Audi Rs6 - Stage 3 - 650 Hp - Excellent Condition - No Reserve on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Mattias Ekstr?m unleashes bonkers 600-hp Audi S1 Supercar on World RX

Mattias Ekström doesn't need to prove anything. He's won the DTM title twice and before that the Swedish Touring Car Championship. But being a racing driver as he is, Ekström has been looking for new challenges. He's contested the Swedish Rally six times, the German Rally twice, he's driven in V8 Supercars and in NASCAR. He's even won the Race of Champions. Twice. Heck, we're surprised his long-time sponsor Red Bull hasn't let him try out one of its F1 cars. But this season it's on to a new challenge: the inaugural FIA World Rallycross Championship.
Ekström drove a Volkswagen Polo fielded by Marklund Motorsport in the Swedish rallycross round last season and came in second, but this year he's diving in head-first with his own team and his own car. His outfit EKS is hard at work preparing the new Audi S1 for competition in the World RX Championship, and will field two of them this season: one for Ekström and another for JWRC champion Pontus Tidemand.
Built to compete in the top category of the championship, the EKS Audi S1 Supercar will pack a 2.0-liter turbo four with 600 horsepower, all-wheel drive and a 0-60 time of 1.9 seconds. It's expected to make its debut late in May at the World RX of Great Britain where it will have to tangle with specially prepared versions of the Citroën DS3, Ford Fiesta ST and Peugeot 208 driven by the likes of Tanner Foust, Ken Block, Jacques Villeneuve and Petter Solberg. The sole North American round will be held in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, in early August, on the same circuit that once hosted Indy Lights, ALMS, Grand-Am, Can-Am and Trans-Am races.

Audi A3 E-Tron Sportback already getting residual value love

It's a tricky game, but the folks at Auto Bild and market research institute Schwacke are looking into the future. Through the mists of future time, they say that they think that buying an Audi A3 Sportback e-tron plug-in hybrid today is going to look like a smart buy in a few years. The German automaker likes what it sees in terms of resale value for the plug-in hybrid A3, Audi's first mass-produced plug-in, and the car has already been named a "Wertmeister." That's the "value champ" designation that Auto Bild hands out every year. Audi says the A3 e-tron has the "most stable residual value in its class," and is expected to retain more than 57 percent of its original value four years after rolling off the dealership lot. That gives the plug-in hybrid bragging rights to the "Wertmeister" award for the Compact Car category. Audi also won second place in the Full Size category with its Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDI The German automaker started sales of the A3 e-tron last summer in Germany, pricing the model at about $51,500. The cars has 204 horsepower, can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than eight seconds and has an all-electric range of up to 31 miles. Check out Audi's press release below, and take a look at our First Drive impressions of the model here. Audi A3 Sportback e-tron is "Wertmeister 2015" Auto Bild crowns Audi A3 Sportback e-tron "Wertmeister 2015" Audi A6, Audi A7 and Audi Q3 also awarded top-three places Ingolstadt/Berlin, February 5, 2015 – the Audi A3 Sportback e-tron* is the car with the most stable residual value in its class. That was the conclusion drawn by Auto Bild and market research institute Schwacke. The A3 e-tron stands out with the best residual value forecast among the compact cars, receiving the title "Wertmeister 2015". Every year, Auto Bild and Schwacke select the cars in each class that are expected to depreciate the least during the following four years. The winners take the "Wertmeister" title. The Audi A3 Sportback e-tron is the winner in the "Compact Car" category with a residual value of 57.3 percent. The Audi A3 e-tron is the first plug-in hybrid from Audi. It combines sporty power with impressive efficiency and abundant driving enjoyment with unrestricted everyday utility.

Mixed sales results, but automaker stocks rise on need for cars in Houston

DETROIT — The Big Three Detroit automakers on Friday reported better-than-expected August sales and issued optimistic outlooks for demand as residents of the Houston area replace flood-damaged cars and trucks after Hurricane Harvey, sending their stocks higher. General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler posted mixed August U.S. sales, with GM up 7.5 percent and Ford and Fiat Chrysler down. Japanese automaker Toyota improved sales by nearly 7 percent, while Honda fell 2.4 percent. Still, analysts focused on the potential for Detroit automakers to cut inventories and stabilize used vehicle prices as residents of Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, are forced to replace tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of vehicles after the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Mark LaNeve, Ford's U.S. sales chief, told analysts on Friday that following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 "we saw a very dramatic snapback" in demand. That said, Ford sales fell 2.1 percent in August. It sold 209,897 vehicles in the United States, compared with 214,482 a year earlier. Sales were down 1.9 percent in the Ford division and off 5.8 percent at Lincoln. Demand was down for cars, crossovers and SUVs. It was not clear how many vehicles in the Houston area will be scrapped, LaNeve said, saying he had seen estimates ranging from 200,000 to 400,000 to 1 million. Ford's Houston dealers may have lost fewer than 5,000 vehicles in inventory, he said. Ford is the No. 1 automaker in the Houston market, with 18 percent share, according to IHS Markit. The company plans to ship used vehicles to Houston dealers and has "every indication we would have to add some production" of new vehicles to meet demand, LaNeve said. Investor concerns about inventories of unsold vehicles and falling used car prices have weighed on Detroit automakers' shares most of this year. Now, automakers can anticipate a jolt of demand from a big market that is a stronghold for Detroit brand trucks and SUVs. "It's got to be a positive for the industry," LaNeve said. Investors appeared to agree. GM shares rose as much as 3.3 percent to their highest since early March. Ford increased 2.8 percent at $11.34, and Fiat Chrysler's U.S.-traded shares were up 5.2 percent $15.91, hitting their highest in more than five years. GM reported a 7.5 percent increase in U.S. auto sales in August, helped by robust sales of crossovers across its four brands.