Following the success of the Audi R8 V10 Extreme Challenge Edition, Stasis Engineering has taken over the V8 model to provide it with the same advanced tuning package. With power updates and aerodynamic modifications, this newly-tuned V8 is even faster than the standard R8 V10.

The R8 is Audi’s two-seat, mid-engine sports car that debuted for 2008 powered by a 420-horsepower V8 engine and added a Spyder version and a V10 engine for 2010. The R8 incorporates technology from Audi’s Le Mans-winning R8 prototype to build on its racing success for the street. The production version of the Audi R8 sports car made its debut at the Mondial de l’Automobile in Paris in the fall of 2006, with the dramatic design remaining very true to the Le Mans quattro concept car first seen in 2003. The Audi R8 sports car begins with the classic wide, low stance of a mid-engine exotic but the design is dominated by a signature design element, the “Blade” of carbon fiber on each side, behind the door and in front of the rear wheel—that runs from the roof at an angle over the side air intakes to the rocker panel.

With 710 supercharged horsepower on tap, this 5.2 FSI Spyder is Stasis’ most powerful 50-state-legal creation, topping the brand’s two factory dealer-installed upgrades. (A milder 552-horsepower Touring Edition is the other.) Tacking on the aptly titled Challenge Extreme Edition badge gives a roots-type TVS 2300 blower with bespoke cooling system, ECU tuning, and a less restrictive, hand-welded 3-inch T-305 stainless steel exhaust. Our tester also sports revised suspension, forged aluminum wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires, and Alcon brakes with braided stainless steel lines and stickier pads.

At a crawl, the blown 5.2-liter V-10 corrals a herd of pent-up thrust — 523 pound-feet of torque support the buffed-out equines, much of them available below 5500 rpm. The TIG-welded exhaust grumbles and pops, but doesn’t have an ear-piercing drone. If a Dodge Viper SRT-10 and Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 Super Veloce ever made mechanical love, the result would sound like this. With 185 horsepower and 132 pound-feet over Neckarsulm’s base, this Spyder packs a very poisonous bite.

Not surprisingly, turning into a corner remains a beautifully engineered, fluid, and responsive act bearing loads of grip the perennial R8 way. Now with wider 265/30-20 PS2 rubber (on 20 x 9.5-inch alloys), front end bite is near magnetic. At mid-corner, the gigantic 20 x 12-inch forged rear wheels (wrapped in astounding 325/25-20 tires) secure the R8′s footing even further than stock limits, allowing for all 710 sets of hooves to pummel the tarmac. The R8 adheres to every road nuance as though preprogrammed, and with such copious supercharged power available at a mere 2000 rpm, it devours them.

Much of this prowess comes from the upgraded suspension, which rides 1 inch lower via higher rate springs. Hsu’s team didn’t alter the electromagnetic suspension’s Drive Select settings, so users can still change from Normal to Sport while on the fly (customers desiring the highest level of adjustability can opt for the full Öhlins coilovers).

In order to handle the power increase of 28%, the Stasis Engineering also put in a new brake system, lowering springs to improve handling and overall appearance, and a new set of 20″ ultra-lightweight forged aluminum wheels wrapped around high performance low profile tires.

Source : zimbio

Price Paid: $20,000.00 from private sale
Review Date: February 9, 2011
Overall Rating: 5 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for: More than 1 year

Strengths:
Styling, attraction, curb appeal. performance, quietness, opulence, quick

Weaknesses:
I can’t really comment here. I am a home mechanic so I do most repairs myself and pay wholesale for parts so save a ton of money there, but if i had to go to the garage all the time it would be very expensive.

Summary:
Well my story began many years ago when I purchased a vw passat and loved it, then one day I was going up an icy road and got stuck with my passat and a quattro passed me with ease, then I knew I was missing out big on something, I bought an a4 (2002) and loved it but  is smaller than a passat so I bought a 2005 a6 black low suspension fully loaded, I don’t buy new cars a total waste of money I paid 20k for a 65k car, so what it has some miles on it but not worth the extra expense, cars lose value all the time but less as the car gets older. I always buy the newer model, I would never have bought a 2004 because the model was revamped in 2005 next change is 2012 I think, that will be my next car when I buy another one in 2017 perhaps.

So the quattro is second to none and goes like stink on ice and snow, esp is like the hand of god controlling the car. I have a steep driveway and would often get stuck with my passat, now ha it is a joke, the other day for the fun of it I sprayed my driveway with water when it was zero degrees outside then drove out of my garage and stopped on the ice…..there was some wheel spin but it was not an issue to get up the hill. fwd or rwd forget about it never would make it up, I love quattro I don’t mind it being winter anymore I love driving in the snow now, not many people can say that, much more fun to drive in the snow than dry because it is so capable, love passing people on the side of the road that are stuck or can’t make it up a hill, my little devil inside me.

So i will drive quattro for life now. super comfortable on long trips, i do Pei and Montreal often and don’t need to stop to stretch. great car and used is a bargain. Funny I went to the car show and liked the jeep wrangler rubicon with the top off and doors as well, I drove one but it was not bad for a 2011 model but certainly no where close in comfort to my audi but as a second car to play around with yes and to go off road rock crawling etc……invest in a innova 3100 to read the codes if you get a check engine light and change the part yourself if you can will save a ton of money. Well hope this helps and prompts some of you who are not sure if you should buy one or not. you should just for the quattro alone, but you still have everything else that you want in a car as well.

