Audi A3 review

Stepping from an old A3 to a new one is like going to the supermarket and discovering your favourite brand of washing powder has been ‘reformulated.’ First you wonder why they’ve felt the need to change a formula with which you were already entirely happy. Then you look a little closer and discover the product and its packaging appear to have changed hardly at all and you wonder some more.

But then you read the small print and discover the new product has been built up around an entirely new formula that despite all appearances to the contrary, bears no relation whatever to what you’ve been using for years.

Chances are you’d need to be an existing owner before you’d be likely to spot the differences between old and new. But make no mistake: the differences are real and, for the dynamically underachieving A3, game changing.It’s because within the VW group that owns Audi, there exists a culture of never, ever making radical changes to known winners. You can see it all the way from the Porsche Boxster to the Volkswagen Golf, but most of all you can see it in the A3, which has dominated its class since launch.

In fact all has changed – there’s a new platform and every engine is either new or substantially renewed. It’s this change without appearing to change that Audi hopes will provide the right blend of technical improvement with design reassurance to keep the new A3 on top throughout its third generation.

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Audi A3 1.6 TDI Ultra

Audi launched its new production model, the A3 1.6 TDI Ultra. The new model called Ultra, becouse it is the Audi’s most fuel-efficient car currently on sale. The ‘Ultra’ designation stands for the brand’s commitment to sustainability. Audi A3 1.6 TDI Ultra powered by a 109hp 1.6-liter diesel engine, an average fuel consumption of just 3.2 liters/100 km (73.5 US mpg).

Fitted with a 50-liter (13.21 US gallons) fuel tank, the A3 1.6 TDI Ultra has a driving range of more than 1,500 km (932 miles). Its dynamic performance is decent, with a 200 km/h (124 mph) top speed and a sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 10.5 seconds.

So what???s new and interesting for fuel efficient? Ok, the A3 1.6 TDI Ultra weighs 1,205 kg (2,656 lbs) thanks to the lightweight materials and aerodynamics due lower ground clearance and the addition of S line side sills.

Fuel economy is also helped by the optimized rolling resistance tires as well as the longer final drive ratio. Available as either a three-door or a five-door Sportback version, the A3 1.6 TDI will arrive in German dealerships in September, with the starting price set at €25,200 ($33,440).

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Audi A8 and S8 restyling featured in new video

Audi has just launched the restyled A8, and here is an official video showing us almost everything about it and its twin sister S8, both of which will be officially introduced at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show (September 12-22). One great strength of the big sedan from the Inglostadt-based manufacturer is its lightweight construction, with a body that is made almost entirely of aluminum and the so called Audi Space Frame (ASF), that weighs just 231 kilograms.

Measuring 5.14 meters in length, 1.95 meters in width, 1.46 meters in height and with a wheelbase of 2.99 meters, the new line-up clearly wants to be the sportiest sedan in the segment (though there will also be an A8 L, which gains an additional 130 mm in both length and wheelbase) and will be unleashed on the markets in Germany by the end of the current year.

Audi offer the A8 with two gasoline and two diesel engines: the supercharged 3.0 TFSI with 310 hp, the V8 twin-turbo 4.0 TFSI with 435 hp, the highly efficient 3.0 TDI clean diesel with 258 hp and the extremely high-torque 4.2 TDI clean diesel, which produces instead 385 hp and 850 Nm of peak torque. The S8 instead will come with a 4.0-liter TFSI unit delivering no less than 520 horsepower. However, fuel consumption has been reduced across the whole. It goes without saying that there’s plenty more about these cars, and all you need to do discover almost everything about them is to watch the video above.

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Meet Audi’s 700bhp Quattro concept

It's no coincidence that this combative, pugnacious looking tyke has been badged the Audi Sport QuattroConcept. It's a deliberate homage to the classic Sport Quattro from 1983 - the short-wheelbase one, that is - and thus carries with it the weight of a million enthusiastic bobble hats.

It's being presented by Audi at next week's Frankfurt Motor Show, and comes packing a serious amount of firepower. The familiar 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged TFSI V8 petrol engine from the RS6 has been carried over, producing the same 552bhp and 516lb ft of torque, complete with cylinder shut-down (half the engine is turned off when cruising) and stop-start.

But where it differs from the RS6 is in the electric motor snuggled in between the V8 and the transmission; a motor producing just under 150bhp and a further 295lb ft of torque (the same torque figure as a V8 BMW M3). Power for this comes from a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery (charged for the Frankfurt show using a wall box), capable of up to 31 miles on electric power alone.

Of course, you can toggle between various modes of V8 fury and electric elegance, though the one you'll want - purely because of what it represents - is ‘Sport' mode. Here, both the V8 and electric motor are hooked up together to produce the full 700bhp, with an eight-speed auto ‘box and that four-wheel-drive system to make it go from 0-62mph in just 3.7 seconds and on to a top speed of 190mph. That's... not quite as fast as we'd hoped, considering the gigantic power output and four-wheel-drive. As some of you will no doubt point out, a Nissan GT-R will hit 62mph in three seconds dead. Still, all this and a claimed 59g/km of CO2 and 113mpg for the show car.

Though it isn't light. Audi tells us there are aluminium structural elements, and carbon fibre reinforced polymer is used for the roof, bonnet and rear bootlid, but the Quattro Concept still weighs in at 1,850kg. The standard RS5 Coupe is 1715kg by comparison. Speaking of which, this concept is roughly the same size, though a bit wider than that car and a touch shorter.

The racing influences are smattered all over this angry concept; those broad shoulders, single frame grille, bonnet creases, front splitter and rear diffuser, massive 21-inch wheels and flared arches. Inside, there are sports bucket seats, a digital instrument cluster, head-up display, and multi-function sports steering wheel that "provides a glimpse into future sporty production models".

Like it? Want the Audi Sport Quattro name to return on the flanks of this V8 in production form? Tell us below. We'll pass on the most enlightened comments to Audi. Wonder what Rörhl would make of this concept...

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Audi Sport Quattro Concept Is A Sign Of The Times – A Worrying One

My, how times have changed. In 2010, Audi teased us with the quattro concept, a tribute to the original quattro that debuted 33 years ago. It was a lightweight, elemental car with a honest-to-god 6-speed manual gearbox and a turbocharged 2.5L 5-cylinder engine making 408 horsepower while weighing just under 2,900 lbs. Three years later, the Sport Quattro concept picks up the mantle, and things have changed for the worse.

Like everything else these days, the Sport Quattro is a hybrid car. Yes, it has a twin turbocharged 4.0L V8, but there’s also an electric motor and an 8-speed automatic gearbox. Sure, it makes 690 horsepower and 590  lb-ft of torque but it also weighes 4000 lbs. Fuel economy is 94 mpg according to European cycle standards and there is 31 miles of electric driving available – all in all a remarkable technological achievement.

Like most great cars, the original quattro was a bit of an accident. cobbled together from leftover bits of VAG parts and the sweat equity of a few engineers. 33 years later, Audi is not a maker of quirky all-wheel drive cars, but a global luxury brand churning out commodity vehicles in a marketplace where regulatory concerns drive vehicle design more than ever, and the tastes of countries considered third world backwaters in 1983 are now of the utmost importance. Things change. I get it.

But it’s not as if anyone buying a German high-performance car gives a rats ass about fuel consumption or green issues anyways. It is a two-fold move designed to appease European regulatory concerns and bolster Audi’s green credentials to people who would probably rather ride bicycles anyways. The greenwashing of high-end performance automobiles strikes me as incredibly cynical if not unnecessary.

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