What is it?
Perhaps it’s a size thing – or, at the very least, a purpose thing. After all, we’re on board with gratuitously powerful sports cars of any variety, but driving a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 Audi A8 in 2021 (especially around Norway, where more cars are electric than are not) does feel like turning up to a bar mitzvah with a plate of pork chops.
Still, the Audi's competition is also rife with chunky V8s (think Mercedes- Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series); and yet more pertinent is the fact that this A8 will also offer a 3.0-litre petrol V6, a 3.0-litre diesel V6 and an Audi A8 plug-in hybrid with a longer electric range than before, plus the sporty Audi S8.
This is a mild overhaul for the A8, with the significant new additions being a bigger grille, bigger front intakes, new OLED tail-lights, new infotainment software and, on range-topping Vorsprung trim, new digital matrix LED headlights with no fewer than 1.3 million micromirrors, which don’t so much illuminate the road as deliver a forward-facing sunrise.
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Would have this over its German "big three" rivals. BMW looks low rent inside, like pieces of nice upholstery draped over a far cheaper cabin. Merc looks like the Apple store. That completely writes those two off for me.
" ... which don’t so much illuminate the road as deliver a forward-facing sunrise."
The Norwegian Atlantic road - speed limit is 50mph the whole way. Great place to test an Audi S8!