For those who want to fit more people into a luxurious Audi saloon, seemingly without compromise.
The new super-long wheelbase Audi A8 also comes a new term: the XXL saloon. The six-seater, three-rowed luxury car took the Ingolstadt-based automaker nearly a year to develop and fine tune to match the same standards as the standard car.
The reason this particular car took such a long time for Audi, a company with a considerable reserve of resources and expertise, is that they were adamant about it meeting the same rigidity, refinement, and safety levels of other A8s.
Although currently there is only one example in existence, Audi already has further requests for the car, which will be a build-to-order model going forward.
To give a clearer idea about how much longer it is, the Audi A8 L Extended – to give it its full name - has a wheelbase measuring 4.22 metres long, meaning the aluminium-intensive space frame had to be stretched by 1.1 metres, all without sacrificing the structural integrity of a standard saloon. This required reworking the entire body from the A-pillar.
Powering the A8 L Extended is a 3.0-litre TFSI engine developing 231kW and 440Nm of torque, which despite the extra heft of a larger body (unladen weight: 2418kg), is able to respectably propel the car to 100km/h in just over 7 seconds and on to a limited top speed of 250km/h.
Drive is sent to all four wheels via an eight-speed tiptronic transmission and Audi’s quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. The A8 L Extended gains the S8’s uprated braking package to cope with the extra inertia while the wheels are 19-inchers with a 15-spoke design.
Inside the car, the six seats are upholstered in extra-supple Valcona leather in a velvet beige colour, with a 2.40 metre glass panel in the roof skin to add even more airiness to the cabin. The two rear rows of seats are electrically adjustable but unfortunately the second row does not swivel to accommodate a business meeting on wheels.
The third row does have a continuous centre console, a cool box, and a Rear Seat Entertainment Display as compensation.
Customers interested in the special-order Audi will likely have to pay a hefty premium, with some reports speculating a price range upwards of $500,000 for the extra-long wheelbase A8. Its is expected to be available some time next year.
