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Ford GT dominates Le Mans qualifying, gets slapped with performance adjustment

Fifty years after Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon drove the Ford GT40 to victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ford is poised for a historic return to the Circuit de la Sarthe. The new Ford GT took the top two qualifying positions in the LMGTE Pro class, and four of the top five. Ferrari's 488 filled in the rest of the spots in the top seven, the first two from AF Corse. In other words, we're primed for a reboot of the classic Ford-Ferrari feud at this year's race. Or not, as the ACO, which organizes the 24 Hours of Le Mans, announced sweeping pre-race Balance of Performance (BOP) adjustments this morning that make this year's GT class anybody's race. In LMP1, last year's overall winner Porsche locked up the top two spots with the 919 Hybrid and will lead the entire field at race start. Toyota's two-car factory effort followed with qualifying times 1.004 and 2.170 seconds behind the pole lap. Audi rounds out the manufacturer-backed LMP1 class in fifth and sixth. Full qualifying results can be found here. The storyline for the GT cars is perfect - some say too perfect. Ford's class-leading times came after BOP adjustment to the Corvette Racing C7.R before qualifying. BOP is intended to level the playing field in the class by adjusting power, ballast, and fuel capacity. (Check out this explainer video for more, or even just if you love French accents.) But the process is riddled with unknowns and ripe for accusations of sandbagging. That is, if the Ford cars were intentionally slow in practice they could hope for BOP adjustment to improve their race chances. On the Corvette side, last year's GTE Pro winner went from the top of the field to the bottom, barely improving from practice to qualifying. If you think Le Mans is as rigged at the NBA Playoffs, well, it's not that simple. Because if Ford and Ferrari held back until qualifying - the eighth-place Porsche 911 RSR is three-and-a-half seconds off the class pole time - it was a pretty dumb strategy. This morning, the ACO tried to put things back in order by limiting the boost in the Ford GT's twin-turbo V6 and adding 11 pounds of ballast. Ferrari was also given extra weight but allowed more fuel capacity. The Corvette and Aston Martin teams were both given breaks on their air restrictors, which will allow their engines to make more power. Both Ford and Porsche also received extra fuel capacity.

Daily Driver: 2016 Audi A7

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in theAutoblog test fleet, reviewed by the staffers who drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2016 Audi A6, reviewed by Seyth Miersma. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. Show full video transcript text Hey, all. This is Seyth with Autoblog, and I'm in the 2016 Audi A7 3.0. It's interesting, initially, I thought that I wouldn't do any kind of video review on this car because I've already done reviews on the Audi RS7 and the Audi S7. I didn't want to be overly heavy handed on the Audi A7 range, but I thought I'd at least do a quick update because it's a little bit interesting to compare and contrast all three versions of the car. This A7 has got a supercharged 3.0-liter V6 engine. It makes 333 horsepower, 325 pound-feet of torque. The MSRP starts around $69,000 when you factor in the destination charge. The one that I'm driving is right around $78,000. You look around the cabin, and you see typically nice Audi fare. It definitely feels like you're in a high-end car. Compare that to the S7, and you lose about 120 horsepower, and you add to that sticker price around $14,000. Move up to the RS7, which if you'll remember I characterized as a supercar with a hatchback, you're down way more than 200 horsepower and right around $35,000. When you take the step down especially in power you expect that the performance is not only going to lag but might be a little bit disappointing being as I was in the fancier ones first. The truth is after all these miles, this car is really fantastic especially the RS7. It really surprised me with its ability to combine just crazy good performance with great livability, never overly harsh, not a lot of impact noises. The suspension didn't beat you up. All that is obviously true of this A7 too. You don't have that top end and maybe not all of the outright ability, but it still feels very capable and a lot of fun to drive when you want to push it. You get a powerful V6, which makes the car feel pretty damn fast. Now as I'm speeding along here, I don't get the same sort of aural enjoyment from this car as I do from the V8s. Those guys just sound crazy good especially when you're really getting into it. The V6 you really got to work at to hear even, but it's satisfying, and it just feels nice and light and powerful when you're going down the road.

Audi S8 makes cameo in commercial about cameos with Stan Lee

Stan Lee is the undisputed king of the cameo. The 92-year-old comic scion makes a brief appearance in every film Marvel Studios produces, of course, but, according to IMDB, that's just the beginning. Lee has an impressive 84 credits to his name, with such standout characters as Man on Bench, Hot Dog Vendor, Distinguished Bystander, Milwaukee Man Drinking From Bottle, Rejected Wedding Guest, Waterhose Man, and Hot Dog Vendor (again). Building on Lee's well-known acting success, Audi has introduced a humorous video in which its own S8 sedan makes a cameo, as do Tara Reid, Michael Rooker, Lou Ferrigno, and Jason Mewes. It's all part of the Avengers: Age of Ultron launch, which Audi has helped promote for the last few months. Celebrities Humor Marketing/Advertising TV/Movies Audi Luxury Performance Videos Sedan audi s8 avengers