2001 Audi Tt Quattro, on 2040-cars

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2015 Audi S8

You've gotta hand it to the Audi A8. Last year, Mercedes-Benz launched the truly stunning S-Class, putting the rest of the high-dollar luxury flagship class on notice. With the brand-new S-Class turning heads and garnering all sorts of praise from the automotive press, classmates like the BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XJ and Audi A8 started to look, well, old. But Audi didn't see fit to just let its big sedan carry on and let the Mercedes take the cake.
So when Audi refreshed its A8 line for the 2015 model year with only minor updates, I kind of shrugged it off as just a quick way to keep the big sedan fresh until an all-new, hopefully S-Class-trumping version arrives. But then I drove the S8 pictured above, and I'm no longer so sure the Merc's shadow is as big and imposing as it once was.
Spoiler alert: the Audi S8 is simply fantastic.

SNL player Vanessa Bayer goes 50 Shades of Audi

Fifty Shades of Grey, the most unlikely Valentine's Day film ever, is opening over Valentine's Day Weekend. Casting directors gave Audi a number of plum assignments, the German carmaker landing the roles of A3, S7, S8, R8 V10 Spyder, and Q7. That part is not surprising. What is surprising is this most unlikely spoof that Audi of America worked up with Saturday Night Live cast member Vanessa Bayer, playing off that elevator scene in the film. After watching it, we felt like Audi looked at us and said, "Oh yeah, we just did that." It's not NSFW, but - like the movie it parodies - this is all about the adult content. We liked it. But would it be too much to say we didn't see this one coming? News Source: Audi of America via YouTube Humor TV/Movies Audi Videos saturday night live

Audi reveals updated RS7 Sportback in Europe

It was just a couple of weeks ago that Audi revealed a few mild updates to its A7. It even ported those changes over to the warmed-up S7 performance version. All that was missing was the full-steam RS7, and that's precisely what we have here.
Now before you get all excited, note that the new RS7 packs the same powertrain as the model it succeeds, but then again, the existing RS7 hardly lacked in the power department. The 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 still churns out 560 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, transmitted to all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic. Revealed initially for the European market (with US details presumably to follow), the 0-62 kilometers per hour time is quoted at 3.9 seconds, so the 0-60 mph time ought to match the 3.7 seconds of the preceding model.
What has changed are the subtle tweaks Audi has made to the exterior and equipment upgrades inside. The grille now features has a horizontal section at the bottom with the Quattro logo emblazoned across like all other recently revised RS models, flanked by new headlights (Matrix LED units for the European market). Inside the cabin the air-con vents and shift paddles have been reshaped, and the new MMI system ports over from the new A7 and S7 with 4G LTE connectivity and a Bang & Olufsen sound system.