Author: Liam

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Audi

Audi TTS adds brawn to beauty

Audi TTS Roadster
Audi TTS Roadster

Australian pricing and equipment for the new Audi TTS has just been confirmed. Powered by a 200kW/350Nm 2.0 TFSI engine, pricing for the 6 speed manual TTS Coupe (pictured top) starts at $92,000 and $97,100 for the TTS Roadster. Add another $3600 to those prices for the double clutch S tronic option. The TTS also gets a revised body kit and the front end treatment, especially, has been executed to near perfection. It looks fantastic—simultaneously agressive and understated. Classic Audi.

The beefed up engine takes an S tronic equipped 1395kg TTS Coupe from 0-100km/h in 5.2 seconds, while a similarly specced Roadster at 1455kgs takes 5.4 seconds. Audi’s all wheel drive quattro system and advanced magnetic ride suspension should ensure the TTS harnesses that power for good.

Audi Australia’s managing director, Joerg Hofmann, is pleased with the addition of an S model to the TT range, “As with all Audi S models, the new TTS will be the sporty top model in its family. It not only looks more aggressive and dynamic, its performance is second-to-none and continues the success story of the brand which focuses on reducing consumption whilst maintaining performance,” Mr Hofmann said.

“The new Audi TT is not only bigger and bolder, it is also lighter and more efficient – the Audi TT is a sportscar you can drive without regret.”

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News Volkswagen

Is this the next Volkswagen Golf VI?

Volkswagen Golf VI
Volkswagen Golf VI

These images appear to be the closest thing yet to officially released pics of the new Volkswagen Golf. Scheduled for debut at the Paris Motor Show in October the Golf VI is expected to go on sale in Europe in 2009. If these are legitmate images then Volkswagen has certainly taken the safe route and followed the company’s renowned evolution pathway. Indeed, the jump from the Golf V to Golf VI is probably the smallest the company has taken. Even the step from Golf I to Golf II seemed more dramatic!

Coming only five years after the launch of the Golf V—the shortest Golf model cycle to date—changes are expected to be kept to a minimum. The current Golf V is a very well regarded car, with dependable and enthusiastic handling, coupled to some very sweet and economical engines. Think of the Golf VI as an improved Golf V that costs Volkswagen a bit less to make.

Volkswagen will be shifting all production of the Golf VI to the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. This means the Uitenhage plant in South Africa will no longer be used to source Australian bound models (three door GTIs and all R32 models are currently sourced from Wolfsburg). Australian deliveries of the next-gen Golf are expected in a little over 12 months from now. Following previous model rollouts the Golf VI GTI, with a revised 2-litre turbo four cylinder pumping out a reported 200kW, should be on sale in Australia by the third or fourth quarter in 2010.

More images below…

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Koenigsegg

Aussie tourist wanders through Koenigsegg factory

Koenigsegg factory

How’s this for a great story, Aussie tourist Mark, decides to check out the small city of Ängelholm in Sweden’s deep south. It’s a small town known mainly for Skälderviken bay which is well known for wave sailors, wind surfers and the like. But, it is also the home town of Koenigsegg. So, Mark gets himself to the factory and starts taking a peek around. Soon enough he meets this big bloke who suggests he probably shouldn’t be there. A few brief words and Mark has just become mates with Christian von Koenigsegg who then takes him on a private tour of his factory.

Nice going Mark, great story. Lucky bastard! You can read and see more on this PerformanceForums post (strong language warning).

Categories
Audi News Skoda Volkswagen

Volkswagen claims ‘Green’ medal at 2008 Olympic Games

Volkswagen official automotive partner for 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing

The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing start next Friday—08.08.08—and Volkswagen is looming as having as much presence around the Chinese capital as any of the athletes. A total of 5,000 vehicles have been assigned by Volkswagen Group China to aid logistic support during the Games, moving around athletes, Olympic guests and media. The vehicles assigned to the press center have been labelled the “Green Fleet” on account of their low emissions and low fuel consumption.

Volkswagen, ready to harness a captive audience, will also have a special pavilion at the Olympic Games—the 2000m2 Volkswagen Showcase. Volkswagen Group China expects 4,000,000 visitors to pass through, or as many as 160,000 per day. Lutz Kothe, Head of Sponsoring & Events at Volkswagen AG, commented, “The pavilion gives our guests to the Olympic Games the opportunity to experience the Volkswagen Group and its brands in the unique environment of the world’s biggest sporting event.”

