Audi S8 2007 News

The lineup looks like the regular A8. That's until you catch the bigger brakes and wheels, hunkered-down suspension and quad-tip exhaust that always point to Audi's S cars. The S8 is rumoured with a 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 engine later this year.

Their objective is to build a luxury car with real punch, and worthy of the S8 badge it will eventually wear.  Testing is in top gear for a public unveiling later this year, most likely at the Paris Motor Show, with sales early in 2011. As yet there is no confirmation of the car's engine, but it is most likely to be a 4-litre twin-turbo V8 with more than 375 kiloWatts and 600 Newton-metres of torque.  The Carparazzi crew caught this S8 prototype during tests and, although it looks like a blacked-out standard A8, there are plenty of ways to pick it from the luxury limousine. There is no S-type body tweaking but it has giant brakes, six-caliper pistons and a four-tip exhaust system exiting beneath the back bumper.  The car also rides lower on bigger wheels.  Look for more details in Carsguide as they arrive from Europe.

Physics tells us that even a Ferrari pushed to the extreme will eventually lose its grip on the road, often with cataclysmic results.It happens when the gravitational force acting on the car exceeds the driver's desire to go in the other direction.We know because we found the limits of the bright yellow Porsche Cayman that we were driving on Dubai's $150 million grand prix circuit last week.The beauty of race tracks, at least modern ones that is, is that they are designed for this eventuality, with run off areas where cars can slide harmlessly to a halt without hitting anything.My little "off" happened on a section of the circuit doused with water, part wet and part dry, to make things that little bit more challenging.Reaching the apex of the corner, I applied too much throttle too soon (at least that's the way I remember it) forcing the rear of the car to flick sideways.I watched as the Porsche in slow motion described a full circle around me before coming to a rest.Intact, but with a slightly bruised ego, I was able to drive off again, hardly missing a beat.In fact, it was over so quickly, that no one realised it had even happened - but they say confession is good for the soul.We were in the United Arab Emirates at the invitation of Pirelli tyres to test their new high performance P Zero.The Italian manufacturer reckons the P Zero is the best performance tyre in the world and it is a claim I find difficult to dispute.The Dubai circuit was divided into a number of areas, each with a different exercise designed to highlight the advantages of the tyre.At each stop there was a smorgasbord of cars from which to chose, but before we got started we treated to some hot laps in the V10 Lamborghini Gallardo,At full noise, in the hands of a professional driver, it's an experience one is not likely to forget in a hurry.As a matter of fact, I recorded the event and it is destined to live for evermore as a ring tone in my mobile.The most telling exercise of the day was one where we drove around and around in a tight circle on a wet and slippery section of track.Two Audi TTs were provided for the exercise, one fitted with P Zeros, the other with a competitor's tyre.At the risk of sounding like an advertise- ment, they were like chalk and cheese - the P Zero had appreciably more grip.We were able to drive a number of different cars on the day, not all of them fitted with Pirellis.They included Audi's S8, Porsche Carrera and Cayman and Boxster and Benz's S 65 AMG, CLS 63 AMG and CLK 63 AMG - to name a few.Although by no means the most powerful of the group, the Porsche Boxster shone on the track, with its sharp handling and responsive six pack.Pirelli is marking the launch of the new P Zero - the fourth since the birth of the original back in 1987 with the Ferrari F40 - with the release of a short film.Called Mission Zero, it's directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Uma Thurman and is a kind of a car chase minus the rest of the movie.It features a yellow Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder - finished of course in Kill Bill Yellow.

Providing a backdrop was Mike Seymour from Hunters and Collectors, who performed the band's hit single Holy Grail. The S8 features a massive V10 engine built with help from Audi's subsidiary company Lamborghini. The new powerplant delivers 331 kW of power at around 7,000 rpm. Due for local launch around November this year, the S8 will be priced from around $250,000. Audi also unveiled its new Q7 SUV, to be available from September and the $170,000 RS4, available from April.