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2017 Audi R8 First Drive

You might think the new Audi R8 is a Lamborghini in a business suit. You'd be wrong; the Huracan is an R8 in a Heinlein shock trooper suit. This is the most raucous, rowdy Audi yet, and it's most certainly a supercar – even when parked next to its bawdier Italian cousin. Although the Huracan has been on the street for nearly a year now, the new R8 and the Lambo were developed in parallel. Audi handled most of the engineering workload, with the Huracan receiving Lamborghini's styling and tuning finesse on top of its Audi-built V10 engine and seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The R8 gets Audi's motorsports-inspired best. Tally it all up and you have two very different cars built from very similar components. Of course, that could also be said of the R8 and its racing doppelganger, the R8 LMS, the racecar built for WEC endurance racing. That car, in fact, is more closely related to the R8 than is the road-going Huracan – the wheelbases are the same, 50 percent of the parts are shared, and the bodies-in-white are built on the same line. The racecars are pulled off line for occasional tweaks or additions, then slotted back in to run through most of the same workflow as the R8s that will eventually end up on the streets. Like a new pair of your favorite shoes, the new R8 is familiar and foreign at the same time. This development program pulls from the best of a legendary supercar brand's flair for presence and idiosyncrasy. It also takes lessons from the company's customer racing effort, as well as Audi's own impeccable taste in road manners and clean, elegant design. The end result is an inspired supercar with daily-driver comfort and a surprisingly aggressive side. Like a new pair of your favorite shoes, the new R8 is familiar and foreign at the same time. It's more comfortable and compliant on the street, thanks to a new chassis that's 40 percent stiffer, allowing for a more forgiving suspension tune. The completely reworked 5.2-liter V10 engine has a Great White bite to go with its Rottweiler bark, but only after you provoke it from polite mode with a press of either the Drive Select button or the exhaust sound switch. The seats are comfortable – that can be said for both the standard sport seats or optional carbon-shell, race-style buckets. Wrapped in a cabin that's much more futuristic and forward-looking than the last R8, the overall driving experience is refined, luxurious, and high-tech.

24 Hours of Le Mans live update part two

We tasked surfing journalist Rory Parker to watch this year's live stream of the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans. What follows is an experiment to experience the world's greatest endurance race from the perspective of a motorsports novice. Parker lives in Hawaii and can hold his breath longer than he can go without swearing. For Part One, click here. Or you can skip ahead to Part Three here. I write about surfing for a living. If you can call it a living. Basically means I spend my days fucking around and my wife pays for everything. Because she's got a real job that pays well. Brings home the bacon. Very progressive arrangement. Super twenty first century. I run a surf website, beachgrit.com, with two other guys. It's a strange gig. More or less uncensored. Kind of popular. Very good at alienating advertisers. My behavior has cost us a few bucks. I'm terrible at self-censorship. Know there's a line out there, no idea where it lies. I still don't understand any of the technical side. Might as well be astrophysics or something. For contests I do long rambling write ups. They rarely make much sense. Mainly just talk about my life, whatever random thoughts pop into my head. "Can you do something similar for Le Mans?" "Sure, but I know absolutely fuck-all about racing." "That's okay. Just write what you want." "Will do. But you're gonna need to edit my stuff. Probably censor it heavily." So here I am. I spent the last week trying to learn all I can about the sport of endurance racing. But there's only so much you can jam in your head. And I still don't understand any of the technical side. Might as well be astrophysics or something. While I rambled things were happening. Tracy Krohn spun into the gravel on the Forza chicane. #89 is out of the race after an accident I missed. Pegasus racing hit the wall on the Porsche curves. Bashed up front end, in the garage getting fixed. Toyota and Porsche are swapping back and forth in the front three. Ford back in the lead in GTE Pro. #91 Porsche took a stone through the radiator, down two laps. Not good. The wife and I are one of those weird childless couples that spend way too much time caring for the needs of their pet. French bulldog, Mr Eugene Victor Debs. Great little guy. Spent the last four years training him to be obedient and friendly. Nice thing about dogs, when you're sick of dealing with them you can just lock 'em in another room for a few hours. You don't need to worry about paying for college.

Audi confirms autonomous tech for next-gen A8

Like so many of its rivals, Audi is hard at work getting its autonomous driving technology up to speed and ready to reach the market. And now it's revealed when we can expect that time to come – or at least in what form it will arrive. In announcing the achievements of its latest RS7 Piloted Driving prototype, Audi has confirmed that the system will be offered for the first time on the next A8, the upcoming iteration of the German automaker's flagship sedan. Just as we heard this past January, the next-gen A8 will be able to drive itself around town at speeds of up to 37 miles per hour. Ingolstadt still isn't saying when we can expect the new A8 to arrive, but considering that the current model has been around since 2009 (albeit with periodic updates along the way) and that its key rivals – the Mercedes S-Class and BMW 7 Series – are both much newer models, Audi shouldn't be waiting much longer to launch its new flagship. The announcement was made as part of the reveal for "Robby," the latest version of the company's self-driving RS7 concept. The previous version, dubbed "Bobby," was based on the same model, and gave our man Jonathon Buckley over at Translogic a run for his money around Ascari a few months ago. (We'll let you watch the video below to see who fared better). But the new version is a good 882 pounds lighter, lapping the Sonoma Raceway (previously known as Infineon or Sears Point) in 2:01.01. That's in what is ostensibly still a road car, just one that's operated by a computer. The fastest lap ever recorded on the full 2.5-mile circuit, in case you were wondering, was also achieved in an Audi, but that was the R8 Le Mans Prototype that Allan McNish hustled around in a 1:20.68 qualifying lap. Related Video: 07/13/15 Sonoma/Ingolstadt Faster than a sports car driver: Audi pilots itself on US race track - Testing the new-generation Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept - Top lap times on Sonoma Raceway in California Piloted driving at Audi is approaching production readiness at race pace. On one of the world's most challenging race tracks, the Sonoma Raceway in California, the latest generation of the Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept has surpassed previous top performances once again. Audi will be offering piloted driving for the first time in the upcoming generation of the Audi A8.