2006 Audi A4 3.2 V6 Quattro Awd Leather Wood Heat Seats Alloys Sunroof Xenon Pdc on 2040-cars

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Audi RS3 and Volkswagen Golf R face off in Evo test

Typically when an automotive publication pits two rivals against each other, they come from different companies. After all, why would one automaker – even one parent company – develop two distinct models to compete against each other? Well, the Volkswagen Group isn't like most. It pits Porsches against Lamborghinis, Audis against Bentleys, Seats against Skodas... all under the same roof. In the high-powered hot hatch market, it offers both the VW Golf R and the Audi RS3. The question is, which is the better drive? Evo put them both on track for a quick bout of sibling rivalry to find out. On paper it would seem like an unfair fight. Sure, both are based on the same platform and channel their power to the tarmac through all four wheels. But the Audi's five-cylinder engine packs considerably more muscle than the Golf's four: 362 horsepower and 343 pound-feet of torque trump 296 hp and 280 lb-ft. There's just no way around that – at least until the Golf R 400 comes along. The Audi, as you might have guessed, also costs substantially more than the Volkswagen. But that's not Evo's concern here. This is a cost-no-object, bare-knuckle throw-down. Watch the ten-minute video above to find out if the cheaper, less powerful Golf R can keep pace with its more upscale and brawnier brother. Related Video: News Source: Evo via YouTube Audi Volkswagen Hatchback Performance Videos vw golf r evo

A few pre-race notes and a lot of photos from the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 82nd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is on.
Audi has won 12 of the last 15 events, the scion of Auto Union is trying to make it 13 this year. To do so, it will have to overcome a situation faced only three other times during its dominance of La Sarthe: underdog status. Toyota has won the first two races of the year and claimed pole for this race, the rumor being that this year it's Toyota's race to lose.
And then there's Porsche. It's been 16 years since the Stuttgart brand raced on the top rung at Le Mans, three years years since it announced its return, just a year since it acquired Mark Webber in a signing that wasn't subtle and a few months since we got eyes on the 919 Hybrid.

Audi inaugurates new R8 production line at Neckarsulm

Of all the factories which the Volkswagen Group operates around the world, the Audi plant in Neckarsulm may not be the very largest, but it is among the most diversified. That's where Audi builds versions of the A4, A5, A6, A8 and Q7 lines. It's also been home to the R8, but now the German automaker has moved supercar production to a new facility just a few miles down the road.
Back in August, Audi stopped production of the R8 at its main Neckarsulm site and moved it to the new Böllinger Höfe site in Heilbronn, restarting production just three weeks later. The new assembly line brings together various workshops that had been scattered about the Neckarsulm complex under one roof, and will surely make production of the next-generation R8 that much smoother.
The Böllinger Höfe facility is about a quarter the size of the main Neckarsulm plant, and will also house a small-scale production line - similar, we gather, to what Audi subsidiary Lamborghini recently built in Sant'Agata Bolognese - and a massive, state-of-the-art logistics center with capable of handling 4,500 containers each day.