2016 Audi Q5 2.0t Premium Sport Utility 4d on 2040-cars

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Audi SQ7 coming, will have electric turbo

Formula 1 and endurance racing are already harvesting energy from turbos on the track, and now it's apparently time for a similar idea of boosting the efficiency of forced induction to hit the streets in a high-performance, diesel SUV.
In a recent interview with the UK's Autocar, Audi technical boss Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg let the big news slip. "The new Q7 will be available in the market next year but the electric turbo will come a bit later in the Audi SQ7 available in 2016," he said. The e-turbo system was already rumored for the premium SUV but for the standard model, not this just-announced performance version.
Audi has been experimenting with the e-turbo system for a little while, as an electrically driven supercharger. It showed up on the RS5 TDI concept that used a 3.0-liter, twin-turbocharged diesel V6 plus the electric system to diminish turbo lag. In that application, it provided an impressive 385 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque and an alleged sprint to 62 miles per hour in 4 seconds. Although, Dr. Hackenberg didn't make it clear if this was the exact layout for the SQ7.

The skinny on Delphi's autonomous road trip across the United States [w/videos]

Rolling out of an S-shaped curve along Interstate 95, just past Philadelphia International Airport, the final obstacle between the autonomous car and its place in history appeared on the horizon. So far, the ordinary-looking SUV had traversed the United States without incident. It had gone through tunnels and under overpasses. It circled roundabouts and stopped for traffic lights. Now, on the last day of a scheduled nine-day journey, it was poised to become the first autonomous car ever to complete a coast-to-coast road trip. First, it needed to contend with the Girard Point Bridge. Riding in a rear seat, "I saw that bridge coming, and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, this is going to be a grab-the-wheel moment," said Kathy Winter, vice president of software at Delphi Automotive. The car, an unassuming Audi SQ5 nicknamed Roadrunner, had been well-tested. Back in January, a few inebriated pedestrians fell flat in front of the car during a demonstration in Las Vegas. It was the quintessential worst-case scenario, and the car admirably hit the brakes. More than drunken louts, bridges present a sophisticated challenge for the six radar sensors that feed data to the car's internal processors. Instead of sensing solid objects, radar sensors can read the alternating bursts of steel beams and empty space as conflicting information. "They're a radar engineer's worst nightmare," said Jeff Owens, Delphi's chief technology officer. Girard Point Bridge, a blue skeleton of girded steel that spans the Schuylkill River, might be a bigger challenge than most. Traveling across the lower level of its double decks, the autonomous car's radar sensors had to discern between two full sets of trusses. Cross the Schuylkill, and Delphi's engineers felt confident they'd reach their destination: the New York Auto Show. For now, the sternest test of the trip lay directly in front of them. A Data-Mining Adventure Until that point, the toughest part of the journey had been finding an open gas station in El Paso, TX. Trust in the technology had already been established. The main reason Delphi set out on the cross-country venture with a team of six certified drivers and two support vehicles was to capture reams of data. What better way to do that than dusting off the classic American road trip and dragging it into the 21st century? They did exactly that, capturing three terabytes worth of data across 3,400 miles and 15 states.

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.