2007 Audi A8 4.2 Quattro
I made plenty of
references to a 2007
Audi A8. In reality,
having prior experience
of a flagship luxury sedan
helped me in forming my
opinions of the Alpina B7.
This A8 utilizes a
naturally aspirated 4.2L
V8. Unlike the Audi R8
that launched a year
later, this application is
good for only 350 HP. 060 comes in about 5.9
seconds, which is not
much faster than the
Lincoln MKT
Ecoboost. Top speed is
electronically limited to
155 MPH like most
German cars. Actually,
that’s a lie. For some
reason (tires?), top speed
is limited to only 130. But
raw performance doesn’t
tell the whole story.
The interior comes in
very good leather. The
optional brown leather
present here seems to be
the way to go. After all,
it’s a nice switch from the
usual black or tan. Ugly,
hard plastics are
essentially nowhere to be
found. The instrument
cluster and dashboard
are nicely laid out. It
would have been nice if
back in 2007, they knew
that the glove box would
not be the best place to
have a phone plug. That
leads us to the
infotainment system. The
wheel scrolls backwards,
and the voice recognition
is only OK. But, THE
SYSTEM
WORKS. Rarely has the
system lagged, and it has
never crashed on me
either. The Audi MMI
layout is extremely
simple, and everything is
relatively easy to find.
As expected, the car is
quiet both inside and
outside. The exhaust is
relatively muted, with the
valves opening past a
certain RPM (possibly
3500). From the inside,
the engine is very quiet,
even at wide open
throttle. Petrolheads may
be disappointed, but this
was not meant to be the
sportiest of cars. Even
the A8’s competitors
behave like that. The
engine actually sounds
pleasant at highway
cruising speeds. Wind
noise is not bad at all.
Handling could be
better. Of course, the
most responsive handling
is with the air suspension
on “dynamic,” the lowest
setting. But the car
doesn’t feel as planted as
it should be on
turns. Yes, this is not
meant to be the sportiest
of Audis. But they
could’ve done
better. There’s no torque
steer, but the car seems
to be a little noseheavy. Luckily, under
normal cruising, it’s not
bad at all, which is what
the engineers were likely
striving for. And if the
passengers happen to be
feeling a little nervous,
there are nice grab
handles.