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Audi stretches its longest auto

In order to incorporate all six doors and a level of luxury not seen before on an A8, Audi extended the car’s length with extruded aluminium extensions for the side sills and centre tunnel. The extended roof gets aluminium profiled tubes and cross-braces so that the custom limo almost has the same flexural and torsional rigidity as the production-spec A8 L. The silhouette has been redesigned to retain the A8’s understated character. The representative XXL sedan offers 1.09m more wheelbase and overall length than the Audi A8.

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It’s been made “at the special request of a European customer” for an undisclosed price, although when pressed Audi UK did tell us that “you can assume that the price of such a vehicle will be at least €350,000”.

To ensure that the roof and window lines look straight and professional, everything from the A-pillar back is either bespoke or significantly modified in some way.

The experts embedded a 2.40-metre (7.9 ft) glass panel in the roof skin to enhance the sense of spaciousness. Over a standard A8 L, it gains 1.09 metres in wheelbase and is in fact so massive that additional side marker lights are required front and rear.

The six individual seats, trimmed in butter-soft velvet beige Valcona leather are electrically adjustable; the third row has a full-length centre console, housing a cooler box, and its own infotainment display. 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). Brakes from the S8 model help stop the 2.4-tonne saloon, too.

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Audi has unveiled a one-of-a-kind A8 L that stretches over 20 feet from bumper to bumper. It is mated to an eight-speed tiptronic that transfers engine power to the quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. It took over a year to develop and build. It features an extra two doors and seats six people comfortably. And because “Audi puts the customer first, however out of the ordinary their requirements may be”, this example rides on 19-inch wheels with a 15-spoke design, and is finished in a discreet moonlight blue body colour.

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