Former Jude Law Audi S8 for sale

Audi's old V10 'bahnstormer was already interesting enough; even more so with Alfie as the first owner

By Matt Bird / Thursday, 6 June 2024 / Loading comments

Promise this feature is about the Audi supersaloon more than the actor. But when some dealers will seemingly tag the ‘celebrity ownership’ to cars driven by local radio DJs, to have a car owned from new by an Academy Award nominee (and BAFTA award winner) feels like quite a big deal. You know who Jude Law is; everybody does. If you don’t, at least one person in the household will. And if really nobody has a clue, then watch The Talented Mr Ripley, or Closer or, um, The Holiday. He’s quite the actor..

Anyway, of far more relevance to PH is that Jude Law knows an interesting car when he sees one. Because in 2009, he bought this Audi S8 brand new. Back then there were all manner of powertrains available for the A8 for effortless, serene progress, from V8 diesel to 6.0-litre W12, because that’s just how things were in the 2000s; but rather than going for one of those, Law got the big Audi saloon with the 5.2-litre V10 in it. You know, the one that made peak power of 450hp at 7,000rpm and sounded like a big angry bear. The S8 that’s nearly as cool as the original in a way that none of the others have been.

Furthermore, while grey with grey hardly sounds like the most interesting specification in the world, this Audi looks nicer than might be expected. The Nappa leather used inside is quite light, and Daytona Grey outside has plenty of shiny silver - the trademark mirrors caps, the wheels and the grilles - to work with so this doesn’t look like a four-wheeled rainy cloud. As is very often the case with cars of this era, and Audis in particular, the S8 remains properly handsome because it doesn’t try all that hard. And not everything is blacked out. Kudos to Jude Law as well for going without window tints.

There’s been just one owner since Dr Watson (as was his big role in 2009) bought the S8 new, and according to the advert they were so keen they bought it back after selling. Having covered just over 60,000 miles since new (which is rare for these, given how well suited they were to long distances) it presents really nicely for a decade and a half old: the interior in particular looks fantastic - get ready to swoon over old Audi dials - and the exterior only seems to have suffered from a couple of stone chips. With an ageless reg many would assume it was a newer, more valuable car. The MOT history shows a few whoopsies over the years for brakes and suspension, though that’s to be expected for a heavy, complex luxury saloon with a massive engine slung out the front.

Speaking of which, the condition and the mileage of this one means it’s understandably a cut above those Brave Pill-spec S8s that hovered around £10k not so long ago. The asking price is £24,950, which makes it as much as a later turbo V8 car with comparable mileage. And quite a bit more than any other V10, though only as every other example of those has now endured much more use. That the engine was also found in the contemporary S6 (truly it was Audi’s mad era) may further limit the pool of potential buyers for this S8. All that being said, it isn’t hard to look at these pics and imagine yourself where Jude Law once sat, surrounded by leather and carbon fibre and with socking great V10 ahead. For fans of the brand or the man - or, you never know, maybe just the car - it looks a very cool S8 indeed.

See the original advert here