Lightning Lap 2017: Audi S8 Plus

Lap Time: 3:03.6
Class: LLTransporter
Base Price: $127,850
As-Tested Price: $148,000
Power and Weight: 605 hp • 4634 lb • 7.7 lb/hp
Tires: Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT, 275/35ZR-21 (103Y)

Of all the dynamic secrets Lightning Lap reveals, this one ranks as the year’s most unexpected: The Audi S8 Plus, despite wearing equal-width front and rear tires and ­carrying 56.5 percent of its 4634 pounds on the front axle, is not a stubborn understeering mule. In lapping VIR with such improbable agility and excitability, the S8 challenged our fundamental understanding of the world we live in. If the largest Audi car pivots rather than plows, how can we be sure that the Florida Man of all those idiot-crime headlines isn’t actually a Rhodes scholar?

The S8 doesn’t just turn in eagerly, it rotates about its center when trail-braked into a corner, evincing a neutrality uncommon in cars with four doors. Carbon-ceramic brakes, part of an $11,000 Dynamic package, keep fade at bay better than the iron discs used on its LLTransporter competitors, even if the S8’s pedal travel still lengthens with heat.

In slower corners, the driver plays an active role in ensuring that the tail follows the nose. Our impressions of the Audi were no doubt colored by the 7-series duo, both of which drove with an imperturbable stability. It helps that the S8 is built around the shorter of two wheelbases Audi has for its flagship: All current 7-series sold in America separate front and rear axles with an additional 8.6 inches versus this S8. The Audi’s Dunlops are also more sensitive to heat than either BMW’s Michelins, slipping more readily with each successive rubber-cooking turn. That last part doesn’t necessarily help the S8’s lap time, but it sure makes it more fun to drive.