Audi has made a one-off extended wheelbase version of the extended wheelbase version of its flagship sedan, the A8, for a discerning customer. It’s got six doors and can seat six people. Yes, an Innova can seat more, but that’s besides the point – all the seats here are fit for emperors. Yes, even the third row.
Audi has installed more legroom by stretching the car to 6.36 metres in length. The wheelbase has gone up to 4.22 metres – that’s an extra metre of legroom inside. There’s a glass roof as well, to make it feel more airy, says Audi. Quite a bit of engineering work went into it, of course. The extended chassis meant less torsional rigidity, so that was restored with cross bracing. The limo is powered by a 309 bhp 3.0 litre TFSI engine that sends it to 100 kph in just over seven seconds and on to a limited top speed of 250 kph. Power is sent to all four wheels via the company’s Quattro all-wheel drive system. The brakes from the S8 have been borrowed to help haul it back down to sane speeds.
The third row has a ‘continuous centre console’ (translation: there’s no middle seat here) and DVD entertainment packages, a cool box, electrically adjustable seats wrapped in the best leather are all a given if you’d like your A8L Extended. Audi says this here is a representative image, meaning it isn’t the finished product, but it has got orders for a few more already. We’d love to test-drive one of these against the Mercedes-Benz S600 Pullman. Or test-sit-in-the-back, at the very least. What say you, Audi?
