{"id":362962,"date":"2010-02-25T14:56:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T19:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/2010\/02\/25\/first-drive-2011-audi-a8-the-grand-andalusian\/"},"modified":"2010-02-25T14:56:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T19:56:00","slug":"first-drive-2011-audi-a8-the-grand-andalusian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/362962","title":{"rendered":"First Drive: 2011 Audi A8, the Grand Andalusian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filed under: Sedan<\/a>, Audi<\/a>, First Drive<\/a>, Luxury<\/a><\/p>\n

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2011 Audi A8 – Click above for high-res image gallery<\/small><\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n

\nThere was no sign of Sol on the Costa as I nosed the quartz-gray Audi A8 past the guard house and onto the rain-slicked traffic roundabout before heading out on the road.<\/p>\n

The long, smooth roadway that connected the estate to the autoroute was the perfect place to get better acquainted with the A8’s 372-horsepower, 4.2-liter V-8 and its 328 pound-feet of torque. Leaving the handsomely designed gear select in Drive allowed the eight-speed Tiptronic transmission to run through the gears at its sole discretion. But with a flick of the steering wheel-mounted paddles (downshift with the left paddle; upshift with the right, just as God intended), I snapped down to third gear to decelerate as I approached the roundabout, the transmission responding instantly with the discipline of a well-trained Doberman, the standard Quattro all-wheel drive easily finding traction despite the rain-slicked tarmac. I merged with traffic, exited the roundabout and accelerated southwest toward Cadiz with the Mediterranean off to my left, popping into view as rain clouds scuttled toward Morocco.<\/p>\n

Life in the south of Spain is sweet, and with the 2011 Audi A8 as a guide, it gets sweeter still.<\/p>\n

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Gallery: First Drive: 2011 Audi A8<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Continue reading First Drive: 2011 Audi A8, the Grand Andalusian<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

First Drive: 2011 Audi A8, the Grand Andalusian<\/a> originally appeared on Autoblog<\/a> on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Permalink<\/a> | Email this<\/a> | Comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Filed under: Sedan, Audi, First Drive, Luxury 2011 Audi A8 – Click above for high-res image gallery There was no sign of Sol on the Costa as I nosed the quartz-gray Audi A8 past the guard house and onto the rain-slicked traffic roundabout before heading out on the road. The long, smooth roadway that connected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-362962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}