Doing burnouts on public roads is bad, m’kay. Just ask Lewis Hamilton. But burning a bit of rubber on a street that is blocked off and surrounded by advertising hoardings is just fine and dandy. Good thing, then, that a couple of the Audi DTM pilots obliged at last weekend’s 2010 season launch in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Timo Scheider, Oliver Jarvis and Mattias Ekström are the guys behind the wheel and you can check out their handiwork after the break.
[Source: quattroholic]
Following written reports of the Audi RS5 from Autocar and Car and Driver come these five videos filmed by motoring hacks at the RS5 press launch, held at the Ascari Race Resort in Spain. There’s a mix of aggressive and timid on track action, as well as some footage filmed on the fun looking winding roads near the Ascari track.
As far as the handling and performance of the RS5 goes not a lot is given away in the clips that follow, suffice to say the car does seem quite well balanced, its 4.2 litre V8 sounds pretty nice and the 7-speed S tronic does seem willing to bounce of the rev limiter, rather than forcing the driver to endure an unwanted upshift.
If nothing else you get a pretty good idea of the elevation changes on the track layout used for the launch. You also get to see some not so special overtaking moves on a public road.
UPDATE 21 April: Better make that SIX videos—a new clip filmed on public roads has been added below.
The international media launch of the Audi RS5 took place in Spain today and while AUSmotive wasn’t in attendance we can bring you the latest images from Audi’s press archives. There’s 75 of the blighters for you after the break, all accessible as 2000px super size images. An extensive press release from Audi should keep you busy, as well.
In case you needed reminding the RS5 is powered by a naturally aspirated high rev 4.2-litre V8 FSI. The RS5 produces peak power of 331kW (450PS) at 8250rpm, with maximum torque of 430Nm available from 4000-6000rpm. Coupled with a specially reinforced 7-speed S tronic transmission the RS5 is able to accelerate to 100km/h in 4.6 seconds. This is the first of Audi’s RS models to be fitted with a double clutch transmission. At this stage, there is still no word on a manual gearbox option.
The RS5 will be available in a total of eight colors: Ibis White, Suzuka Gray, Monza Silver, Misano Red, Sepang Blue, Daytona Gray, Phantom Black and custom blended Panther Black reserved for Audi’s high-performance machines.
Naturally the RS5 features a quattro all-wheel drive system. There’s some new trickery hidden inside the RS5 quattro, too. Including a crown-gear centre differential with torque vectoring and an optional sport differential. You can get more of an insight into those systems through a couple of YouTube clips—available here.
For now, though, feast your eyes on some very tasty images thanks to Audi. When you’re done here check out Top Gear’s coverage of today’s launch.
The Audi Mark of Excellence awards were held earlier this month and Audi Centre Canberra was named the Metropolitan Dealer of the Year for 2009. This is the third major award for the Canberra dealership after winning the Provincial category for 2007 and 2008. Audi Centre Canberra happens to be my local dealership and after adding one sale to their tally last year I can say that Richard and his team do a great job servicing the Canberra region.
Audi Centre Townsville took out the Provincial award for 2009, a great boon for the dealership after opening a new showroom just over 12 months ago.
Further details after the jump.
Autocar is one of the first publications to get their hands on Audi’s new RS5. With a revised 4.2 litre V8 sourced from Ingolstadt’s famed RS4 and a svelte coupé body can the RS5 match the rave reviews of its sedan and wagon siblings? Here’s a grab of what reviewer Jamie Corstorphine had to say:
“Is the RS5 a car you would drive with no destination in mind? Like almost every other Audi, it feels like a piece of heavy machinery, one with deep reserves of engineering capability, but it is also one of the rare Audis that also has a fluidity and delicacy to it. I’d stop short of saying it would be a car I would choose to take on a track day, but for a non-stop return trip from London to the top of Scotland, there are few cars I would be happier to be in.”
Follow the link below for the full review.
[Source: Autocar]
The Audi TT RS and the R8 V10. Two very, very nice cars. Most readers would pick the R8, right? But what if you could only muster the cash for the slighty oddball five cylinder powered TT RS, would you really be missing out on that much?
In rough UK numbers the R8 V10 is £100K, the TT RS around £50K. So, there is, obviously, a huge discrepancy in price. In Aussie dollars the numbers look even more insane, the R8 V10 starts at $350K, that’s heading towards triple the asking price of the $135K TT RS. Does the mighty R8 have the performance to justify its massive gap in asking price compared to the TT RS? That’s a question Steve Sutcliffe from Autocar asked. You can watch his answer in video form after the jump.
[Thanks to Timbo for the tip]
Audi Sport is in full swing with its preparations to win back the Le Mans 24 hour race. However, rather than boasting of new technical changes, or improvements to Team Joest’s R15 racer, they are announcing the car has a new paint scheme. Along with the image shown above, there are detail images shown after the break.
Supposedly the new paint job demonstrates “pleasure in efficiency”. Markus Auerbach and Tobias Drews from the Audi Design Team tell us, “We wanted to add a dash of surprise when the Audi leaves the pits at Le Mans. We practically opened up the bodywork and are exposing the light-weight construction and its uncompromising technical development – and with a little rock’n’roll for good measure.†Okay, then. Moving right along.
The R15 will continue its development during an 8 hour race at Paul Ricard later this week, so we can expect to see more of this car soon. In the meantime, check out the teaser pics below along with Audi Sport’s press release.
In further news from the World Car of the Year awards the Audi R8 V10 has been named 2010’s World Performance Car. The R8 has double dipped with this title after the R8 4.2 V8 was awarded the same honour back in 2008.
The R8 knocked off some very stiff opposition to win this award, too. Joining the Audi in the final three was the Ferrari California and the Porsche 911 GT3.
The V10 powered R8 is fitted with a 5.2 litre direct injection engine, closely related to the powerplant used in the Lamborghini Gallardo. The unit develops and impressive 386kW and the car can reach 100km/h in under four seconds. Readers are invited to send in next week’s lotto numbers to AUSmotive HQ at your earliest convenience.
As you know, this is year marks the 30th anniversary of Audi’s quattro technology. So what’s been your favourite all-paw Audi over the years? The obvious choice for many would be the original, the Ur Quattro shown above. For me, it would have to be the awesome RS2. That’s the car that piqued my interest in Audi. A station wagon able to keep a McLaren F1 supercar honest from the lights! What’s not to like about that.
This quattro question has also been asked by STIFF magazine. I know, sounds a bit randy, doesn’t it. Anyway, they have put together a list of their top five. Check it out.
The Audi RS5 created waves in the blogosphere when images were “leaked” back in February. Now, Audi have decided to calm things down a bit with this new video of the RS5. Check it out after the jump.
It’s a long play advertisement, really, and the voiceover guy sounds about as excited as Mark Webber was in his post-race interview at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
More Audi A1 video now, this time it’s an official clip showcasing an A1 competition kit. Audi have splashed some colour around the place, inspired by previous Audi motorsport achievements. Apart from a few pics, there’s not much other information around at the moment. You can watch the video after the jump.
It’s about six weeks now since the Audi A1 was first seen in official images. But speculation over a cooking S1 model has been around for well over 12 months. And here’s some more S1 educated guesswork in the form of a Photoshopped rendering. After the jump you can see a video of how this car was “made”. It’s a fascinating look at some mad PS skillz.
[Source: TopGear]