2011 Audi A5 Quattro Premium Plus Coupe 2-door Black / Black on 2040-cars

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2014 Audi R8 officially on sale, starting at $114,900*

After skipping the 2013 model year, the Audi R8 is back for 2014 with a new look, added performance and a slightly higher starting price. In V8 coupe form, the 2014 R8 starts at $114,900 (*not including $1,250 for destination and a $3,000 gas-guzzler tax), but looking at that price, which has risen just $5,900 since the performance coupe first debuted in the US for 2008, inflation doesn't seem to have hit the R8 as hard as some other sports coupes - like, say, the Nissan GT-R.
Opting for the S tronic automatic gearbox will cost $9,100 for all models, while R8 V8 and R8 V10 models still offer the drop-top Spyder model for an extra $13,500. Not available in Spyder form, is the all-new 550-horsepower R8 V10 Plus, which starts at $170,545. Scroll down for the full pricing breakdown of the 2014 R8, which went on sale yesterday.

Audi designs science fiction car for Ender's Game movie [w/video]

Audi is no stranger to product placement in movies, but the upcoming sci-fi adventure movie, Ender's Game, will be the first time the German automaker has ever unveiled a "purely virtual" vehicle design in a movie. As the movie's star car, the futuristic Audi fleet shuttle quattro was created by Audi Design as a "vision for the future world."
This new movie car comes almost 10 years after one of our favorite Audi movie cars ever, the Audi RSQ that was prominently used in the 2004 sci-fi action film, I, Robot. Looking back, the RSQ obviously used cues from the Audi R8, but it's unclear if the fleet shuttle quattro has any design implications for future Audi production models.
The movie, based on the best-selling novel of the same name, stars Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield, and it premiers in the US on November 1. Audi has provided images of the fleet shuttle quattro, and Summit Entertainment has released its latest trailer for the movie, which is posted below along with an Audi press release.

Audi changes the guard at Quattro GmbH

Although it may not have the brand recognition that Mercedes-AMG does or BMW's M division, Audi's Quattro GmbH department is responsible for its most exciting products - including the RS line of performance models and the R8 supercar. For the past year and a half, Quattro GmbH has been led by Franciscus van Meel, but soon it will get a new leader.
According to reports, van Meel (46, pictured right) is being reassigned to head up the Audi R&D center in Beijing. In his place, Audi is promoting Heinz Peter Hollwerweger (60, pictured above) to the post. The move is expected to be confirmed in advance of the Geneva Motor Show, at which point we can expect Audi to claim that it was part of a planned rotation. However sources suggest that van Meel's departure came at the behest of R&D boss Ulrich Hackenberg, who was apparently unhappy with how van Meel has been handling development of the next R8 and of the R8 E-Tron project.
Why Hackenberg would have van Meel reassigned to run one of his own R&D centers is beyond us, but Hollerweger is apparently expected to be able to get the job done faster and better. Whether he'll have any major changes in store for the Quattro division and its products is another matter, but we're looking forward to finding out.