Audi unveils XXL A8

Audi has shown off a new extra-long wheel base A8 special order limousine it has made for one of its customers.

Called the Audi A8 L extended, the new longer A8 measures in at 6.36-metres with the factory conversion adding 1.1m to an A8 L’s wheelbase.

Now providing space for six, Audi says the A8 L extended is a one-off but took almost a year to develop.

The bulk of the work involved engineers extending the all-aluminium space-frame chassis using extruded aluminium sills.

Ensuring the rigidity of the extra-large body, a tunnel stretches through the centre of the car that provides extra strength. The roof panel also helps maintain the standard wheelbase body’s stiffness by incorporating additional aluminium tubing and cross-braces.

Audi claims the XXL A8 has the torsional and flexural rigidity on par with the regular A8 L.

Designers have also attempted to maintain the same roof line as the standard A8, despite the extended model being redesigned from the front doors back.

Featuring a 2.4-metre long rear panoramic roof, the A8 L extended comes installed with sun blinds for each row of seats. There are also four individual seats that face the direction of travel. In the third row, between the seats is a cool box.

The third row also has its own rear seat entertainment display.

Under the bonnet the one-off A8 comes powered with the 228kW/440Nm 3.0-litre V6 TFSI petrol engine that’s combined with its eight-speed automatic gearbox. Thanks to all-wheel drive, Audi claims its extended-wheelbase A8 reaches 100km/h from rest in a still respectable 7.1 seconds before going onto a limited 250km/h.

Audi has specified the braking system from its high-performance S8 sedan for the 2418kg (unladen) A8 L extended, and the stretched limo runs on 19-inch alloys.

Originally created as a one-off, the A8 L extended is rumoured to have cost its owner around $530,000. Following its reveal, Audi claims it’s already received interest from other customers and the manufacturer said it will happily make more XXL versions of the A8, but only while the current Audi limo remains in production.

An all-new A8 is set to arrive in 2017.