In the 80s of the 20th century, the company based in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany, adopted the motto "Technology as an advantage". Both the Audi quattro and the Sport quattro are from that era.
At the 1988 Paris Motor Show, the Audi V8 was the brand's flagship model, the first new large sedan produced by Audi after World War II, and the first combination between the quattro all-wheel drive system and automatic transmission, and the first Audi to be powered by a V8 engine.
This car is based on the Audi 200 platform, many people think that this is not a direct competitor to the Mercedes-Benz S or BMW 7 Series, it is positioned similar to the modern Mercedes-Benz E500 or BMW 550, until the appearance of the first generation of Audi A8 in 1994, can be regarded as a real D-class car of the Audi family.
The Audi V8 was equipped with 36-liter all-aluminum V8 engine with a maximum horsepower of 250 hp, 3The 6-displacement is available with a 4-speed automatic and a 5-speed manual, with a 5-speed manual transmission accelerating to 100 km/h6 seconds, the top speed of 245 km/h, the late Audi V8 provides 4A 2-liter V8 engine version is available.
Unlike the A8, the Audi V8 made two successful forays into motorsport, in 1990 and 1991, and won two Drivers' Championships in the German Touring Car Series (DTM).
For many, the Audi V8 looks like a bloated Audi 200, and Audi's CEO, Ferdinand Piech, knows it himself: so the successor has to innovate on the looks.
As early as 1982, Piëch signed a contract with Alcoa to lay the groundwork for a new lightweight design for a high-end car, at a time when the Audi V8 weighed more than 17 tons.
From the beginning of production in 1988 to the discontinuation of production in 1993, only 21,183 units were produced. In 1994, the successor to the Audi V8, the Audi A8, was officially launched.
During the Tokyo Motor Show in the fall of 1993, Audi unveiled the aluminium ASF (Audi Space Frame) concept, marking the beginning of a new era.
In fact, it is not only the body material of the car that is special, but also the 34-liter V8 TDI engine. The diesel engine was a novelty in the limousine camp at the time.
Perhaps the word "concept" is not quite the right word for this car, as the ASF is more like the first generation of prototype A8 that is close to production. It was presented to the public in the form of an unpainted polished aluminum body to emphasize the lightness of the car.
In fact, it's really light, and the production car launched in 1994 has an aluminum body directly and weighs only 249 kilograms. The standard model is powered by 2With an 8-litre petrol engine, the total weight of the 5-metre car is only 1,460 kg.
Of course, this weight is only the body + engine, and it is not considered an extra thing on the car. Later, a variety of power combinations were born, such as powerful engines, including the W12, which made the weight of the whole vehicle close to the two-ton mark.
The "Aluminium Audi" was first unveiled in March 1994 as the successor to the Audi V8, and Audi also announced its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show that year. Since then, Audi has adopted a new nomenclature and the Audi A series has been born.
The Audi A6 then became the successor to the Audi 100 in the summer, and in November 1994 the fifth-generation Audi 80 was launched under the name Audi A4.
The first generation of the A8 was an unprecedented success. The elegant body has a completely different feel to the bulky exterior of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W 140). Although the width and length of the two are almost the same, the Audi is lighter and more fun to drive.
Well, let's go back to the ASF Concept: the car adopts the ASF design concept: the body frame is formed by aluminum extrusion profiles with multiple cavities and complex aluminum castings, and the overall structure of the body is made up of aluminum plates, of which the proportion of aluminum plates is 71%, the body has a total of 334 parts, this type of body is 40% lighter than the traditional body, and no less than 40 patents have been registered.
It is worth mentioning that, for safety reasons, in some places it is 1 thicker than conventional steelIn addition, 75% of the assembly work is done by hand.
In fact, this ASF is not the first Audi car to opt for an aluminum body. Eight years ago, the company unveiled an Audi 100 with an aluminum body at the 1985 Hannover Motor Show. The Audi quattro spyder and **us, which were unveiled in 1991, also used the same material.
Today, the Audi A8 still features the company's development on the ASF concept: aluminium combined with magnesium, steel and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP). For example, the rear body bulkhead of the Audi A8 is made of CFRP material, and the ultra-high-strength, torsionally rigid rear panel is the largest component in the cabin of the new Audi A8, accounting for 33% of the total torsional rigidity of the vehicle.
In order to maximize the absorption of longitudinal and transverse loads as well as shear forces, 6 to 19 layers of carbon fiber are placed in layers to ensure a load-optimized layout.
The passenger compartment consists of a high-strength structure consisting of hot-stamped steel parts, including the lower part of the front bulkhead, side sills, B-pillar and front of the roof. This reduces weight and increases strength, especially in parts of the vehicle where safety is particularly important.
The now discontinued Audi R8 also uses a combination of aluminum, steel and carbon, so the Audi ASF Concept may have been forgotten by most people, but its cutting-edge body technology is still with us today.