Is this the new Audi A8?

Over the past few days, we've received a number of tips about the new Audi A8. First was a report from Inside Line about Audi's top-tier sedan not making it to Frankfurt next month, and it was accompanied by renderings of a swoopy silver sedan (at right). Yet we couldn't figure out if that image, from Fox Syndication, was really the A8 that is said to be showing up in Detroit for it's first public viewing.

Then came a tip from Autoblog reader Ryan. While passing through Arizona on a cross-country road trip, he snapped photos of a couple of camouflaged Routans, as well as numerous pics of the car you see above. After first thinking it was an A6, it appears that what he might have caught is the short-wheelbase, Euro-spec Audi A8 with amber LED turn signals. Mislaid chrome striping apes Mitsubishi's "jet-fighter" grille as part of the disguise, and the cheeky Audi engineers even went so far as to include an inverted Mitsu diamond-star insignia, too.

Compared against Inside Line's rendering and the previously-released PR photo of an Audi exec with a the new A8 under a cloak, the similarities do point to the big sedan: the hood ridges, the canted headlights, the double shoulder line, the sweeping C-pillar and rear decklid treatment all appear to line up. You can check out more shots at the VW Vortex forum, and then tell us what you think: short-wheelbase A8, or something completely different? Hat tip to Ryan

[Source: VW Vortex]