Currently reading: Christmas Road Test 2008
Autocar's unique road test broadens it horizons

It's time for the Christmas Road Test. We've already covered Concorde, the Ark Royal, Eurostar, a Liebherr mining truck and a Volvo racing yacht. Each tested in extreme detail and put in the context of its competitors.

The subject of this year's Autocar Christmas Road Test is no less spectacular. It's 73m long, 25m high, weighs 277 tonnes and each of its four 6700kg engines produces 70,000lb of thrust. Yes, it's the Airbus A380.

See all the pics of the Airbus A380

Read the full road test in the 180-page special issue of Autocar - in the shops from today.

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Elendil 2 January 2009

Re: Christmas Road Test 2008

I thought the test was badly researched and ended up being a lovely PR success for General Electric; there were lots of unsubstantiated "GE engines are better than RR engines in the article".

So much fuel saved by buying a GE engine - really?

So much quieter than the Rolls-Royce engine - really?

The fact is that more A380s are ordered with the Rolls-Royce engine than the GE engines and that there were many delays and problems encountered by the GE engine in development when at the same time the Rolls-Royce engine was actually in service and flying reliably, efficiently and quietly.

Perhaps the choice between the unproven GE Engines (including their fuel consumption and noise figures in service) and the proven Rolls-Royce ones are not as straight forward as you portrayed in the test.

I dont think an "ordinary" Autocar roadtest would have quoted unsubstantiated fuel consumption, noise and other figures if they could not be verified (or would at least say the figures were unverified as you hadnt tested the opposition).

worthyblue 31 December 2008

Re: Christmas Road Test 2008

Thanks Matt, thoroughly enjoyed reading all about it in the Xmas issue, especially the small print!

R50 LOT 30 December 2008

Re: Christmas Road Test 2008

Hi,

I just thought the comparison with the 747 was a bit off - the a380 has 200 orders so far - Boeing is struggling to seel passenger versions of the 747-8; Lufthansa has ordered 20 or so, but no one else, and it's been on sale for a while...