Audi S8 review

There’s much technology at play here, all geared towards overcoming the inherent limitations of a car as big and heavy as the S8. The first of the three main systems tasked with re-writing the laws of physics is Audi’s ‘predictive active suspension’, which draws power from the 48-volt electrical system and uses a forward-facing camera to scan the road ahead for speed bumps, potholes and so on.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT THIS WITCHCRAFT…

The theory is the car knows there’s a bump coming, so it can prepare its air suspension to cope - actuators on each corner move 40cm-long titanium rods to stress or relieve individual wheels. The system can compensate for pitch (for example by jacking up the front under heavy braking to reduce dive) and roll (Audi says the max roll angle is just 2.5 degrees, which is nothing), and even tilt the car ever so slightly into bends. 

Then you’ve got all-wheel steering. At low speeds the rear-axle works with the front, turning in the opposite direction to cut the more than five-metre-long S8’s turning circle by about a metre. At high speeds the rear axle turns in the same direction as the front for better stability. The final piece of the puzzle is what Audi calls the 'sport differential', which vectors torque across the rear axle.

AND THE RESULTS ARE...?

Mightily impressive actually. Pleasingly neutral, in fact. The four-wheel steering feels admirably natural. It really tips the S8 into tight corners, Quattro helps it hang on gamely and the V8 means it emerges out the other side at speeds once reserved only for serious performance cars.

Meanwhile the suspension is working overtime – keeping the S8 uncannily level however rudely you treat it. It doesn’t squat under acceleration, dive under braking or roll whatsoever in the bends. Pay attention and you’ll feel it leaning in. We wouldn’t exactly call it involving, but this is an enjoyable car to drive in its own way, and unreasonably rapid point-to-point. 

Its greatest success though is that when you’re not flinging it about like precisely nobody who buys it will ever do, the S8 goes back to being a normal A8. The added schportiness doesn’t make it any less comfortable, cosseting or calming. You can’t say the same about the AMG S63. It doesn’t matter what mode you’re in – Comfort+, Dynamic or any of the others in between – at heart the S8 is still a big, world-class luxo-barge. 

A LUXO-BARGE WITH VERY CLEVER SUSPENSION...

The cameras don’t always pick-up speed bumps – they can only see a few metres ahead, and don’t like it if you’re going more than 30mph or so – but when they do, you feel (and hear) the car raise up just before you reach them. Then you glide over the top as though the bump wasn’t there, before the car sits itself back down again.

WHAT ABOUT THE ENGINE? 

As for the powertrain, well the V8 is as lovely here as it is in the Bentley Continental GT or Bentayga. 

In the S8 it’s incredibly smooth and all but silent, with a measured burble (and an endearing whine from the MHEV system) when you trouble the throttle. In auto, the eight-speed tiptronic gearbox is smooth and sensible, while in manual the upshifts are fine, but it could do with being a bit quicker on the way down. Not that anyone who buys an S8 will ever even attempt to use the wheel-mounted paddles. The mild hybrid stuff is well integrated – you won’t feel the motor stopping, starting or shutting off cylinders.