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Audi Motor Shows

Geneva: Audi A1 e-tron

Audi A1 e-tron

Audi have given the motoring world a new acronym—MCV—Mega City Vehicle. It is used to described Ingolstadt’s third e-tron concept, this time built on the A1 platform.

The A1 e-tron is fitted with a transversely mounted synchronous electric motor. It can be found under the bonnet at the front and has a continuous power and torque rating of 45kW/150Nm. Although, in short bursts those numbers peak at 75kW/240Nm. A low mounted engine and below-floor battery storage ensures the A1 e-tron has a low centre of gravity.

Battery life offers a range of 50km for city chores, but a rotary engine, called a “range extender”, is capable of recharging the batteries for longer drives. It sounds like a pretty ingenious solution really.

Full details available after the break.

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Citroen Green Machines Motor Shows

Geneva: Citroën Survolt Concept

Citroen Survolt Concept

Citroën have gone all Batmobile-like with this crazy Survolt Concept. It’s a pretty wild looking machine and that’s about all I can tell you about it. There is a press release below, but the only real information it gives away is that the Survolt “is the continuation of Citroën’s exploration of distinctive and original electric vehicles”.

Oh, one more thing, the car’s measurements, of course, 3.85m long, 1.87m wide and 1.20m high. So, it’s small, electric and sporty looking. What more could you possibly need to know? More pics and pretty words after the break.

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Motor Shows Porsche

Geneva: Porsche 918 Spyder with hybrid drive

Porsche 918 Spyder

Just a couple of months after Porsche CEO Michael Macht declared they didn’t want hybrid technology in their sportscars comes this superb looking 918 Spyder concept model. Announced at the Geneva Motor Show, the 918 Spyder features a race-inspired 500hp V8 and is supplemented by 230hp of electric power.

The 918  joins the GT3 R Hybrid announced last month. Add in the Cayenne S Hybrid and you now have three Porsche model lines featuring hybrid technology.

Back to the 918 Spyder, though, and, well it is clearly the most stunning of the trio. All that power is said to propel the car to 100km/h in around 3.2 seconds. Proving further that hybrid doesn’t mean slow and steady wins the race, the 918 can (supposedly) lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife in under 7 minutes 30 seconds. Faster than a Carrera GT, no less.

When you’re not exploiting all that power, Porsche reckon you can return a fuel consumption figure of 3l/100km with CO2 emissions of just 70g/km.

Pretty tidy numbers all round for a mid-engined two-seater with a very tasty 3.4-litre V8 from the RS Spyder racecar.

Check the pics and press release after the jump.

UPDATE 3 March: Two new “next spark” promo videos featuring the Porsche 918 Spyder have been added below.

UPDATE 29 July: Porsche have confirmed the 918 will go into limited series production.

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Audi

Audi UK confirms RS5 pricing & specs

Audi RS5

Audi UK have just released details confirming their local specs for the RS5 featuring a 450PS 4.2 FSI V8 which will go on sale there in October. It’s all as expected and pricing starts at £57,480 OTR (approx AU$96,000). Expect Australians to be paying significantly more than that. Sigh.

You can read the press release below.

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Lamborghini Video

Valentino Balboni talks about “his” Lamborghini

Lamborghini Gallardo Balboni video

After 40 years service for the one company the traditional gift at retirement, supposedly, is a gold watch. Lamborghini, though, do things a little bit differently. Valentino Blaboni, the company’s chief test driver for a total of four decades, was presented with his own Gallardo.

Cool, imagine getting a supercar given to you when you retire. Nice, huh. But, Lamborghini actually went one step further by making a special limited edition run of the Gallardo adorned with Balboni’s name. Just 250 have been made—its full title, Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni.

Taking the honour further the Italian manufacturer did away with the Gallardo’s all-wheel drive system and decided to send every one of the car’s 550 horsepower to the rear wheels. Now, that is some retirement present!

The above still is taken from a brief YouTube clip produced by Danish car mag Bil Magasinet. You can see that after the jump, along with more images of Balboni and his car.

