It's no secret that a significant proportion of Audi A8 owners do not drive their cars. You only need to slip into the spacious rear of the present D5 car to see why. Each A8 to succeed the now legendary D2 has enjoyed halo positioning, and its reputation as a business-grade limousine has guaranteed a certain amount of global popularity, particularly in Asia. But the S8 has typically been a breed apart, blessed (or cursed) with the requirement for supercar-fast pace, and often sold more for its flagship status than for its Q-car capabilities.
With its starting price expected to breach £100k for the first time, the latest S8 is destined for ground that not even the previous Plus variant reached. Yet the model maintains a key advantage over its arch rival, the Mercedes-AMG S63. A £28,000 one, to be exact. That says more about the S-Class's customer base than actual qualitative difference though, because the saving is certainly not to the detriment of the equipment onboard the S8. The 2020 car, more than ever, is a tech fest both underneath and inside. The latter gets Audi's latest digital cabin architecture, while the former gains the A8's highly impressive active suspension. It is powered by a 571hp MHEV V8 and is said to be ready for Level 3 'eyes off' autonomy. Only regulatory framework is said to stand in its way; there's even a blanked-off button on its dash for the unintroduced autonomous features.
We can gloss over the 40 or so driverless systems that are beavering away behind the scenes, but it's fair to say that the experience from the back seat (which Audi insisted we sample) is from the very top drawer. No sane person would previously have picked the S8 to do the job of a limousine, but it seems like there are no in-built limitations to the model's comfort-giving properties. Like all cars of this sort, it is tempting to grade its backseat abilities against the convenience of a short-haul flight. Would PH preferred to have arrived on the continent at a slower, plusher rate of travel? Well, let's just say we'd have been fresher faced if the only air between us and the ground was held within an active suspension system.
The S8's ability to virtually separate body and driveline is not exclusive to the performance saloon - since the regular A8 provides exactly the same floaty traits when equipped with the predictive suspension hardware - but on the S8 the tech comes as standard and its parameters have been extended, so as to not leave it floppy when the cruise is exchanged for fast-paced driving. In Comfort+ (there's no room for 'regular' Comfort here), the S8 constantly tips and leans against the forces that would be applied to its passengers, so the physical impact of hurtling around a slip road or full-throttle launches are considerably dampened. And the nose-mounted camera, which scans the road 15 metres ahead 18 times a second, enables the air suspension to lift the body before a speed bump so it's practically unnoticeable. You really do glide along the tarmac.
Even in Dynamic mode, the S8 rides beautifully on its top-spec 21-inch wheels (20s are standard). Only now, instead of countering lean, the suspension holds the body flat through bends and allows the surge of performance provided by that deep, monumentally tractable 4.0 V8 to maximise visceral impact. The S8 belies its 2.2-tonne mass with sub-4 second-to-62mph performance and barely lets up beyond. Yet there's little in the way of sound to signal your speed, with Audi's active noise cancellation technology replacing wind and road noise with the purposeful bass of the engine and a just-audible electrified whine. It all sounds very, well, high-end.
Should you swap fast, straight roads for corners, the S8 does well to maintain its form. As you'd imagine, the grunt provided by 590lb ft of torque means there's no reason to interrupt the automatic function of the eight-speed transmission. It works seamlessly with the petrol motor and is happy to lug it out in gear rather than juggling cogs even when you charge between bends. If you insist on going to the paddles, the manual clicks deliver an impressively immediate response; we're not talking RS7 levels of engagement here, obviously, and that's illustrated by the auto upshift you can't escape should you mistime a gear change. But long gone are the days when an S8's driveline felt set on independence; it's easy to revel in the far-reaching elasticity of an electrically-assisted twin-turbo motor by short-shifting under heavy power. There's real joy to be had in that.
As ever, the four-wheel drive quattro traction is virtually unbreakable, although Audi's sport differential and the S8's standard inclusion of rear-wheel steer delivers a satisfying degree of mid-corner adjustability. The car turns on a pivot around its centre, meaning that it's possible to thread this near 5.2-metre-long machine through the Spanish mountain passes of our test route with accuracy and consistency. There's no steering feel, obviously, but even on an autumnal afternoon the consistency of mechanical grip is so high that it barely matters. You hardly need to know the nuance; leave it to the traction systems and, in the case of our car, the unflappable carbon ceramic brakes. Inevitably that means the S8 is never going to send you into a paroxysm of driving pleasure, but there's genuine satisfaction to be had from the balance and composure of its chassis; ditto the effortless, muscular excess of the V8.
Of course, anyone hoping for a dominating V8 soundtrack is going to be disappointed; AMG's equivalent has the stronger lungs. Better to think about it from the Q-car angle. The S8 genuinely feels like it's slipping under the radar. As far as the chassis goes, our memory of the cheaper but less luxurious BMW 750i M Sport suggests it'd be the more exciting steer on the same road, although only by a small margin. Yet the S8 does so much more at the other end of the spectrum with its super comfortable predictive hardware that its overall advantage feels significant. Some will prefer the conventional layout of an S63 cabin - as in the A8, the flagship's mass of screens will not suit everyone - but if you like your £100k car to carryover all the convenience of your smartphone, the Audi is second to none. And that goes twice for its build quality. All of which makes it hard to complain at any length about the S8. It's autonomous party piece might have been foiled, but this is still the best iteration yet of Audi's Big Easy.
SPECIFICATION - AUDI S8
Engine: 3,993cc, V8, twin-turbocharged, plus starter generator
Transmission: 8-speed tiptronic, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 571@tbc
Torque (lb ft): 590@tbc
0-62mph: 3.9sec
Top speed: 155mph (limited)
Weight: tbc (est 2,230kg unladen)
MPG: tbc
CO2: tbc (est 285g/km)
Price: tbc (est £100,000)
1 / 13
