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Car Club USA: Waterfest

Car Club USA travels back to Englishtown Raceway Park for Waterfest, a celebration of water-cooled Audi and Volkswagen cars. We catch up with a pair of VW autocross contestants racing for top prize, and a young Audi owner hoping to win best in show for the Garden State Euros car club. "It's massive," explained Garden State Euro's Ryan Topken. "You have tons of vendors, tons of events going on. There's the show. There's the drag strip. There's autocross." "It's pretty much like a frat party for Volkswagens," added fellow club member Carlin Belkowski. Will the guys from Garden State Euros head home with any hardware? Each Car Club USA episode features a different car club or event from across the US, where passionate owner communities gather to share automotive experiences and embark on incredible adventures. From Main Street cruises to off-road trails, catch all the latest car club activity on Autoblog.

IIHS gives 90 models its Top Safety Pick award in one fell swoop

Although the Audi A7 and the Toyota Sienna are positioned on completely different ends of the automotive spectrum, they overlap in one important area: both earned a Top Safety Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). They're among the 49 cars that received the distinction for 2021, while 41 additional models scored a Top Safety Pick (without the plus) award from the institute, bringing the number of winners to 90. Earning a coveted Top Safety Pick award from the IIHS is easier said than done. Recipients need to score a good rating in the institute's six crash tests, be available with a front crash prevention system that scores a superior or advanced rating in vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations, and be offered with (but, crucially, not necessarily fitted standard with) headlights that are either good or acceptable. Vehicles that have good or acceptable headlights across the full range, regardless of trim level, are eligible for the Top Safety Pick+ award. The Hyundai Group (which includes Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis) earned more awards than any other carmaker, with 12 standard Top Safety Pick distinctions and five earning a Pick+. Volvo led the Pick+ chart with its entire lineup of nine vehicles. At the other end of the spectrum, Mitsubishi still hasn't earned a single award, and General Motors only nabbed one of each. Safety is spreading across market segments, according to the IIHS. It pointed out that, in 2020, there were no minivans or pickup trucks on the list of Top Safety Pick recipients. Fast forward to 2021, and the list includes the Honda Odyssey, the Toyota Sienna, and the Ram 1500 crew cab; the first two earned a Pick+. The full list of 2021 award winners is on the IIHS website. Note that, for some models, only units built after a certain date earned an award. This distinction reflects a change (usually in headlights) during the production run. Cars sold in the United States are safer than ever, but automakers still sell vehicles with a zero-star crash test rating in many global markets. Suzuki's 2020 S-Presso flunked a reasonably basic round of tests in 2020. Featured Gallery 2021 Hyundai Palisade View 12 Photos Audi Hyundai Volvo

2016 Audi S6 Quick Spin [w/video]

Back in my salad days, when I was rocking a the greatest Civic Si of all time, the occasional pair of leather pants, and a yen for malt liquor and grass (both of which quickly put an end to the leather pants), a car like the 2016 Audi S6 would've made my head explode. "What's that?" I might have asked. "A roomy four-seat Audi with more than 400 horsepower and all-wheel drive, that looks like it was sculpted by Ralph McQuarrie? Pushing 30 mpg and under five seconds to 60 miles per hour? The hell you say." And that's even before Future Me showed Skinny Me an interior full of carbon fiber and aluminum, God's own quilted-leather sport buckets, and a 'radio' that would've made my Dreamcast look like an Atari 6400. (If you haven't picked up on the vibe yet, I was kind of a weird nerd in the late '90s.) Gentlemen, we live in the future; I just drove a mid-cycle-refresh Audi that proves it. Driving Notes The 4.0-liter, turbocharged V8 is tailor-made for smoothly pulling around anything less-well-endowed than the M5/E63/CTS-V set. Now up to 450 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque (versus the 420 hp and 406 lb-ft of last year's model), there's enough pull in the easily accessible powerband to satisfy all but lunatic drivers. It doesn't feel staggeringly fast, but that's only because 500 horsepower has become so commonplace in the new uber sedan game. It's quick enough. Remember when 250 hp was a crazy number? The car sounds like it has a V8, too. That may seem obvious, but in Generation Direct Injection things tend to get a bit clattery. You'll get some of that if you open the hood with the engine running (as I did in one of the Short Cuts above), but none where it counts: behind the wheel, windows up, stereo down, foot to the floor. That recipe delivers a hushed, baritone-sung song about understatement. Less subtle is the braking force when used at or near the top of its ability. After a moment of surprise and delight while decelerating in normal traffic, I went back-road hunting to test a few pseudo panic stops. Vented 15.7-inch front discs, with 14-inchers in the rear, provided a fast and steady haul-down from 70 miles per hour. Remember when wheels were 15 inches? I mean, you need those big brakes and potent engines to move and stop a car this hefty. With a base weight of 4,486 pounds – no doubt heavier still in my loaded, Dutchman-driven example – it still kind of blows my mind to see the 27-miles-per-gallon highway number.