The pavilion will feature models from Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda. More images and Volkwagen’s full press release can be seen below.

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Categories
BMW

BMW automobile guide – All production models since 1928

BMW automobile guide - All production models since 1928BMW Group have just released this handy model guide in PDF format. Featuring simple side on line drawings of all their automobiles from 1928 through to 2008. The guide also includes useful information on production numbers for BMW models that have ceased production. For example, the stunning 507 coupé had 251 models built between 1956-59. While there were 6,291 ‘breadvan’ M coupés built between 1998-2002.

MINI and Rolls Royce models built under BMW ownership are also featured in this guide. Although, the MINI trainspotter in me can see that the line drawing for the R53 Cooper S is not quite right. How so? The lower side skirt detail is incorrect and there is no bulge in the bonnet for the scoop.

Most of the drawings are vector based with sharp, limitless detail. Some drawings, for whatever reason, are crude bitmap based images, which is a shame. Regardless, this is a great resource and AUSmotive is happy to make this document available to you:

BMW Automobiles – Production models since 1928 (PDF – 1mb)

There are two internal spreads from the guide below, click on any image for a larger version.

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Categories
Motorsports News Renault

Track day report – Spa Francorchamps

RSR Nurburg Clio tackles Eau RougeThere’s track days, and there’s track days. Sure, Eastern Creek is good, and Wakefield Park is not too bad either. However, in our wide brown land you just can’t hit the road for a couple of hours and arrive at Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps. Widely acknowledged as one of the world’s best racetracks. The steep climb and blind crest of Eau Rouge is perhaps the most anticipated corner on the F1 calendar. And, just like Eastern Creek and Wakefield Park, you can throw the track organisers some cash and take your own car around this awesome circuit.

This is exactly what Dale from RSR Nürburg did recently. As if living in Nürburg and working at the Nürburgring wasn’t already enough to make you jealous, then he rubs it in with his report of his first track outing at Spa behind the wheel of one of their track prepared Renaultsport Clios. It was raining, of course, but that didn’t stop him from having a great time.Check out Dale’s report in full at bridgetogantry.com, there’s also some great photos from Jochen at frozenspeed.

I’ve learned about these guys through running the Nürburgring focused AUSringers website, so when you’re done reading Dale’s report, make sure you check out AUSringers as well.

Categories
MINI

MINI John Cooper Works teaser ad – version 2

Following on from MINI’s first teaser for the “Not extreme enough” MINI John Cooper Works campaign is this second effort. Looks like they put a bit of elbow grease into this one.

Categories
Audi

Next-gen Audi RS4 and RS5 expected to keep V8 engines

Audi RS5

A recent report published on the independent Audi website Fourtitude claims the next model RS4 and RS5 (B8-based) will use V8 engines. There has been a lot of speculation about the powerplants for the upcoming über-Audis, with some suggestion of a turbocharged 3.0 V6 being used. However, after speaking with an Audi executive the Fourtitude lads wrote “The RS4 and RS5 will get a high-revving engine like the outgoing RS4. The high-rev applications in the R8 and B7-generation RS4 have impressed Audi’s engine development teams and they wish to continue in that direction with the next-gen of Audi’s hottest models.”

Audi is expected to stick with 4.2 litre displacement used in the previous RS4 and power could be up by as much as 50hp on the 420hp available in the old model. Power will be put to ground through an optional 7-speed S tronic transmission and a revised quattro system. Follow the links below for more detail.

Source: Fourtitude, via autoblog

Categories
Motor Shows

2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed – image gallery

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2008

I just stumbled across this excellent image gallery (54photography.com) from the 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Put the kettle on, set aside a 10 minutes or so and enjoy the slideshow. There’s some fantastic images in there, covering a big variety of cars. This gallery certainly brings home just how big the FoS has become, with manufacturers clearly treating the event very seriously. The old skool F1 cars towards the end are well worth the wait, and bring back some great memories.

