Testing your metal: Audi's all-aluminium A8 promises rot-free luxury motoring on a budget

摘要

Audi launched the first A818 years ago. The car threatened to shake up the world of corpulent, director-level saloons because its body structure and outer panels were made entirely from aluminium. This, clearly, was the future. Or so it seemed. As it turned out, only Jaguar has followed Audi in mass-producing cars whose bodyshells are entirely made of aluminium, although others have gone part of the way. Audi still claims that its particular method, used on the A2 as well as the two following A8 generations, is special because it uses a 'spaceframe'. It doesn't, because a spaceframe is actually formed from small tubes all stressed in linear tension or compression, while the Audi's skeleton is made up of complicated pressings and castings to which the outer panels are attached by big rivets. But an 'aluminium spaceframe' still sounds pretty good to buyers.