Captains of the industry, would you want your prized chariot to be something other than the Mercedes S-Class? Then here’s a car for you from Ingolstadt, the Audi A8 L Extended that uses the number six as its lucky number. That’s right, it has six doors and seats six people!
The Audi A8 L extended has plenty of room thanks to its 4.2m wheelbase and 6.36m overall length. However, this is far from a straight-forward job of increasing the length and wheelbase of the A8, because the A8 has to undergo rigorous tweaks to make sure its rigidity is the same as a regular A8. Audi redeveloped the entire body of the car and adds extra braces to achieve just that. The roof meanwhile, is boosted by additional aluminum profiled tubes and cross-braces.
Inside, there are six luxurious beige seats with Valcona leather, and all seats (including the second and third rows) are electrically adjusted. The third-row passengers will enjoy an additional center console, a cool box and a Rear Seat Entertainment display.
Despite extensive use of aluminium through the Audi Space Frame design, the A8 L is porky, weighing 2.4 tonnes. Thus, a powerful engine is required, and it’s up to the 3.0-litre supercharged V6 that liberates 306 hp and 440Nm of torque. This big limo is fast. It sprints from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.1 seconds and gets the S8 brakes.
As for now, this is a “one-off” model the a request of a European customer but there will be additional units made to meet demands. Just to note, the next-generation A8 will arrive by 2017.
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