Two weeks ago, Bertel stole from me we brought you the very first pictures of the China-only RUF XL, a Porsche Panamera stretched by 40 centimeters exclusively for the limousine-orientated Chinese car market. The story has since been all over the internet.
Today, I present you the first pictures of the interior. This Porsche sure looks like a comfortable place to smoke a cigar, play with your second and/or third wife and to tell the driver to take it easy, or to go like stink.
Clearly a high-quality conversion. RUF for sure ain’t no in-the-shed operation. Still, I am a bit disappointed by the lack of TV-screens. This needs to be improved.
A huge center console runs all the way to the back. It just misses the gimmicks. Wine-cooler? I don’t see any. Advanced controls for the stereo? Nope. Spittoon? Neither. Without these extras, it is only a stretched Panamera and not much more.
Bad-ass.
Dutchman Tycho de Feyter runs Carnewschina.com, a blog about cars in China, from Beijing, China. He also collects die-cast models of Chinese cars.
Well, I guess it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.
Some cars look real nice with a stretch, and make me wonder why we don’t have them here – the 3-series Li for example. This one just looks all sorts of wrong. The official Porsche stretched Panamera is no better.
dear god save us
I always wondered why we never saw Devilles or Panthers stretched like this, gives you another foot or so of leg room but doesn’t make the car any more difficult to drive. Cartier-L was the closest the Panthers came I suppose, and I think they only added six inches. Would work well for families who want a touch of class with their ride instead of your typical obnoxious SUV/CUV or minivan.
The Town Car L was available up until the end of the run. In fact, you can still likely find a brand new Town Car Signature L on a Lincoln lot if you search a bit. But yes, it was just a 6″ stretch.
That brown leather actually looks kind of nice.
The next logical step is the Panamera hearse.
Never mind the lack of gadgets and gimmicks. Where’s the partition to separate the driver from the driven? How can one conduct criminal economic activities or dally with some dolly when the driver is party to your business?
I still dig it.