Audi have a selection of powertrains for their flagship model, the A8 L, and one of those is a huge V8 turbo-diesel which packs in more goodies, power and torque than some lesser cars combined. How does it fare as a personal luxury barge on wheels?
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
What do you call an 850-lb guard dog? Call it whatever you want, it’s an 850-lb guard dog! The same can be said about Audi’s A8 L with their most powerful production diesel motor under the bonnet. Call the A8 L 60 TDI a luxury saloon, a premium family car, a limousine or luxury yacht on four wheels, it is quite a creation. Whether the ‘L’ stands for ‘long wheelbase’ or ‘limousine’ or ‘locomotive’ I’m not sure, but it adheres to every one of those descriptions faultlessly. For one, it sports a wheelbase 130 millimetres longer than the standard A8. Second, the rear seats have a business-class style raise-and-recline function which lets you relax in cosseted luxury, with the premium perforated leather and massage function adding those extra touches to ensure you never want to leave. Third, the engine, a 4.2-litre V8 turbo-diesel – yes, it’s badged ’60 TDI’, and, no, it’s not a 6.0-litre engine – makes a locomotive-like 850 Nm of peak torque. So you see what it’s about then?
Usually, I would rave about the fact that it is a big V8, and it’s a turbocharged diesel with loads of torque, more than two A4 2.0 TDIs put together, and it has an eight-speed tiptronic automatic gearbox, and the unbelievably grippy quattro intelligent all-wheel-drive system which powers this 2.2-tonne leather-and-gadget-wielding behemoth to 100 km/h in just five seconds. But not today. This car is about moving up, acquired by those who have climbed higher up the ladder of success and want to celebrate it. It is as much about the equipment and cutting-edge technology as it is about comfort and speed. So, then, what’s changed?
For starters, the Matrix LED headlamps are the obvious giveaway on the facelift model. The lengthy, full-looking bodywork looks understated and isn’t over-styled in the least, but shows off the generous proportions the A8 L offers. Simple lines do their job to the best of their ability and the result is something extremely satisfying and, quite simply, desirable. I’d like to clarify that the 60 TDI is not the absolute top-of-the-line A8 there is. The S8 is the more sport-oriented flagship, while the A8 L W12, which packs pretty much everything on the equipment list as standard kit, including night vision, is the peak of the Ingolstadt luxury mountain. The A8 L you see here is called the ‘India Edition’, and features a lot of kit from the W12 model as well as some of the good stuff from ‘Audi exclusive’ trim works.
