Spied: Audi Brushes Up A6 with a Tiny Facelift
Looking at the camouflaged A6 pictured here and knowing how Audi's styling department works these days, I imagine one could easily pass these photos for the next generation C8, but it's not; what we have here is an oh, so miniscule facelift for the current model that should be presented before the year's end– possibly in Paris this September.
ABT Spices Up Audi RS6 Avant to the Tune of 700 PS Creating the 'Über-Kombi'
If you want your new 2013 Audi RS6 Avant to perfrom better than it already does (not that you’d need to, really), and have subtle visual tweaks to hint at it, then VW Group tuner ABT Sportsline is one of the best bets. Crazy-powerful Audis are their most extreme products, and this new RS6, with its 700 PS (690 hp) tuned twin-turbo V8 is close to the top of the pile.
Originally putting out 560 PS (552 hp), the tuner says the boost in power and torque bestows the uber-fast estate with 25 percent better overall performance. Speaking of torque, that is obviously important in achieving the stated figures, and it’s up too, from the factory standard 700 Nm (516 lb-ft), to a claimed 880 Nm (695 lb-ft).
Acceleration times from standstill to 100 km/h (62 mph) are therefore slashed by half a second, from the factory stated 3.9 seconds to 3.5. Impressively, this rather boxy-looking estate will keep accelerating all the way to 320 km/h (200 mph).
Visually, other than the noticeable 20- or 22-inch rims that are unique to the ABT-tuned model, lowered suspension and carbon mirror caps, it’s just as in-your-face as any other RS6. Spot the mods in the gallery below.
By Andrei Nedelea
Audi Fleet Shuttle Quattro Makes Movie Debut; We Get a Better Look at it [w/Video]
The Audi fleet shuttle Quattro is not a real car, and the only way to see it outside of a screen is if you happen upon the 1:4 model that was displayed at the concept’s movie premiere in Ender’s Game – it will probably be paraded around though, so it’s not out of the question to see it.
Looks-wise, it does capture the vibe of the movie well yet retains the common Audi styling cues all around the body – the glass canopy is one of its highlight features, as are the completely covered wheels. These are detailed in one of the photos you’ll find in the gallery below.
I like the fact that the team behind it didn’t just design it to look cool and suitably futuristic, and actually took the time to figure out how it would all realistically work – we’ll have to actually see the movie to gauge just how well it all came together. Still, the video also found below does at one point show the car stripped down to the bare chassis - it’s nice to know that it was thought up with it in mind.
The interior is also designed to be/look functional, and it’s digitally grafted onto actual interior shots from aboard an A7 – Harrison Ford drove the series car during the filming; what you see around him in the film is CGI.
By Andrei Nedelea
Audi Becomes 4th Best Selling Brand in the UK!
It's pretty clear now that the efforts of Germany's premium carmakers to expand their reach into more popular segments and niches are beginning to pay off in numbers, as believe it or not, Audi has jumped to fourth sport in the UK's overall sales chart, just behind Ford, GM's Vauxhall (Opel for the rest of Europe) and Volkswagen.
The brand with the four-ring logo has already matched its 2012 sales record of about 123,000 units this year, and is expected to flirt with the 145,000 mark by the end of December. As of now, Audi has captured a 6.4 percent share of the UK market compared to 5.9 percent for BMW and 4.8 percent for Mercedes-Benz.
"We have been building to this since 1967," said Audi's UK arm. "We now have our strongest demand ever. Customers are voting with their feet. There is a flight to premium, and premium is where the profits are made."
What's even more impressive about Audi's feat is that it was achieved without having a single model in the top 10 list of the UK's best selling cars. "We are not dependent on any single model and have no overheated segments," said Audi.
The German premium carmaker has increased its offerings from 17 models in 2001, to 47 today, and is expected to grow to 60 by as early as 2015, with new additions such as the Q1 small crossover.
Audi pointed out that about 30 percent of all models sold in the UK are all-wheel drive quattro models, while it will also sell more than 1,100 RS performance cars in the country this year.
Audi Releases First Driving Footage of Sport Quattro Concept
To celebrate its first 100,000 fans on its corporate Facebook page, Audi has issued the first driving footage of the Sport Quattro Concept. The study was one of the highlights of this year’s Frankfurt Auto Show and is expected to spawn a production version that would be a tribute to the original Audi Quattro.
The short video shows the Sport Quattro climbing a winding mountain road and revving its twin-turbo V8 engine. It sounds cool, but I would have preferred the turbocharged 2.5-liter 5-cylinder engine that was fitted on the 2010 Quattro Concept.
As a reminder, the 2013 study features a hybrid powertrain consisting of 552hp (560PS) 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine and an 148hp (150PS) disc-shaped electric motor which draws its energy from a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery. The hybrid system’s total output is 691hp (700PS) and 800 Nm (590 lb-ft), with a modified eight-speed tiptronic transmission sending power to all four wheels via the quattro powertrain.
The Audi Sport Quattro Concept sprints from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.7 seconds and reaches a top speed of 305 km/h (190 mph).
By Dan Mihalascu
Audi TT RS Black & White Edition Tune-up Packs Some Serious HP
Born from the creative minds at PP-Performance and Cam Shaft, the Audi TT RS Black & White Edition is a special tune that lightly pushes the boundaries on both the styling and performance fronts.
As you most likely figured out by the name, PP-Performance was the one to handle the engine updates on the TT RS that gains a number of new parts ranging from a bigger intercooler to a sports exhaust system.
According to the German tuner, output of the 2.5-liter straight-five engine is lifted from 335hp (340PS) and 450Nm to 464hp (470PS) and 650Nm.
PP Performance also added a front lip spoiler, bonnet, mirror caps, trunk, wings and diffusor all made from carbon fiber, while Cam Shaft covered the Audi TT RS coupe in a matte pearl white and gloss black wraps.
