Audi A8 (D3) L 6.0 W12 Quattro 2008

[JR98]

Development of the D3 Audi A8 began in 1996, with the design process beginning in 1997 and the final design decision was made in 1999. The car was previewed at the 2001 Frankfurt Motor Show as the Audi Avantissmo concept car before the A8 was unveiled via press release in 2002. It went on sale in Europe in 2002 while North America recieved the car in 2003 (as a 2004 model).

At the top of the model range was the 6.0 W12, which was advantageous in that it's compact packaging allowed Audi to build a 12 cylinder saloon with AWD, whereas a normal V12 would've limited them to using RWD as there would be no space in the front for a differential. It was because of this that the 6.0 W12 managed to actually be smaller than their 4.2 V8.

The car recieved a facelift in 2007, alogngside visual changes the A8 also recieved adaptive cruise control, braking guard radar collision warning, side assist (detects cars in the A8's blind spots) and lane assist (helps when the driver changes lanes without signalling).

A high performance S8 model was also produced, using the 5.2 V10 from the Lamborghini Gallardo (that would later be used in the R8 V10), although it's performance was still similar to that of the W12 A8. The car has also featured in The Transporter movies, with it appearing in a car chase against a Mercedes E-Class in The Transporter 3.

Vote for the Audi S8: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/audi-s8-d3-2008.300133/​