Street-Spotted: Audi A8

A new Audi A8 probably won't invite too many curious looks these days, but the same is not true of the first-gen model, especially when it just arrived stateside.

The A8 itself was launched following the debut of the Audi Space Frame (ASF) in the summer of 1994, also known as 30 years ago (sorry, millennials, we know this is painful).

But the A8 didn't arrive on sale in the US until the 1997 model year.

Audi's US dealer network was still slowly recovering from controversy in the early 1990s, and while the Audi V8 sold in tiny numbers stateside, Ingolstadt initially kept the aluminum A8 on its side of the Atlantic.

Between the time the A8 debuted in Europe and the US received the first-gen A8 model for 1997 codenamed D2 (as D1 was the unimaginatively named V8 model), a few things happened in the Luxobarge Cinematic Universe (LCU).

The E38-generation BMW 7-series replaced the E32 7-Series, the W140-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class continued its long march to the end of its product cycle, and the brief second-gen Lexus LS had appeared on sale but was already on its way out.

When the A8 did land on US shelves, it was offered with one badge you probably haven't seen, even if you live in an Audi stronghold. That badge read 3.7, and it was one of two V8s initially available stateside alongside the much more common 4.2-liter V8, which was served up with Quattro all-wheel drive.

The 3.7-liter A8 was a front-wheel drive car with 230 hp and 235 lb-ft of torque, and it didn't hang around on the Audi menu long. It was offered just for 1997, and we've only seen one of these on the road in the past 20 years, and that was circa 2005.

The 4.2-liter V8 with 300 hp on tap was the main course stateside, even though back in Europe the menu was far more diverse. In its home market the first-gen A8 could be ordered with a 2.8-liter V6, as well as 2.5- and 3.3-liter TDI engines, before we even get to the 3.7-liter V8.

At the top of the Euro-market roster, however, was the 6.0-liter W12 that arrived for 2001, and was wildly rare even at the time, most commonly seen on armored versions ferrying around EU heads of state. But getting close enough to one to read that badge was a tall order.

The aluminum skin and spaceframe of the A8 certainly saved a few pounds, but it didn't exactly offer the curb weight or handling of the Audi A4. It's safe to say that Quattro AWD was one of the stronger selling points of the A8, as the S-Class had yet to receive 4Matic all-wheel drive, and the 7-Series was similarly constrained.

Interior space in the short-wheelbase model was merely adequate, and this is why quite a few buyers opted for the A8L in the US, even though they were probably going to be driving the car themselves.

Speaking of seeing the first-gen A8 on the road, unless you lived on either coast, odds were you weren't going to see one at all. Audi's dealer network in the second half of the 1990s was... a bit more regional than it is today, and also a lot of dealers in between the two coasts didn't bother ordering many A8s.

And the dealers that did offer them only managed to sell just over 2,000 units a year for the first few years, we've heard.

This led the first-gen A8 to become something of a secret menu item, along with the 360-hp S8 that was featured in the two-hour Euro sedan infomercial Ronin in early 1998.

But the US received the S8 quite late, for 2001, so even if you saw Ronin when it came out you had to wait a while and then spend some coin at your Audi dealer.

A facelift for the A8, A8L, and S8 in 2001 added some chrome strips to the bumpers and a few other subtle tweaks, but Audi didn't want to do anything crazy to a model that was due to be replaced for the 2003 model year.

Spotting this short-wheelbase, pre-facelift A8 4.2 reminded us of the rare, early years of Ingolstadt's flagship stateside.

If Ronin ever gets a sequel, what cars should co-star in the film? Let us know in the comments below.