Audi secretly readying a Maybach rival

Audi will soon go head-to-head with Mercedes-Maybach, Rolls-Royce and fellow Volkswagen Group-owned Bentley with a new super-luxurious flagship based on the car-maker's new A8 limousine.

According to Automotive News, the ultra-luxury flagship will be based on the facelifted version of the current A8 due in a couple of years and it will carry the nameplate 'Horch' in honour of Audi's founder, August Horch.

Speaking to sources close to German car-maker, Autonews says the special A8 will come with different wheels, Horch badging and could be available with the powerful twin-turbo W12 currently used by Bentley.

The same source also admitted the A8 Horch would "work with a V8".

Despite experimenting with an extended-wheelbase version of the A8 limo, the Audi insider claims there are no plans for another stretched A8.

While the A8 Horch is set to rival the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, there are no plans to launch a standalone brand using the Horch name following the sales failure of Maybach 57 and 62 models.

Originally a successful luxury brand in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s, Horch was part of the Auto Union group that included Audi. Production of luxury cars was then killed off in 1940 while the group turned its attention to manufacturing military vehicles.

Horch then made a brief reappearance after the war in East Germany before being culled once again.

It's not the first time Audi has recently experimented with an ultra-luxurious version of the A8.

Back in 2016, the car-maker created a special 6.36-metre long special-order limousine for one of its customers.

The A8 L extended featured a wheelbase lengthened by an incredible 1.1 metres.

Despite its significantly longer and taller dimensions, its all-aluminium space-frame chassis boasting additional tubing and cross-braces gave the XXL A8 the same torsional rigidity as the standard car.

The extra-long A8 was rumoured to have cost its owner $530,000 and Audi claimed back then to have received interest from other customers for a more spacious ultra-luxurious version of the A8. It's not known how many were built.