In the clip Balboni talks of trying to capture the spirit of the Miura and Countach in “his” Gallardo. He seems like a great guy, as well. The video is available in 1080p, so I suggest watching in full screen with the volume turned up to eleven.

[Thanks to Paul for the tip]

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Ferrari

Autocar drives the Ferrari 599XX

Ferrari 599XX autocar review

Steve Sutcliffe from UK mag Autocar gets some first class assignments sometimes, but not many could better this one. He was the first person outside of Ferrari to drive its working test laboratory—the 599XX.

Just 29 of these 540kW V12 powered machines will be made and, according to the YouTube clip below, none will be used for racing. As we know, none will be road legal.

Sutcliffe has also written a review of his experience behind the wheel of the 599XX, and here is a snippet of his thoughts on Ferrari’s €1.1 million hyper car:

“I drove the car at Vallelunga circuit, near Rome, and it was nowhere near long enough; you could drive this car all day, all week, and still want more. But it was sufficient time behind the wheel to realise that, for its audience, the 599XX has a very clear purpose in life. Not just as a development platform for future technology, some of which will appear on a new rumoured GTO version of the 599 later this year, but also as a means of providing unmatched thrills and driving dynamics for a front-engined GT car. For pretty much any car, come to think of it.”

[Source: Autocar]

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Volvo

Volvo’s naughty teaser

Volvo naughty teaser

In the build up this week’s Geneva Auto Salon Volvo have released a couple of short teaser clips on YouTube (see below). They promise something naughty is on its way. If you follow their naughty.volvocars.com URL you end up at a special website based on the company’s all new S60 saloon.

This is the product Volvo will use to take on BMW’s almighty 3 Series. So, does this naughty tag mean we are about to see a new piping hot S60 R? And if we do, will it really live up to its name, or will this be a triumph of marketing over substance?

Looking at the YouTube clips one would hope we’re looking at a win to the engineering department, because the marketing department hasn’t exactly delivered spine tingling teasers.

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Lexus

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

Lexus CT 200h

Lexus showed great promise when they released the LF-Ch Concept last year. That model, while not brilliant looking, showed flair, excitement and, yes, even personality. Now, ahead of Geneva, Lexus have released official images of the…

Zzzzzzzzzzz, sorry, I just nodded off there. Of course, I was saying, yes, here is the … zzzzz. Oops, it happened again. It’s the CT Dull-00h. Oh, that’s not right either. This is the CT 200h. Wow, finally mustered up enough energy to get that out. Which is more than can be said for the, no doubt, lovely folks at Lexus who designed this car.

Dull, dull, dull. Uninspiring. Even the studio shouts just scream BLAND! What a total disappointment. I hope its brakes work.

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Porsche

2010 Porsche Cayenne – in Australia by July

2010 Porsche Cayenne

Porsche have announced initial details of their new Cayenne SUV ahead of next week’s Geneva Motor Show. According to Porsche, “the absolute highlight of this new generation is the world debut of the Cayenne S Hybrid”.

Indeed, the Cayenne S Hybrid is the company’s greenest car yet. Like the Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid, with which it shares many components, the enviro-friendly Cayenne is powered by a 245kW 3.0-litre supercharged V6 and a 34kW electric motor. For those playing at home that makes a total of 279kW. As far as CO2 emissions go, the Hybrid emits 193g/km. By way of example, that figure is around the same as the Volkswagen Golf R.

Unlike the Touareg we can confirm the Cayenne S Hybrid will be coming to Australia and local sales will start on 24 July. Five models will complete the Australian Cayenne range and at initial launch a 293kW 4.8-litre V8 Cayenne S and 368kW Cayenne Turbo will join the Hybrid. Petrol and diesel V6 options will follow at a later date.

Aesthetically speaking the Cayenne has been sent beauty school, and while it is an improvement on the first generation, you couldn’t say it has graduated with flying colours. The wheel design of the Turbo model, for example, is questionable to say the least.

