Clean on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Audi design getting big overhaul?

Car and Driver has an update on the design shuffle in Ingolstadt that will ultimately bring more differentiation to Audi products. Last November, Audi design chief Wolfgang Egger spoke of the need to do "something new without breaking from tradition" in Audi design, but talk at the time centered on how the Crosslane Coupe Concept would influence the new looks of the brand's Q cars. The most recent moves appear focused on passenger cars, with designers from Volkswagen Group kin like Bentley and Seat moving to Audi, and outsiders from Alfa Romeo moving in.
While Egger decreed the end of "scalable design" to CD, last November's report said there would be more technology and "greater visual cohesion" between interior and exterior design. We still have no idea what all this means nor when we'll see visible changes in production, but at least we know there's something being done behind the scenes.

Notes and notations on the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona [w/video]

This year is the 52nd edition of the Daytona 24 Hours. The 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona is also the first race of the year in the brand new TUDOR United SportsCar Championship (TUSCC) With the merger of the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series rewriting and revising the rules of American sports car racing right up until yesterday, we've made the journey to an intermittently wet and constantly freezing Daytona Beach, Florida with Audi to watch the new R8 LMS and every other competitor explore the limits of those rules on the track.
With a ton to cover - and a couple of videos below to watch, including some slo-mo qualifying footage and a hot lap in an R8 LMS - let's not waste time with chit-chat, eh?
Quick things to know about the classes and the leader-light system:

Meet the first of four Audi A4s coming to our long-term fleet

Yes, you read that right, this is the first of a quartet of A4s we'll be looking at over the course of the year. We're kicking things off with an Audi A4 Premium Plus sedan, and we'll be looking at other iterations of the A4 line later on: the A4 Prestige, Allroad, and S4. What we hope to do is provide you with a thorough examination of each variation, and hopefully give you some guidance on what's worthwhile and what isn't. But first, let's introduce you to the A4 Premium Plus. What we got The A4 Premium Plus is the middle child of the standard A4 line, fitting between the entry-level Premium and the top level Prestige. Stepping up to the Premium Plus adds 18-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, an S Line body kit, Bang & Olufsen sound system, parking sensors, aluminum window trim, and heated power seats with memory. The model we received from Audi has a number of upgrades that bring it quite close to the Prestige trim level. Most notable is the Technology package, which adds the Audi Virtual Cockpit instrument panel, which replaces the physical gauges with a big LCD screen. It also comes with rear cross traffic alert. A First Edition package was added, too, which adds cooled sport seats, a three-spoke steering wheel, and unique wheels and aluminum interior trim. Our favorite part, is the sport package, which adds sportier suspension, a black headliner, and the aforementioned sport seats. What we skipped Really, we didn't skip much here – this particular A4 Premium Plus is pretty loaded. The only packages not included were the Cold Weather package, which includes heated rear seats and steering wheel, and wheel and tire options. The heated steering wheel isn't necessary since winter is almost over (at least we hope). The cost of these packages added up fast, too. Moving up to the Premium Plus trim over the standard Premium added $3,800. The Technology package was $3,250, the First Edition package was $1,100, and the Sport package tacked on $750. Along with the white paint at $575, our Audi has over $9,000 in options. That brought our tester up to $49,825 from a base MSRP of $40,350. We like everything that's been added. If we were to pick packages we could live without, though, we'd probably pick the Technology and the First Edition packages. As slick as the LCD instrument panel is, there's nothing wrong with physical needles and dials.