2005 Audi A6 3.2 Liter Original Owner on 2040-cars

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Audi Q7 to be first diesel plug-in from VW group

Lending credence to prior reports, the next Audi Q7 will be available with a diesel-powered, plug-in-hybrid powertrain, Automotive News claims, after speaking to a source in the Volkswagen Group. Both the gas and diesel-powered Q7 will debut in 2015, with the diesel PHV to arrive after that. Unlike Europe's other plug-in diesel, the Volvo V60, Audi's Q7 will be sold on both sides of the Atlantic, the source told AN. You can see a few spy photos of the Q7 PHV above. Audi research and development boss Ulrich Hackenberg previously confirmed that diesel plug-ins would be arriving earlier this year, although it wasn't clear which models the ultra-efficient powertrains would be offered on, or which of those would be offered here in the US. Time to play the waiting game...

2013 Audi RS5 Cabriolet

The Audi RS5 is a bit of an odd duck in the brand's US lineup. At the moment it is one of only two RS models - the other being the TT RS - atop a pyramid of A and higher-performing S models. It is not, however, the brand's flagship performance model - not even close - that space being occupied by variants of the R8 supercar, specifically the V10 and GT models, and upcoming 560-horsepower RS7.
The RS5 does, however, owe its beating heart to those ten-cylinder R8s, its own 4.2-liter V8 almost identical to those engines save for two fewer cylinders. Outside of the R8, then, the RS5 is the lone bastion of naturally aspirated V8 power in a brand that once happily shoved 4.2-liter V8s under any hood that they would fit. Today, not even the giant Q7 SUV offers a V8. Lastly, the RS5 is not new, except to us, having been on sale in Europe in coupe form the last couple of years.
While Europeans were able to enjoy the hardtop two-door without us, the RS5 Cabriolet is reaching both peoples around the same time: now. We reviewed the RS5 coupe just recently, and having spent some time with the tin-top model myself as well, here is my take on the droptop version of what I consider one of Audi's most interesting models.

Stanford goes from Pikes Peak to Thunderhill with autonomous Audi TTS

In the years since Stanford University engineers successfully programmed an Audi TTS to autonomously ascend Pikes Peak, the technology behind driverless cars has progressed leaps and bounds. Back then the Audi needed 27 minutes to make it up the 12.42-mile course – about 10 minutes slower than a human driver. These days, further improvements allow the vehicle to lap a track faster than a human. The researchers recently took their autonomous TTS named Shelley to the undulating Thunderhill Raceway Park, and let it go on track without anyone inside. The Audi reportedly hit over 120 miles per hour, and according to The Telegraph, the circuit's CEO, who's also an amateur racing driver, took some laps as well and was 0.4 seconds slower than the computer. To make these massive technological advancements, the Stanford engineers have been studying how racers handle a car. They also hooked up drivers' brains to electrodes and found the mind wasn't doing as much cognitively as expected. It instead operated largely on muscle memory. "So by looking at race car drivers we are actually looking at the same mathematical problem that we use for safety on the highways. We've got the point of being fairly comparable to an expert driver in terms of our ability to drive around the track," Professor Chris Gerdes, director of Stanford's Revs Program, said to The Telegraph. With progress coming so rapidly, it seems possible for autonomous racecars to best even elite drivers at some point in the near future. Related Video: