Specifications

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adaptive air suspension/ceramic brake58
Dynamics and comfort were once opposites.
We’ve made the differences vanish into thin air.
Every road is different – but there’s no reason for
you to notice. How do we do it? In the Audi A8,
the suspension adapts to many driving situations
and to the road surface as standard.
We call it adaptive air suspension. An electronically
controlled air suspension system operates
individually on each of the four wheels and is
combined with an infinitely variable adaptive
damping system. Sensors on the body and on the
axles monitor the current driving situation and
send information to the system during the
journey. Furthermore, the air springs guarantee
that, even when carrying heavy loads, the vehicle’s
driving characteristics will hardly be impaired.
With Audi drive select you can control the damper
properties of the suspension and the trim of your
vehicle via the selected modes. In the dynamic,
auto and efficiency modes, the vehicle is lowered
by 10 or 20 mm below the regular level when you
drive at speeds above 120 km/h for more than
30 seconds. This improves aerodynamics and
helps to lower the fuel consumption. The comfort
mode results in comfort-oriented vehicle
tuning and is especially suitable for long journeys
on the motorway. The optional adaptive air
suspension sport is tailored to provide sportier
tuning: compared to the standard adaptive air
suspension, the vehicle is already 10 mm lower in
its standard setting. At speeds of 120 km/h and
above, the vehicle is lowered by another 10 mm.
The adaptive air suspension sport with
S8-specific tuning provides even stiffer damping.
The standard 19-inch high-performance brake
system in the Audi S8 takes a powerful hold with
its 6-piston fixed callipers on the front axle. A
single-piston floating calliper is used on the rear
axle. The optional 19-inch ceramic brake* with a
6-piston fixed calliper is available for even more
demanding loads. In this brake system, the
brake discs are made of a carbon-fibre reinforced
ceramic material. which is based on hard and
abrasion-proof silicon carbide with embedded
high-strength carbon fibres. This combination
results in an enormous abrasion resistance which
allows extremely high mileages to be achieved,
while reducing sensitivity to high thermal loads.
*Please consult your Audi partner or national Audi website to find out more about the special features of the ceramic brake.
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