Audi A8 Tuning

"Your best mA8!"

The A8 is one of the best cars Audi have ever produced with a stunning range of refined and powerful engine options. For such a large car the A8 performs well and is better than many supercars. The S8 really sparkles and is the sensible option if you want an R8 but have a family or need a sensible 4 door car.

When it comes to A8 tuning options a lot depends on what you want from the car. For most a regular power increase is all that is desired and the best way to get this is from a remap.

Remapping the ECU on the TD engines will unleash a mountain of extra torque, give better fuel economy and make the car much better to drive. The NASP turbo engines will typically give around an extra 10% of power from a remap and the petrol Turbo engines give phenomenal power gains in the order of 30% from a remap.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes so go with the V6 FSi or the V8, V10 or the stunning W12 engines. The more you start with the bigger the return on the tuning investment so engine swaps are good value mods if you have the 2.8 V6.

Audi A8 Tuning modifications.

Your aim when tuning should be a nice flat torque curve and a wide power band. A fast road cam will be one of the best power mods you can do mechanically to your engine. Don't forget to uprate the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty. An aftermarket fuel pressure regulator will almost certainly give a snappier throttle response than the standard Audi one! To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate the injectors on your engine. When increasing your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Audi A8 Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed, this can be sited within an air box but a panel filter should suffice for most applications. A lot of A8 owners complain that the exhaust is too quiet and adding a sports exhaust goes a long way to address this complaint, releasing a bit of power and giving a nicer engine note. A good sports exhaust is essential to balance your freer flowing air filter, just adding an induction kit on it's own will do little to increase your power.

Getting a professionally flowed head with larger valves and a 3 or 5 angle valve job can fully release the engines power. Your clutch can seriously let you down if it starts to slip and the standard clutches are only usually able to cope with power gains of upto 50%. Fit an uprated clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission. Turbo engines are just begging to be remapped but even the large V6-W12 will see around 10% gains on a remap. You will see big power gains on most turbo engined cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective modifications.

Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. Turbos are harder to add than supercharger. Turbos give boost in exponential proportion to increasing engine speed and this can make mapping difficult. The nice steady boost to rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map so you should look out for an A8 supercharger kit. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, and run higher boost settings and water injection may also help prevent detonation.

Audi A8 Wheel modifications.

Some alloy wheels designs will help the brakes cool down and these are usually lighter than the more solid or thicker spoked wheels. The downside to large alloy wheels on your A8 is that you alter your effective final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on acceleration and performance. For this reason we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 18 inches, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no problems.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss A8 options in more detail with our A8 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Audi tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

This article was written by Waynne Smith on TorqueCars, and I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Audi. You can leave a response below or join TorqueCars forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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