Of the current crop of full-size luxury super sedans, we think we like the Audi S8 the most. Its marriage of clean, crisp styling, aluminum construction, AWD bite and 4.0L twin-turbo V8 bark is hard for us (and more than a few other enthusiasts) to resist. And now there’s a new, more potent version that should be even harder to resist.
It’s called the S8 Plus and, as you might expect, there’s more mojo under the hood. That force-fed V8 has been bumped up to 597 horsepower and 516 lb.-ft of torque (or553 lb.-ft in short spurts of overboost), increases of 77 and 35 over the “pedestrian” S8. Like the aforementioned lesser S8, the engine is teamed with an 8-speed automatic transmission and quattro all-wheel-drive, while the Plus gets standard carbon-ceramic brakes, carbon fiber exterior trim and an exclusive matte silver paint choice. Audi says the surplus strength will launch this big alloy boat to 62 mph in a paltry 3.8 seconds, and onward to a 190 mph top speed.
Unfortunately, there’s no confirmation as yet as to whether or not the S8 Plus will be offered here in the U.S. However, considering how many weapons-grade S-Classes Mercedes-AMG is able to unload here each year, we’d be surprised if the S8 Plus doesn’t show up on American Audi dealer order forms in the next year or two.
Source: Audi
