home, but it's turning fecking dark already!

Anything negative?: Well, I can't see any elements in the heated front windscreen. Given that apparently the system wouldn't accept the order code for the heated screen several times, this gets my cynical side on red alert. I'll have to get the option codes off the label and see if they reveal anything. Oh, and why is it a 'space-saver' spare? Surely with a smaller wheel and a larger (higher aspect ratio) tyre, it takes up as much space as a regular wheel would? 'Money-saving-for-Audi' wheel more like it. I wonder how much one of the 20" wheels costs? UHOH7.GIF

More after I've driven it a bit.

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Apologies for the rubbish pics - I took a quick snap in the office car park, intending to take some better pictures in the countryside on the way home. Once I got on the road though, as I headed East, the sky turned grey and it became very misty, so I never found that perfect spot to take pictures.

I'll try again some time and see if I can actually get a decent picture of the beast.

Sorry! I have failed in my photography... blush.gif

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[ QUOTE ]

1/2 a tank of petrol already Chris, or did Audi penny pinch on that too?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, Audi provide half a tank of fuel with new cars now. Mine came slightly under full, thank you Lincoln Audi. I also got a big bunch of flowers for the wife, an Audi golf umbrella, some Audi pens (woo!) and a promise of a scale model S8 when they're available.

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[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

1/2 a tank of petrol already Chris, or did Audi penny pinch on that too?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, Audi provide half a tank of fuel with new cars now. Mine came slightly under full, thank you Lincoln Audi. I also got a big bunch of flowers for the wife, an Audi golf umbrella, some Audi pens (woo!) and a promise of a scale model S8 when they're available.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well at least you did good on the freebies, all I got was the keys to my car last time! Maybe because I got a full tank of petrol.

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Spare Rims are £506.15 + Vat each without a tyre! shocked.gif

The reason they use a space saver isn't the diameter it is the width of the tyre when you put it into the boot, you would need a boot 9" Deep!

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I think you'll find that most of the A8 wheels cost around that much, I'm about to flea bay my alloys so I went in to West London Stealers to find out how much they were and they quoted me £429+VAT for a single 18" sport alloy EEK2.GIF

But your right about the depth FIREdevil.gif

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[ QUOTE ]

Spare Rims are £506.15 + Vat each without a tyre! shocked.gif

The reason they use a space saver isn't the diameter it is the width of the tyre when you put it into the boot, you would need a boot 9" Deep!

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think £506 would really be that bad for one of the 20" wheels. I guess I'm just becoming used to being assraped by Audi at every opportunity. crazy.gif

The W12 takes the 19" 5-spoke with a 255/40 (I think) on it in the spare wheel well, and didn't seem to be that close to fouling the boot floor, so I'd be surprised if a 20" wheel with a 265/35 on it wouldn't fit. If you think abuot it, the wheel you take off has to go somewhere, and it probably needs to be the wheel well - what if the boot was full of stuff? A wheel with a deflated tyre and a compressor would be ideal, if space is tight.

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If you think abuot it, the wheel you take off has to go somewhere, and it probably needs to be the wheel well - what if the boot was full of stuff?

[/ QUOTE ]

I read in a car mag that a reader bought a TT convertobubble and had a puncture. The road wheel did not fit in the boot! blush.gifblush.gif His missus had the wheel in the wheel bag provided on her lap! EEK2.GIF

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Dealers get quite a good margin on Factory alloys, usually about 41%, so there is deffo deals o be had if you called a couple of dealers if you really decided you wanted one just for the sake of giving some more money to Audi!

I suppose it would make a change from giving it to Shell or BP!

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Update:

Well, 3rd day in and I'm still very much in love. I'm still opening the front windows before starting the engine so I can hear it woofle into life, and I usually drive around town with the windows open and the stereo off, and only shut them when I'm on the open road and the wind roar gets a bit much. smile.gif

I took it into Lincoln Audi today to get the headlights set up for Norway. It's an electronic job, plug into the VAGtool and configure it. While it was in, I queried the heated windscreen, and the factory system says it's fitted, and the car's own diags list it in the systems inventory, so it's looking pretty likely that it is fitted, in which case I'm really impressed; you can't see any heating elements at all.

I've had two other cars try to race me in the last two nights. The W12 never got this much attention, but I don't know if it's because of the S8s more agressive looks and sound, or just because I'm still running it in and passing people at a speed where they think there might be a chance, where the W12 would have flown past at a descisive speed. I'll find out when I'm able to let the top 4200 rpm loose! Last night's 'racer' was a Laguna with all the windows fully down and the three lads who were the passengers hanging their heads out fo the windows. I only went past at 3000 rpm in 6th, and the next thing I know he's right up my arse and weaving around. Well, I put up with him down the straight and figured if he wanted past, I'd let him go. He didn't, but luckily for him he did see the sharp left-hander coming up and he did realise in time that the reason I wasn't braking for it was probably because I could take it at the speed I was going, even in the wet, which he certainly couldn't. Through a series of sweeping alternate left and right-handers, I got two corners in before I lost sight of him completely, and I never saw him again, but there were no signs of a wreck on that route this morning, so I guess he did the right thing.

The handling is pretty spot on, and the car is fantastically neutral round corners within it's lateral grip limits, which are pretty far-reaching anyway. On the edge, it seems to push into a very gentle understeer, but I haven't had the speeds up enough yet to really get it to lose grip, even in the wet on the greasy roads. One thing I did notice is that braking on a corner (avoiding somebody who pulled out in front of me) did produce a small back-end 'wiggle' on a damp road, so I suspect that lift-off oversteer on a wet road will be quite easy to induce, but the Torsen and active traction control soon sort it out. I think it will take a little bit of adjusting from the nose-heavy and 50/50 torque split I'm used to, but it should be a more flexible and communicative car once I adjust.

The power boot and power-closing doors are great, but I have to remind the family not to slam them every time they get in or out... ROLLEY~14.GIF

The DAB radio is great, if it's on a station that has FM coverage as well, and the DAB signal drops out, it switches instantly to FM until it picks the DAB signal up again, handy in some of the dead spots on my commute home. The MMI display will also show the DAB station text, which most stations cycle around the current track name and artist, and the current show details, which is cool for those "What song is this?" moments. There's also a feature where DAB stations can broadcast pictures and they appear on the MMI display, but nobody in the UK seems to be sending the pictures yet.

The trip computer is improved too; the cruise control now confirms the set speed on the DIS display, and it can be nudged up or down even when inactive. When cycling through the two trip computers, the larger display is used to show extra information that would normally have been concealed, and the new digital speed readout has the trip computers and air temperature underneath, and this briefly shows the set cruise speed when engaging or changing the set speed.

The slight thumpiness of the suspension is already going, and the gearbox is already making smoother changes and isn't quite so "grabby" although the gear change speed is still very rapid and always 100% perfectly executed. If it's improved this much over a couple of hundred miles, it should get even better over the next couple of thousand.

I'm glad I've been behaving on the run-in period, it did take a small top-up of oil already this morning, and I've got a couple of litres to take with me to Norway, so I guess it will need a little bedding in to be in best condition. I'm frustrated now, but looking forward to getting a few more miles on and being able to open up a bit more: good things come to those that wait! grin.gif

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Oh, and note in the pictures that in 6th gear, 2000 rpm is 60 mph. Unless I've got completely the wrong idea about gear ratios, I guess then that 4000 rpm will be 120 mph, 6000 rpm will be 180 mph, so what would 7200 rpm be?... EEK2.GIF

Of course, at those kind of speeds, horsepower comes into play. I wonder how fast 450 PS will push a car with that kind of weight, frontal area and drag?

When's the next Bruntingthorpe VMax day? grin.gif

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[ QUOTE ]

We all need lots more photos, please

[/ QUOTE ]She's being cleaned, polished and waxed as we speak. Assuming I leave the office before it's dark, if it's not raining I'll try to get some more tonight, although they'll only be off the point-n-shoot.

If it manages to stay clean enough, I'm hoping ot get some shots against the Norwegian fjords next week. Hmm, I wonder if I 've got room amongst the luggage for a bucket, a couple of cloths and a bottle of Zymol? grin.gif

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