Despite growing in size—48mm in total length, with a wheelbase increase of 40mm—the Cayenne has lost a few pounds. Up to 180kg on the S model. Coupled with improvements in engine efficiency across the board the line up of Cayenne engines to be offered in Australia actually do seem quite light on the fuel, relatively speaking. The Hybrid is the least demanding of the petrol powered models, as to be expected, and uses 8.2/100km. Surprisingly, perhaps, the 176kW V6 diesel betters this figure at 7.4l/100km. Next is the 220kW V6 petrol rated at 9.9l/100km. The normally aspirated V8 uses a respectable 10.5l/100km, while the stupidly powerful Turbo is said to use just 11.5l/100km.

These figures have been measured against the New European Driving Cycle and if they’re even moderately accurate then the Cayenne’s consumption figures are to be commended. There is room for improvement, of course, but all things said, well done to Porsche. Maybe there is more to their “intelligent performance” tag than slick marketing.

The full Euro press release and image gallery is available after the jump.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

F1 Safety Car gives you wings

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, F1 Safety Car

Mercedes-Benz are pretty chuffed with their new F1 Safety Car. So much so they’ve written a long press release and released a bunch of new pics. The car, of course, is the SLS AMG ‘Gullwing’. And this is the fifteenth year that Mercedes has headed the field with Safety Car duties, the only company to hold that honour.

The Gullwing is a sleek looking machine with 420kW and 650Nm on offer. That means when Bernd Mäylander is wringing the neck off this thing he will still look like he is just plodding around on a Sunday afternoon drive when he has a tantrum of Formula One cars behind him. In reality he will be travelling every bit as fast as the car and chassis will allow. And with a claimed 0-100 time of 3.8 seconds it won’t exactly be hanging about.

The best news, though, in F1-trim, the Gullwing has two telly screens inside so you can watch the race while at work. How good is that!

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Formula 1

Mark Webber sets the pace at Barcelona

Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing

Mark Webber quickly found his way to the top of the time sheets in his RB6 during pre-season testing at Barcelona overnight. Once Webber found his rhthym he was never headed and settled with a best time of 1:21.487, almost one full second ahead of his nearest rival, Nico Hulkenberg, Williams (1:22.407).

Webber’s Red Bull team were focusing on a race weekend simulation, including qualifying and full race-distance programs. Speaking on the RBR website Webber said, “We had a pretty good day of testing. We did some simulations and performance items in the morning and a race simulation in the afternoon. We had a precautionary stop in the middle of the race simulation because of a gearbox oil alarm, but the guys got the car turned around pretty quickly and we finished the session, so it wasn’t too bad.”

Reliability seems to be the only concern for Red Bull Racing as both drivers have been consistently on the pace in pre-season testing so far.

Sebastien Vettel steps into the RB6 for the next two days of testing, while Webber will return for the final day on Sunday. A schedule of drivers can be seen HERE. You can follow the action when it resumes later tonight on twitter and autosport.com.

[Pics: Getty Images]

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Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo Giulietta prepares for Geneva

2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta

The Alfa Romeo Giulietta is the latest model to be previewed ahead of next week’s Geneva Motor Show. Alfa first teased us with a few images in early December last year. A few weeks later Autocar got the scoop and published a number of images that gave the game away for Alfa. New images have now been released by Alfa Romeo and they confirm what we have already seen.

The Giulietta range is built on a new “Compact” platform and will be powered by a mix of diesel and petrol powered engines. Most readers of AUSmotive will centre their interest around the 235hp (175kW) Giulietta 1750 TBi Quadrifoglio Verde model. Alfa’s press release states the “Cloverleaf” will guarantee “best-in-class driving pleasure… with greater environmental awareness.”

That’s some claim in a space that is already full of competent hot hatches, especially from Germany and France. We shall have to wait and see how the Italians compare. Alfa’s Australian importer is remaining coy on a local launch of the Quadrifoglio Verde confirming only that the Giulietta will be here before the end of the year.

More after the break.

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