Categories
Top Gear

Top Gear – Series 11, Episode 6

The final episode of Series 11 already! Yes, I’m afraid that’s it for a few more months. The show kicked off with James May testing a couple of Japanese oddities from well known manufacturer Mitsuoka. Hmm, fair enough. Richard Hammond took us down “Hardcore Street” behind the wheel of the Gumpert Apollo S. A car which proves to be as effective as it is, well, ugly. How effective? You’ll need to check the video above to find out. Jay Kay made his long awaited reappearance on the show to see if he could knock off Simon Cowell’s lap time in the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment. He did. Predictably, by 0.1 second. All looked a bit of a setup, so much so that the producers must have asked Jay Kay to see if he could act a bigger wanker than Cowell as well. Which is a shame, as Jay Kay was pretty good value when he first appeared on Top Gear all those years ago. He has a bloody nice car collection, so we’ll forgive him!

Top Gear v DMotor

The show closed out with classic shoot out between the Top Gear crew against Germany’s DMotor crew, featuring Sabine Schmitz and Tim Schrick. The usual “don’t mention the war” banter followed and, of course, Top Gear won the day. Although, one suspects when the film airs on DMotor that there may be a different result, haha. It was all pretty good fun really with the highlight being Jeremy and Sabine lapping the Zolder circuit in a couple of MINI Cooper Ss and Tim Schrick and The Stig duelling in a race going Porsche and an Aston Martin DBRS9.

Top Gear should be back in October with 8 episodes to close out the year. Fifth Gear will return to UK screens on 11 August.

Categories
Audi

Audi adds new cab to its ranks

Audi A3 Cabriolet

Audi Australia has just launched its newest addition to the A3 range—the all-new A3 Cabriolet—and they’re pretty chuffed, by the looks.

Audi Australia’s managing director, Joerg Hofmann, says “The A3 Cabriolet clearly reflects Audi’s brand values of sporty, progressive and sophisticated—with two dynamic turbocharged direct injection engines, Audi achieves the seemingly opposite goals of excellent performance combined with fuel efficiency, matched with an elegant design which is equally attractive in roof-up or roof-down modes. We expect the A3 Cabriolet to be extremely successful in Australia because it offers a multitude of flexible features—from the fun of driving with the roof down, to space for four people, excellent safety features, plenty of luggage space and genuine good looks.”

Well, he has to say all those nice things doesn’t he. I do agree, however, that the A3 Cabrio looks great—it is a stunning car—although I’m not sure how well it will sell down under. Though, I expect Audi Australia has realistic expectations on that front.

At launch, the A3 Cabriolet is available with two turbocharged 4-cylinder engines. Pricing starts at $49,900 for the 118kW 1.8 TFSI Attraction, fitted with Audi’s 6-speed double clutch S tronic transmission. The Ambition models, featuring the 147kW 2.0 TFSI, start at $54,900 for the 6-speed manual and $57,500 for the S tronic. The first sign of cost saving with the A3 Cabriolet is evident with the roof being soft top only. The second, and most likely the last, is that the standard roof is semi-automatic only, although it does open in an impressive 9 seconds. However, for an extra $1300 a fully automatic soft top is available, and your extra cash also gets you a bit more sound proofing.

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Categories
News Renault

Renaultsport Mégane R26.R

Renaultsport Megane R26.R

The Renault Mégane III is due for release later in the year, so before saying au revoir to the current Mégane II le chaps from Renaultsport have seen fit to strip out the R26 (sorry, the Renaultsport 230 F1 Team R26, to use its full title) and give it a good spanking around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. And my word, what a jolly good spanking they gave it. The 123kg weight saving, along with R spec rubber and the familiar engine, producing 168kW (230hp) and 310Nm torque, lapped the famed Nordschleife in a time of 8 minutes 17 seconds. That’s quick. Properly quick! The fastest lap by a production based front wheel drive car, in fact. You can see the lap in full on AUSringers.com as well as the company that lap allows the R26.R to keep. Très bien!

As you can see from the images below, you can have your R26.R in any colour, so long as it’s ugly. A bit harsh perhaps, but the Mégane’s styling has always been in the love or hate it category. Personally, and contradicting my last point, I’ve been on the fence in regards to the somewhat awkward lines of the French rocket. It could be argued that its angular and purposeful look suits the car’s drive me, and drive me bloody hard, attitude. That said, plastering garish stickers all over the car (including a Nürburgring 8:17 decal) and bright red wheels, along with a carbon fibre bonnet, could be described as akin to screaming out “No the Ssanyong Stavic is not the ugliest car in the world—I am!!!” Lucky then, that the R26.R is limited to just 450 examples, none of which will make it to Australia in any official capacity.

More images and Renault’s press release below…

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