What a freaky machine to find in your inbox on a bright Monday morning!
A jumbo A8L with six doors, giant glass moonroof and six giant seats.
While jaded about the car and what it stands for, we can’t help but like the way the cabin turned out. The three rows of seats are slightly more functional than the Maybach Pullman, which has two rear-facing seats in its limo compartment’s midsection. This A8L Extended has more practicality and comfort for all its riders, but much less throne-like legroom for the money seats in the wayback.
The 2016 Audi A8L Extended is a one-off custom order, and will not enter series production. It is a strong sign of things to come, however, from Audi in the limo business. And it is something only the factory team can do with flawless execution. Why? The A8’s aluminum spaceframe makes a typical stretch — cutting and extending the frame rails — a non-starter.
Now, the only question is… who ordered this?
Audi is not saying. The lack of armor on this first example probably means it is not for any of our favorite Merkels, Salmans or Putins. We’d wager this car is heading east. Far east. Uncle Xi or 1MDB, perhaps.
We still strongly feel the A8 is the worst executive saloon on the market: it is tiny inside and in the trunk. What purpose, limo, if not scale? Also, aluminum cars are inherently a terrible choice for ballistics protection. High-powered shots go through aluminum like a knife through warm butter.
Design-wise, the A8Le will have no trouble blending in with normal traffic. A deep window tint would be helpful at staying private in back, though, versus these Pope-mobile viewing windows.
2016 Audi A8L Extended
Representative unique specimen: Audi A8 L extended
Audi puts the customer first, however out of the ordinary their requirements may be. An example of this is the Audi A8*: at the request of a European customer the premium brand has built a first one-off version of the sedan in king-size format. Measuring 6.36 meters (20.9 ft) in length and with a wheelbase of 4.22 meters (13.8 ft), the A8 L extended* affords top-class comfort for passengers occupying all of its six seats. A concept that generates customer: Audi has further requests for the custom product already.
Experts invested almost a year in developing and building the exceptionally long luxury sedan. The result was an exclusive one-off specimen that meets the high standards of the production model in every domain. The major challenges concerned the safety and rigidity of the extra-large body, as well as the styling of the silhouette.
The Audi A8 L extended benefits from the low weight of the production model’s body, which uses an Audi Space Frame design and is made almost entirely from aluminum. For the built-to-order version the engineers extended the side sills and center tunnel using extruded aluminum sections. Inside the tunnel, these also assist with the air routing. A double rear bulkhead separates the passenger compartment from the luggage compartment; the roof incorporates additional aluminum profiled tubes and cross-braces. These measures provide torsional and flexural rigidity almost on a par with the A8 L*.
The representative XXL sedan in discreet moonlight blue, metallic offers 1.09 meters (3.6 ft) more wheelbase and overall length than the Audi A8. To maintain a harmonious roof line, the entire body from the A-pillar back has been reworked.
The experts embedded a 2.40-meter (7.9 ft) glass panel in the roof skin to enhance the sense of spaciousness. The sun blinds – one for each row of seats – prevent overheating of the interior in strong sunlight. The headlights and rear lights incorporate small side marker lights, as is prescribed by law for vehicles of this length.
All passengers face the direction of travel in the Audi A8 L extended. The six seats are upholstered in extra-supple Valcona leather, in the color velvet beige. Rows two and three feature electrically adjustable individual seats. The third row has a continuous center console, a Rear Seat Entertainment display and a cool box.
The one-off A8 version is powered by a 3.0 TFSI engine developing 228 kW (310 hp), delivering up to 440 Nm (324.5 lb‑ft) of torque. This propels the sedan from 0 to 100 km/h (62.1 mph) in 7.1 seconds and up to an electronically governed top speed of 250 km/h (155.3 mph). An eight-speed tiptronic transfers engine power to the quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. The 19‑inch wheels in 15‑spoke design conceal the brake system of the Audi S8*, which assures outstanding deceleration of the over six-meter-long (19.7 ft) luxury sedan, with its unladen weight of 2,418 kilograms (5,330.8 lb).
Tom Burkart is the founder and managing editor of Car-Revs-Daily.com, an innovative and rapidly-expanding automotive news magazine.
He holds a Journalism JBA degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Tom currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina with his two amazing dogs, Drake and Tank.
Mr. Burkart is available for all questions and concerns by email Tom(at)car-revs-daily.com.