- 111
- Kingdom of Sweden
As the flagship for the new design direction of Audi’s future products, the look and shape of every surface on the Prologue has purpose and meaning. The overall size of the Prologue is slightly shorter and wider than the current market A8. From stem to stern the Prologue is nearly 17-feet long, but it is only 4.6-feet tall. More than 9 feet of that total length sits between the wheels, and overall the machine is 6.4-feet wide.
The traditional square noise and trapezoidal grille of the Audi lineup has been completely changed. The nose is now much lower, creating a soft waterfall affect down the hood from the A-pillars. The grille has been widened by a substantial amount, and the angles have been sharpened to make it feel more modern and aggressive. The traditional Audi horizontal slats are lengthened, made crisper, and they now split at the ends, giving this traditional design piece a much more exciting feel.
The Headlamps also receive a full rethinking. The new units are smaller, sharper and more angled. This is all possible thanks to a move to Matrix laser lighting technology. The new lights are not only interesting in their overall design, but they are extremely lightweight.
The interior of the Prologue is far more futuristic than the exterior. The air vents are integrated into the dash and door trim, you can spot them by the perforated metal panels that cover them. If you crank the system high enough, the covers will retract to allow for greater airflow. A sharp eye will spot the thin white line that traces the large curves and major portions of the interior design. This is an LED lighting features that softly accents the distinctive shapes of the cabin.
Motivating this slab of four-wheeled design is a tuned and fettled version of the turbocharged, 4.0-liter V-8 found in the S8. Audi has turned up the wick on the motor so it now produces 605 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. With an overboost function, you can get 15 seconds of extra grunt with the torque pushed to 553 pounds. According to the German company, that is good enough to launch the Prologue to 60 mph in as little as 3.7 seconds. No top speed claims are made, but I would expect it to be a very German 155 mph. Of course, as a flagship Audi product, the Prologue is fitted with the Quattro AWD system.
The transmission is the family eight-speed tiptronic box. In an interesting twist Audi has fitted the car with a new 48-volt electrical system, modern cars only run 12v, and thanks to a large starter generator the Prologue is actually a mild hybrid. The system uses regenerative braking to recover electricity and charge the system.
Original text from here: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/audi/2014-audi-prologue-concept-ar165759.htm
:tup: