Tested: 1990 Audi V8 Is Refined, Not Raucous

From the October 1989 issue of Car and Driver.

You can watch TV until you’ve got ter­minal video bum, but you’ll probably never see Sonny Crockett or J.R. Ewing tooling around Miami or Dallas in an Audi V8. Although the new 90-degree, 32-valve V-8 in Audi’s latest flagship belts out an impressive 240 horsepower at 5800 rpm (only 5 hp shy of what a base Cor­vette delivers), this car is no street racer.

In part that’s because this car tips the Toledo scales to the tune of two tons. In part it’s because the Audi’s full-time four-wheel drive resolutely refuses to spin its tires on wet grass, never mind dry pavement. And in part it’s because the V-8 reaches its torque peak of 245 pound-­feet at 4000 rpm—leaving the new Audi decidedly short of low-speed grunt.

Moreover, when Audi made public the V8’s base price of $47,450 there was an intake of breath that could be heard all the way from Ann Arbor to Neckarsulm. But before you walk away shaking your head, look at the cars that Audi fingers as the V8’s competition: the BMW 735i, the Infiniti Q45, the Jaguar Vanden Plas, the Lexus LS400, and the Mercedes 420SEL. Audi estimated the average base price of those five at $47,642. Now look again at the Audi’s sticker. Coincidence? No way. The V8’s right in the ballpark.

Or maybe not. If you judge your luxu­ry sedans merely by 0-to-60 times—and we doubt that many buyers do—then the Audi V8 already has a strike or two against it. From rest, Audi’s flagship tack­les 60 mph in 9.3 seconds—two-tenths of a second slower than the slowest of its ad­versaries. Still, there is more to this Audi than leisurely stoplight sprints.

Four-wheel drive, for example. None of the Audi V8’s competitors currently offers all-wheel drive, a perk the boys in Ingolstadt reckon is worth between $2000 and $2500 in “perceived value.” For buyers whose garages are in the snow belt, that is doubtless true. But it is worth remembering that on dry pave­ment the four-wheel-drive Audis have no performance or handling advantage over their two-wheel-drive brethren.

From the engine, power is transmitted to a center differential with planetary gearing and an electronically controlled lock-up clutch. When one corner of the Audi begins to lose its grip on Mother Earth, the multi-disc clutch apportions torque accordingly, from the normal 50/50 front/rear split right on up to 100 per­cent front or 100 percent rear. Mean­while, a Torsen differential compensates for differences in rpm at the rear wheels, varying the split by as much as 80/20 from side to side.

What all of this means—at least for 90 percent of the driving you’ll ever under­take—is that the Quattro system is trans­parent. On dry roads, you have no clue as to how the V-8’s 240 ponies are being distributed. Tearing along Michigan’s washboard gravel roads or around the rain-soaked surface of the Road America racing circuit, however, you are fast aware that something magical is afoot. Audi’s new flagship delivers remarkable stability in atrocious conditions, working up to progressive, moderate understeer. Slicing through Road America’s slippery corners, the Audi’s attitude remained the same whether we were hard on the gas or had, delinquently and provocatively, dropped the throttle entirely. The V8’s stability at the limit is astonishing.

In light of the V8’s weight distribution, understeer is probably inevitable. Even though the all-aluminum V-8 engine is light—only 474 pounds with all sub­assemblies installed—it is positioned en­tirely ahead of the front wheels. That, in part, explains why the front tires bear 50 percent more weight than the rears and why they are the first to lose traction.

If the Audi’s four-speed automatic transmission feels smooth, unbreakable, and somehow familiar, it’s because it is the same ZF-built four-speed that BMW installs in its 735i. Upshifts and down­shifts are instantaneous, crisp, never ob­trusive. Mash your foot to the floor and the transmission holds each gear until 6200 rpm, 300 revs shy of the redline. The driver can select one of three trans­mission programs: Manual, Sport, or Ef­ficiency. (Given this car’s price and fuel consumption, you can understand why Audi shied away from the word “Economy.”) Around town, we dialed in the Sport setting, in which full-throttle upshifts occur at peak revs in every gear (the upshift to fourth comes at 120 mph—al­though that isn’t what we mean by “around-town” driving). In this setting, the engine is more frequently nearer the 4000-rpm range, where peak torque is tapped. For any sort of highway cruising, however, you’ll reach for the Efficiency setting. The difference between the pro­grams is significant. At a steady 80 mph, for example, the engine is at 2900 rpm in Efficiency and 4000 rpm in Sport. Tog­gling between the two somehow seems out of character in a luxury car—like mix­ing your own drinks on the QE2—but, if you want instant response at low speeds, you’ll have to get used to it. Whenever you turn off the engine, the program automatically resets to Efficiency.

