Exclusive D2 added to the garage.

[Spanker]

A recent thread on here highlighted a special D2 that was for sale.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16606

The car was initially offered for sale for £6000 before the seller realised he’d underestimated the value of the car and readvertised it at almost double the initial asking price. A tactic that was sure to annoy any potential buyers.
At the newer higher price, the car stood unsold for a few days before curiosity got the better of me and I asked a friend to go and do a viewing. The viewing came back positive and after a bit of bartering, I bought the car unseen. This was at the beginning of March.

Over Easter, I got the chance to get back to Blighty to see family and to pick up the car before driving it back to Germany. However, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to beg MJ for a few hours space on her ramp to do an overdue timing belt change and on Tuesday I dropped by for a quick WITW. Unfortunately, those few hours, which were supposed to include time to photo the car and its assets, stretched out until after midnight with the car bumper refusing to leave the vehicle in the intended way. So a small WITW thread is now just a “here is my new D2” post. But huge thanks still go to MJ for persevering until the wee small hours. The hydraulic lift gave up the ghost before MJ did.

I apologise in advance for the quality of some of the photos below. The car is still dirty from the cross Europe drive, so I’ve used some lower quality external shots from the original for-sale advert, even though they show the leather to be lighter in some shots.

2002 A8L quattro GmbH Exclusive

Supplied to His Highness the Aga Khan as a special-order vehicle with an AVP S8 engine and drivetrain (does anyone know of any A8L supplied from the factory with an S8 engine?). The factory-fitted S8 engine cost an extra £12,350, with the exclusive “extras” adding an extra cost of £22,834 to give a total buying price (with road fund licence, tracker etc.) of £91,520.

The car doesn’t have the paint code on the wheel-well sticker, but the invoice states Irish Green pearl effect. The fine Nappa leather interior is believed to be an exclusive magnolia colour, with dark green piping for the seats/doors with other leather pieces in dark green. In a lot of the photos, the darker leather looks black, as does some of the plastic, but in good light, it’s surprisingly dark green.

Searches for “Aga Khan Audi” bring up images of dark green/black cars with cream/green interiors.

At the time of writing there are two vehicles that have his hallmark colours:
An RS6 C5 Saloon
And an S8 PFL Security (armoured)

The car has leather pack 3 (exclusive leather central tunnel - green, under-dash - green, glovebox - magnolia, upper dash - green, rear parcel shelf and Bose speaker covers - green, door cards – magnolia and green, steering wheel – green, gear knob - green) with the addition of a full leather magnolia roof with leather sun-visors and grab handles.
Colour-matched plastic (green) add-on parts e.g. door surrounds

Additional spec:
Factory black external trim (in lieu of chrome)
Self-levelling suspension
Servotronic
Brembo brakes
Gullideckel / Man-hole Cover / Pie-plate 8Jx18 polished 10-hole design wheels typically seen on the W12
Park Distance Control
Heated windscreen
Multifunction steering wheel
Vavona burl (burr-walnut) wood inserts with cream/magnolia door switch trims
Phone preparation to the front with Nokia 6091 phone
Phone preparation to the rear with Nokia 6091 phone on the central rear console
Rear blinds
Rear headrest release feature
Rear electric heated seats with lumbar and recline function. The rear passenger seat has the facility to move the front passenger seat forward
Bose audio
Rear Screen Entertainment (RSE) with dual factory fitted Alpine screens, integrated DVD player (under the centre of the rear bench with 4 DVD storage slots) and two remote controls. The controls and inputs for the RSE are in the rear centre console. The screens can operate independently of each other
Factory supplied leather headrest covers to hide the rear screens
Rear vanity mirrors (standard A8L)
Dark green rear wedge footrests with cream piping
Front passenger memory seat
Dark green floor carpeting and mats – piped in cream
Rear slumber pillows for the headrests
Integrated fridge with integrated tumblers inside the rear centre headrest bar compartment
Solar roof
Auto-dimming interior and exterior mirrors
Factory driver’s seat fire extinguisher (not integrated into the car Ian, as originally thought)
Tire pressure monitoring system
First aid kit
12 V socket in the boot
Tracker
Derestricted – top speed is 155mph plus

Thanks also go to Ian (IT) for sending me the vehicle spec a few weeks ago.

I hope the pictures don't bore you too much
(And I've not thought of a name yet. Is Mean Green taken?)