By
EWAN KENNEDY
10 July 2006
In an interesting move that ushers in a new era in Australian
motoring history, Audi has added the option of a turbo-diesel to its
topline A8 series.
Though there has been rapid acceleration
in the acceptance of diesel engines over the few years, until now none
has been offered in the upmarket saloon end of the market.
Whereas Audi's chief competitors, Benz
and BMW have introduced diesels in their small to mid-range variants
(and have had them for a long time in SUVs), neither has been game to
offer a turbo-diesel in their big-dollar, limousine-like saloons.
There's been a feeling that Australian
buyers in the upper echelons of the motoring market won’t like
diesels. We are about to find out whether or not they are right.
Audi's catchline is that it advances
through technology (which is what Vorsprung durch Technik stands for in
the Audi ads) so it makes a lot of sense for it to push ahead with
new-generation diesel powerplants at this time of high fuel prices.
The fact that an Audi turbo-diesel has
just won the toughest circuit race of them all, the Le Mans 24-hour,
must enter the picture as well. A turbo-diesel engine had never taken
outright honours on the famed French road course. This year’s winning
car covered 5187 kilometres in just 24 hours or, as Audi likes to point
out, the equivalent distance to every Formula One race in the season.
Power for the new Audi A8 diesel comes
from a big 4.2-litre V8 turbocharged unit with a hefty 650 Newton metres
between 1600 rpm and 3500 rpm, and 240 kilowatts at 3750 rpm. These
torque numbers mean almost all drivers will be operating the engine in
its most efficient range virtually all of the time.
The engine has a tremendous surge of
energy and can power from a standstill to 100 km/h in only 5.5 seconds.
It took a sports car to accelerate like that not many years ago – a
sports car with a thirsty petrol engine. Yet the Audi diesel’s
official fuel figure is only 9.7 litres per hundred kilometres.
We have tested the new Audi A8 turbo
diesel extensively on a long driver program, close to 700 kilometres on
the highways and byways of Tasmania. It makes a superb long distance
cruiser with the ability to soak up the worst of Australian roads,
including some rough and ready dirt surfaces.
There really is a feeling of true luxury
in the leather, wood and aluminium interior and the large seats support
well for hours on end.
Fuel consumption during our fairly hard
testing typically ran at eight to nine litres per hundred kilometres on
easy roads and climbed to a still respectable 11 litres per hundred
during hill climbs made easy by that huge torque output. These excellent
figures indicate the big advances made in TDI engines in the last few
years.
Audi A8 turbo-diesel is reasonably priced
at $210,000 a price that compares well with the top-of-the-range petrol
variant at $326,000.
For those of you still unable to raise
that amount of money, Audi has also introduced an upmarket variant of
its A4 turbo-diesel range. This time with a 3.0-litre V6, and a price
tag of $86,700. Like the A8 diesel it too uses all-wheel drive for
superior traction.
