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Audi and Porsche squabble over future product platforms

In the buildup to the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans, Audi delivered an amusing video that worked on the playful rivalry between the German brand and its favorite frenemy, Porsche. We called it sibling rivalry, and at the time, it may have been just that. But just like sibling rivalries, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, and that's just what seems to be about to happen in the formerly peaceful Volkswagen Group family.
A new report from Automobile calls out the growing animosity between Porsche, who is backed up by Bentley, and Audi, whose primary ally is Lamborghini. No blows have actually been thrown, although there is a fair amount of "he said, she said" going on.
As Porsche tells it, for example, the new global fullsize SUV architecture being developed by Audi isn't up to snuff, citing size and structure issues, as well as an inability to accommodate a wide variety of engines.

New Audi Quattro concept coming to Frankfurt?

We first saw the Audi Quattro Concept at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, and since then we've been tugged this way and that by a series of rumors as to whether the car will be built or not, and whether such a car will live at the accessible or the exalted end of the cost spectrum. A report in Germany's Auto Zeitung from June restarted the fires of gossip with a report that a production version of the concept will appear at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and put it firmly in the exalted sphere.
Now, just a month from the show, Auto Bild has a similar report, sketching out an upmarket car but on a different platform. Back when we drove it, the Quattro concept was built on a spaceframe based on the RS5 platform and got its go from a 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine with 380 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque (the show car got 408 hp from a turbocharged five-cylinder). The June report from Auto Zeitung said this new reveal would be powered by a modified version of the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 from the RS7 that would put out something like 650 hp. Auto Bild, on the other hand, reports that the engine will be tuned to something like 600 hp and the new concept will ride on an "enhanced" version of the A6 platform.
Both reports agree that the car we'll see will preview Audi's new design language with "tauter, more angular lines." Lightweight and exotic materials will be used in efforts to reach a supposed target weight of 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds), down from a target of 2,900 pounds in earlier report. Auto Bild says that Audi still hasn't decided whether to make a production version, but if they are correct about the direction of the concept, any retail offering based on it isn't going to be cheap.

Leaked design sketch may preview Audi TT Sportback Concept for Paris

With the debut of the new TT and TTS hardtops in Geneva earlier this year, as well as the more recent debut of the convertible model, Audi has ticked the same body style boxes as the first two generations of TT. Unlike those earlier examples, though, the German luxury manufacturer has provided a slow and steady parade of concepts showing off possible directions for the TT.
First, we had the Allroad Shooting Brake Concept from the 2014 Detroit Auto Show. Then, in April, we saw the Offroad Concept, whose biggest differentiation from the Detroit concept was its extra pair of doors, making it appear, at least superficially, quite similar to one of Audi's Sportback models. This clear evolution from shooting brake to neo-Sportback might not have meant much, had the image you see above not leaked.
This is, allegedly, the third member of the larger TT-based concept family, and - surprise, surprise - it has massaged the profile of the Offroad Concept into something that, to our eyes, appears far more grounded in reality. It looks like a natural fit into Audi's line of four-door-coupe models, which are more fleshed out in Europe, thanks to the presence of the A5/S5 Sportback. Slotting in a TT-based model could represent a coup for Audi, as such a small four-door with such obvious sports car roots would be mostly unchallenged.