A ratio for everything
The all-new 8 speed tiptronic transmission is a technical tour-de force.
Selection of the drive programs are facilitated by the new selector lever, which can be trimmed in a wide range of leather or wood to perfectly complement the A8’s elegant interior. The lever communicates with the gearbox ‘by wire’, i.e. without any mechanical connection, so a brief push, or nudge, is all it takes to select the drive program after which the lever returns to the central position. The driver can also change gear manually by using the paddles mounted on the steering wheel.
Management of the new tiptronic is handled by the innovative dynamic shift program (DSP, which is networked with the detailed route data delivered by the MMI navigation system. The DSP uses this information to incorporate approaching corners or junctions into its shift strategy, so the days of an automatic gearbox changing gears mid-corner are behind us. Vorsprung Durch Technik.
