re: a8 v8

[Eliot Lim <eliot@u.washington.edu>]

On Fri, 8 Dec 1995, Psychos 'R Us wrote:
> Audi went for weird 
> side -- panel can be easily replaced (ahhh... new styling!) -- but it 
> does not fully exploit the weight advantage aluminum offers.

i don't think that low weight bragging rights were ever an end in
itself.  the a8 was meant to be the "best car in the world".  and the
best car in the world is not one that has the lowest density (weight per 
cubic foot of space that it occupies).

to build a truly world class car you had to have sports car handling
and luxury car ride and silence.  the occupants had to be well
pampered.  to achieve those goals, a immensely stiff structure was
needed.  many of the engineering problems disappear when you have a
very stiff structure to work with (which is why i recommend that
people get the 91 200TQ rather than the 90 or older ones).  you can
make the suspension stiffer without worrying about the body flexing.
noise disappears.

with that out of the way, you can put in the trademark quattro
drivetrain and all the luxury items that the segment of car buyers
demand.  and with the weight savings you can get away with a 300 bhp
V8 rather than a 400 bhp V12.  with less weight you can specify
smaller brakes with correspondingly lower unsprung weight.  your ride
quality improves.  you can then trade that for even more suspension
stiffness for the same ride quality.  see how much of a good thing low
weight is?

i think that the contributions of using aluminum in the a8 have been
misunderstood.  too many people look at its 3700 pounds and ask why
doesn't it weigh 1500.  the correct question to ask is: "if a car of
this ability was to be made of steel, how much would it weigh, if it's
even possible to build such a car in the first place?"  the nearest
thing made of steel would be the 7 series or the S class and we know
that they cannot even come near the a8's new standards of dynamics.

a 1500 pound aluminum car may be very quick, very agile but it will
not have world class standards of ride *and* handling and low noise.
it will be missing "important" luxo gizmos.  in short it will be
another lame and unsuccessful attempt at dethroning mercedes.  give
the audi engineers more credit for having a broader perspective.  even
the bmw bigwigs are openly expressing their admiration at audi's
daring attempt to build the a8.  the a8 is probably audi's 747...  the
company's future is on the line.

if the a8 can get objective press coverage in the US, it will be
a winner.  time to line their pockets, boys....


eliot