2022 Audi S8: Fast laps, in the lap of luxury

THINK of the coolest, classiest guy you know who could bench press a Harley-Davidson if he wanted. The Audi S8 is that guy, only no one seems to know about him. That’s just fine by you, because hanging out with him is always a barrel of laughs and if everyone clamoured for his attention, that would only ruin the intimacy.

That’s one, slightly vague way to think about what an S8 is and what it brings to the high performance car table. In more concrete terms, it’s an A8 – Audi’s flagship limo – with plenty of muscle and the fighting spirit to match, which is to say it’s an iron fist in the most velvety of velvet gloves.

A facelift gives it a flashy new grille and redesigned bumpers, but what counts is that the S8 still has a V8 engine that makes all sorts of creamy, wuffling noises, along with 571 horsepower sent to all four wheels.