Re: A8 Test drive

["Graydon D. Stuckey" <graydon@apollo.gmi.edu>]

On Wed, 13 Mar 1996, Anthony Parkinson wrote:

> The A8 that has been roaming around the country with AZ mfg tags on it 
> showed up here in Miami today. After an oil change I took it for a 
> spin. I was accompanied by the dealer rep and 3 water filled dummies.
> 
> The car was plain ausome.. Front suspension set up just like the A4 and 

Rear suspension too if I remember correctly.

> the power and drive of the car with a 800 lb load was impressive. In 

I got to drive it alone.   (heh heh)

> drive the car still lacks a bit off the line however in 2 or even 1 the 
> car just simply flies effortlessly. The gearbox has  a cute manual 
> feature whereby you slip it to the right and  jam it foward each time 

It's licensed from Porsche (Tiptronic) and I thought it worked quite 
well.  I also thought that the full auto mode worked pretty well, so I 
leftt it there most of the time.

> Steering is firm positive direct and very comfortable .... far superior 
> to the XJR in every respect ...

I only drove the regular XJ6, but I have to agree, the A8 has tremendous 
stability and control.  I had the opportunity to drive it over partially 
snow covered roads, and it went through the stuff like it wasn't there 
(at over 100mph!!)

> The tack and speedo are separated by an electronic billboard in the 
> center which tells you everything ...

The A8 I was in was all in German.  Did you get English?  I think it said 
to depress the brake pedal to shift into drive or something like that.

> I want one!!!

Yeah.....  me too.   Oh well...

Later,								
Graydon D. Stuckey								
graydon@apollo.gmi.edu								
Flint, Michigan   USA
'86 Audi 5000 CS Turbo Quattro, GDS Racing Stage II				
'85 Mazda RX7 GS 12A-leaning-towards-a-13B-soon