Inside the Audi’s elegant cockpit, there are some detail imperfections un­characteristic of the marque. The spokes of the steering wheel obscure not only the turn-indicator stalk but also the fiddly cruise control and the headlamp stalk. The wheel itself is offset to the right and slightly canted to the left, a sin of asym­metry unpardonable in a $48,500 car. The buttons for the eight-way power-ad­justable seats are between the door and the seat, in a valley so cramped and dark that you must search with fingertips ex­tended, like a blind electrician. And at least two drivers complained that when­ever they reached to turn off the ignition, their right hands slammed directly into the wiper stalk. In July, the result was a windscreen smeared with a uniformly re­pulsive miasma of bug guts.

These irritants in toto, however, aren’t enough to outweigh what’s inherently right about the Audi’s cockpit: firm, com­fortable seats, crystal-clear analog gauges, and one of the best stereo sys­tems yet devised by Dr. Amar Bose. In­deed, every surface whispers, “I’m expensive, I’m substantial”—from the Rolls-Royce–quality walnut inserts to the silky carpet to the standard-equipment cellular phone to what Audi calls its “Ko­diak leather upholstery.” (We trust that North America’s bear population didn’t dwindle during the assembly of this automobile.)

Styling? Well, sure, nobody cranes his neck or shouts “Far out!” or challenges you to races at stoplights. In fact, from a distance, this rare Audi (only 2500 copies will appear in America during the first twelve months of production) bares its breeding only from a head-on view, where the leading edge of the hood sweeps down to surround the trapezoi­dal grille, a styling cue strongly reminis­cent of the new Mercedes-Benz SL. No wings, no side skirts, no stripes. And not a single V8 badge anywhere in sight.

Ironically, the Audi 200 and V8 share only two significant bits of sheetmetal: the front doors and the roof. Which makes you wonder. If Audi really intends to change its image in America, and if it is serious about its credo, Vorsprung durch Technik (“Holding the Lead through Technology”), then why must it giftwrap that technology in a package that so resembles the unjustly downtrodden Audi 5000? “Nice car, but what’s the resale value?” asked a Union 76 station atten­dant, who unwittingly sliced brutally to the heart of the matter.

None of which matters, of course, as you rifle serenely and smugly down Route 23. If you don’t think this Audi is fast, then count the number of speeding tickets you annually accrue. Unleashed on a smooth slab of Interstate, the Audi gathers speed with silence and amazing grace. On the way to a top speed of 145 mph, it isn’t until the car clears the 110- mph mark that tell-tale tread noise and wind roar announce themselves. Once, with the Audi loafing at 115 mph, a usu­ally nervous passenger asked, “Why is everybody else driving so slowly?”

Frankly, there are few cars that feel as refined, as cultivated, as of-a-piece as the Audi V8, particularly during long-dis­tance cruising. The steering is perfectly weighted and feels more connected than that in any Mercedes-Benz. The ride is firm yet never choppy, with few extrane­ous body motions. Fit and finish are among the best in the world. And when the conditions turn foul, it is immensely reassuring that the car’s manufacturer is an acknowledged pioneer in anti-lock brakes, full-time four-wheel drive, and mechanical seatbelt tensioners.

Audi has opted for refinement and so­phistication in an era when enthusiasts are awash in a tidal wave of horsepower and ripping speed. This car is not a BMW M5, nor is it intended to be. Rather, the Audi V8 is fast as, say, a Bentley Eight is fast. You’ll leave behind no rubber at stoplights. You’ll attract no undue atten­tion from Officer Bob. You’ll simply find yourself converging fast on downtown Miami when what you intended was the exit to Disney World.

So forget what you’ve heard. The Audi V8 is among the top six luxury sedans in the world. Which, in turn, means it is worth $47,450. Detective Crockett, your Audi is ready.

Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com