Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com Autoblog http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/feedlogo.gif Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Review: 2009 Audi A8L - requiem for a heavyweight]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/25/review-2009-audi-a8l-a-requiem-for-a-heavyweight/http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/25/review-2009-audi-a8l-a-requiem-for-a-heavyweight/http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/25/review-2009-audi-a8l-a-requiem-for-a-heavyweight/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

2009 Audi A8L - Click above for high-res gallery

We come not to bury the A8L, but to praise it. Next week the newest generation of Audi's aluminum spaceframe panzer will greet the world in Miami, and we expect it to be a leap through a wormhole compared to today's car. After a week with the current model at the end of its six-year run, we walked away from a saloon that still has us smitten. What we didn't expect was that, even though we didn't come to bury the thing, we would end up throwing quite a bit of dirt on it.

That might make the Audi A8 the Megan Fox of automobiles.
A funny thing happened on the way to reviewing the 2009 Audi A8L: we discovered ourselves writing compromising things about the four-ringed flagship. This is a sedan that we adore mightily, and having thought it over, we might even say unreasonably. It became the girl you're dating that you first describe as "She's great!" just before divulging a list of mildly unseemly behaviors that you'd never considered all at once, ending with, "Wow... I really do like her, but come to think of it... she's a little kooky." That might make the Audi A8 the Megan Fox of automobiles.

We drove the A8L W12 a couple of years ago, and it was possessed of so much battleship-gray girth we wanted to call it the Bismarck and park it in a Norwegian fjord for safety. Yet and still, it was glorious: an exterior awash in pulchritude, an interior so beautiful we wish we had gotten its autograph, and it gulped miles, and gas, like cognac. Since we didn't write about it, we didn't give it the philosopher's thought, and we walked away from it with only roses, no thorns. But now...


Gallery: Review: 2009 Audi A8 L


Photos copyright (C)2009 Jonathon Ramsey / Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Review: 2009 Audi A8L - requiem for a heavyweight

Review: 2009 Audi A8L - requiem for a heavyweight originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>20092009 audi a82009 audi a8l2009AudiA82009AudiA8la8a8laudifeaturedlreviewreview 2009 audi a8lReview2009AudiA8lreviewsWed, 25 Nov 2009 12:10:00 EST<![CDATA[EVO X vs STI - Tsukuba Lap Times]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/05/evo-x-vs-sti-tsukuba-lap-times/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/05/evo-x-vs-sti-tsukuba-lap-times/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/05/evo-x-vs-sti-tsukuba-lap-times/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

It didn't take long for Japan's journalists to get the new STI and EVO X side by side, and the results are now officially in. Tsukuba circuit regulars Kazuo Shimizu and Manabu Kawaguchi spent an afternoon thrashing around the notoriously twisty short circuit just north of Tokyo and here (drum roll please) are the best times they could ring out of the AWD rivals:

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X : 1:06:46

Subaru Impreza WRX STI : 1:05:95

So there you have it. The new engine placed further forward in the engine bay of the EVO X than in the EVO IX has indeed proven to be a handicap, while the STI's "wheel at each corner" longer wheelbase plus new double wishbone rear suspension has proved its worth.

Neither car is quite as quick as its immediate ancestor though.

Check out this 15 year rivalry of the EVO vs the STI as recorded at Tsukuba after the jump.

[Source: CAR Top magazine]

Gallery: 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X


Gallery: 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI (JDM)

Continue reading EVO X vs STI - Tsukuba Lap Times

EVO X vs STI - Tsukuba Lap Times originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>ap timeApTimebreakingevo xevolutionEvoXllap timeLapTimemitsubishistisubarutsukubaWed, 05 Dec 2007 14:02:00 EST