Similar Products Used:
vw passat
audi a4
bmw z4 convertible

Source: carreview

2011 Chevrolet Volt pre-production prototype, January 2010

Audi USA president Johan De Nysschen gained infamy late last year for remarking that the plug-in electric hybrid 2011 Chevrolet Volt is a “car for idiots.” Vindication of his hatred of electricity–Audi’s own all-electric e-tron sports car concept notwithstanding–came last week in the form of an electrical fire above the Audi stand in Cobo Hall at the Detroit Auto Show.

The fire, which caused no harm to people or property, forced evacuation of the show hall for several hours on Thursday due to volumes of smoke filling the air.

De Nysschen’s earlier criticism of the Volt centered around the impracticality and lack of value in electric-powered personal transport. De Nysschen eviscerated the Volt for its high costs, low savings in running costs and poor performance. It’s fair criticism–just last week Green Car Reports’ John Voelcker got the inside scoop on the Volt’s true costs. Though the car has been popularly reported as coming in the low-$30,000 range, that figure is only valid after a $7,500 government tax rebate, putting the car’s retail price around the $40,000 mark–a lot to ask for a compact sedan with limited EV-only range.

Audi e-tron Concept

Enlarge Photo

Audi USA’s forthright chief went on a few months later to describe the U.S. government as being “in love” with EVs–and to criticize the EV-favoring policy as an impediment to cost-effective near-term solutions to energy efficiency.

With last week’s fire now as further ammunition, we’re just waiting for De Nysschen’s next pronouncement against electricity. Surely the scathing indictment won’t fail to include the inefficiencies of the union labor used to install the faulty display lighting, or the fact that using fossil fuels could have eliminated the middle man and delivered a much more efficient, cost-effective fire without all the overhead of an electricity-based system.

2009 Audi Design Challenge Entries eOra and eSpira

December’s L.A. Auto Show is only a few weeks away, and carmakers from around the world are gearing up for the event, which promises to be a bit livelier than last year’s rather somber proceedings. During the show, the Los Angeles Design Challenge competition will be held, showing off the latest from the minds of some of Southern California’s best design studios.

Audi will is one of the many participants, but unlike some, Audi leveraged its social media ties to come up with its design entries. How? By tapping 400,000 Facebook fans through discussion threads, polls and direct feedback on photos and videos. This dialogue helped shape the design and selection process.

So what sort of features came out of this interaction? A host of communication tools are built into the final designs, letting the digital world meld with the automotive. Social media messaging, social networking and mobile broadband are all incorporated into the designs.

The high-tech results, and the method, are appropriate: the theme for this year’s competition is “YouthMobile 2030,” intended to envision what young people of the future might require of a vehicle.

In addition to the high-tech communications and networking elements, the designs also offer futuristic control interfaces. Using what Audi calls “next generation vehicle control logic” the two cars–called eOra and eSpira–take account of even the smallest body movements and gestures of the driver to enhance control. How this is executed isn’t clear–nor is what might happen in the event of the inadvertent sneeze or scratch.

Still, it’s interesting to see what the current vision of the automotive future is like, especially when many of its details are crowd-sourced, giving us a hint of what the modern car buyer expects us to see in 20 years time. Of course, all it takes is a walk through the Disney archives to see how right and how wrong that vision can sometimes be.

[Audi]

Source:motorauthority.com

MIT and Audi’s AIDA robot driving assistant

The idea of conveying information to humans in a compact, effective way in a short time has long been a challenge for the computer industry. As computers play more and more central roles in our cars, that problem becomes one central to daily driving as well.

It’s compounded by the fact that most of the time we’re in our cars, we’re actively participating in an activity that requires most of our focus: driving. So finding a way to get information to the driver without creating unnecessary distraction or loss of meaning is all the more important, especially if that information is driving directions, safety or weather details, or even information about the car or its entertainment systems.

Enter AIDA, a collaborative project between MIT and Audi. The AIDA acronym explains the system well: Affective, Intelligent Driving Agent. It’s intended to play the role of an involved, knowledgeable companion that helps the driver whenever possible.

The most important aspect of the communication system AIDA uses may be the facial simulation. Humans innately understand facial expressions and though AIDA’s face isn’t human in nature, it’s easily interpreted according to the same basic rules. It’s also a very quick way to express emergent information, particularly with accompanying voice information. Speculative fiction authors like Neal Stephenson have explored this concept as a form of human-machine interface for decades now, but it’s finally entering the realm of reality, and it’s pretty exciting to watch.

To make itself useful, AIDA learns your habits behind the wheel, including recognizing when you go to the grocery store, when you need fuel, and where you’re going once all your errands are done. It constantly monitors the environment around it, suggesting reroutes as necessary to avoid traffic or accidents.

The AIDA system is a lot like Nissan’s Pivo robot-car concept shown off at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, with a similarly cute and quirky robotic assistant inside. The AIDA system is understandably more advanced, however, due to the innovations made in the past two years.

For more details on the AIDA system, including footage of it in action, watch the video below.

Source:carsmart101.com