2002 Audi A4 1.8l Turbo Eurospec Black Leather Power Fast Fun Bargin on 2040-cars

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Audi R8 V10 Plus vs. Renault Clio Cup racecar will make you go hmmm...

Match up a hot hatch with a supercar of the same vintage, and we'll tell you who will win every time. It's easy, really, as the supercar invariably features a more advanced suspension, stickier tires and most importantly, more power. What if the hot hatch is race prepped, though?
In that particular case, all bets are off. A circuit-tuned suspension, a stripped-down cabin, an ultra-quick sequential transmission and the greatest equalizer of them all, slick tires, are all that's needed to turn the typical hot hatch into a proper dragon slayer.
Perhaps seeking to prove this, Evo has put together an interesting head-to-head between the Audi R8 V10 and a race-prepared Renault Clio Cup. Host Dickie Meaden takes us through each car, highlighting the bits and bobs on both sides which should make this a tight competition. And boy, is this one tight.

Volkswagen Group, BMW Z4 top Total Value Awards by Strategic Vision

It was just nine months ago that Strategic Vision announced its 2011 Total Value Awards, but you don't have to wait until next year for the 2012 awards. The Volkswagen Group keeps its lead as the number one brand, with seven products taking top category spots: Golf, Jetta Wagon, CC, Eos and Audi A3 Wagon, Q5 and Q7. Strategic Vision says "true innovation" - "rich and impactful, intuitive, motivational, in-depth and is able to trigger description by the user in great specificity" - is the open secret of the brands with the strongest showings. Results are culled from 77,153 owners covering more than 350 new cars bought between September of 2011 and 2012 ranked in the Total Value Index (TVI).
Other notable winners are Hyundai-Kia following VW in the brand category and having the Hyundai Elantra and Kia Sorento among category winners, the BMW Z4 taking the premium roadster category and the highest overall score of any vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt continuing to gather silverware in the Special Category, nabbing the second-highest score of all and representative of "nearly perfect innovation," and Chrysler and Dodge being most improved.
Check out the press release below for your day's dose of jargon and all the winners.

Get a load of Audi's TTs [w/videos + poll]

The third-generation Audi TT coupe has made its debut here at the Geneva Motor Show, showing an evolutionary design for the German automaker's fashion-forward coupe. As expected, the new TT takes plenty of inspiration from the Sport Quattro Concept that debuted in Frankfurt last year, and it draws upon cues from the model's past two generations.
After seeing it in person, the Autoblog crew on-site in Geneva is sort of torn about the new model. It's crisp and well-proportioned, but in terms of its exterior design, it also doesn't come off like a significant generational leap forward - the aesthetic distance between the original TT and the second-generation model was quite a bit larger. Of course, it's hard to reimagine a design icon, and either way we'll have to wait until we see the car on the road to make final judgments.
Audi is offering a trio of engines for the new TT, including a 2.0-liter turbodiesel powerplant that's good for 184 horsepower, 280 pound-feet of torque and an excellent 56 miles per gallon. On the gasoline front, Audi is offering two versions of its well-liked 2.0-liter TSI turbo-four. The less-powerful spec still offers up a healthy 230 hp and 272 lb-ft of torque, while the higher-output 2.0T sends 310 hp and 280 lb-ft of twist to all four wheels in the TTS coupe. Potent stuff.