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Audi A7 Sportback H-Tron Quattro packs plug-in hydrogen powertrain

If you think a plug-in diesel hybrid is an expensive proposition, just wait until you hear details about the just-revealed Audi A7 Sportback H-Tron Quattro. The "H" in H-Tron, as you might guess, stands for hydrogen, so say hello to a new concept that combines a plug-in battery system with a hydrogen fuel cell. Yeah, exactly. Let's start with the numbers. On the plug-in side, the new H-Tron has an 8.8-kWh lithium-ion battery that can power the car for up to 31 miles on battery power. With electric motors on both axles – it's a Quattro, after all, but a through-the-road hybrid with electronic torque distribution management – the A7 H-Tron uses a hydrogen fuel cell and four (!) H2 tanks to offer about 62 miles per gallon equivalent. Audi says the overall fuel cell stack efficiency is "as high as 60 percent" while the electric motors operate at 95 percent efficiency. Efficiently turning all of that electricity into movement means the A7 Sportback H-Tron Quattro has a total power output of 398.3 pound-feet of torque. The 4,299-pound concept can allegedly go from 0-62 miles per hour in 7.9 seconds and has a top speed of 112 mph. The car's total range is 311 miles. The A7 H-Tron is not the first plug-in hydrogen vehicle concept. That title goes to the Ford HySeries Edge. Mazda also considered putting a hydrogen range extender in the Mazda5 plug-in van. The Audi A7 Sportback h-tron quattro It sprints from 0 to 100 km/h (62.1 mi) in 7.9 seconds and on to a top speed of 180 km/h (111.8 mph). It covers over 500 kilometers (310.7 mi) on one tank of fuel – and its exhaust emits nothing more than a few drops of water: The A7 Sportback h-tron quattro, which Audi is unveiling at the Los Angeles Auto Show 2014, uses a powerful, sporty electric drive with a fuel cell as its energy source that operates in combination with a hybrid battery and an additional electric motor in the rear. The overall electrical system power of 170 kW is transferred to both the front and the rear wheels. This drive configuration makes the emission-free Audi A7 Sportback* a quattro through and through – a new departure in fuel cell cars. "The A7 Sportback h-tron quattro is a genuine Audi – at once sporty and efficient. Conceived as an e-quattro, its two electric motors drive all four wheels," explained Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Member of the Board of Management for Technical Development at Audi. "The h-tron concept car shows that we have mastered fuel cell technology.

Highlights from the Goodwood Festival of Speed, including the McLaren P1 and a Ford Transit running the hill

The sole purpose of this post is as a time-waster, and since you shouldn't have to work to waste time, we've done it for you. In the numerous videos below you'll find cars that have lately been in the news tramping all over the grounds of Lord March's estate in Goodwood, England.
There's the McLaren P1 heading up the hill, the Jaguar Project 7, then a casually-driven Porsche 917 followed by an even-more-casually-driven Porsche 956, topped off by a Porsche 936 that is anything but casually driven. The next round is the flame-spitting Peugeot 405 T16 Pikes Peak from Climb Dance, a camera mounted on the Peugeot RCZ R after it showing you what the whole, uninterrupted run up the hill looks like. For a real head-turner, we couldn't embed it but there's Andy Reid blasting up the hill in a Ford Transit Supervan with a Cosworth 3000 V6 engine.
The modern racing contingent has Allan McNish doing the hill in the Audi R18 e-tron quattro he used to win Le Mans and Lewis Hamilton making lots of tire smoke in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas MGP-W02. For comparison, that's followed by Nick Heidfeld's record-setting run up the hill in 1999 in the McLaren MP4/14 . The classic racing contingent is headlined by 71-year-old Giacomo Agostini on an MV Agusta.

Audi Nanuk Concept likes Parcour, puts four rings on it

Without a doubt, one of the coolest (and weirdest) debuts from this year's Geneva Motor Show had to be the Italdesign Giugiaro Parcour concept. And ever since the off-road performance coupe with Lamborgini guts made its debut, we've sort of been smitten with it. We figured this neat two-door would be a one-and-done show car, but to our delight, the folks at Italdesign worked with Audi to create this, the Nanuk Quattro Concept, which makes its debut here at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Unlike the original Parcour, the Nanuk ditches the high-revving Lambo-sourced 5.2-liter V10 in favor of a twin-turbocharged 5.0-liter diesel V10. That's a beast of an engine, and with 544 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque on hand, it means the 4,189-pound, all-wheel-drive Audi can scoot to 62 miles per hour in under four seconds. Of course, being a diesel, it's surprisingly efficient, and we're told the Nanuk can achieve up to 30 miles per gallon.
As much as we sort of hate the term, the Audi Nanuk is a proper coupe-crossover if we've ever seen one, and utilizes the automaker's next-generation adaptive air suspension (the Parcour had a different pushrod arrangement) that offers a range of almost three inches of height adjustment. There's also an integral steering setup, meaning the rear wheels can turn up to nine degrees in the opposite direction of the front rollers, improving maneuverability.