2002 Audi A4 Quattro Sedan V6 Awd on 2040-cars

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Suspended VW exec Hackenberg resigns in wake of scandal

Ulrich Hackenberg, father of the innovative modular architecture that underpins many modern Volkswagen and Audi products and a 30 year veteran of the giant company, has resigned his position as the lead engineer for the entire Volkswagen Group as well as his seat on Audi's management board, reports Automotive News. The resignation closes out a two-month suspension while the investigation into VW's deceptive emissions practices continues.The resignation follows the admission by Audi that the 3.0-liter TDI V6 engine was also fitted with emissions-control defeating software, like some of its four-cylinder TDI counterparts. In turn, this lead to changes in Audi's management structure. AN reports that Matthias Muller, who has already taken over Martin Winterkorn's position as VW Group CEO, will also be named chairman of the Audi brand.Hackenberg's successor was named as part of this announcement. Stephan Knirsch, who has lead engine development at the Audi division, will assume Hackenberg's roles as both board member for Audi in charge of technical development, and as the head for technical development across the whole group.Related Video:

2015 24 Hours of Le Mans live race report

Check back regularly for more race updates every few hours. No, you don't need to stay up for the entire 24 Hours of Le Mans, but if you want to catch any of the action, Autoblog friend Reilly Brennan has a handy guide. And to keep you up to speed on the latest race events, we'll be posting live from Le Mans with regular race reports.Hour 1: Five laps in, Audi breaks up the three Porsches at the front, with the #19 919 Hybrid, driven by Nico Hulkenburg, passed by all three R18s. Hulkenburg eventually took back fifth position only to fall back again after the first pit stop. Meanwhile, clutch trouble kept the #23 Nissan GTR-LM in the pits until 15 minutes into the race. The other two Nissans were forced to start at the back of the grid after failing to the meet the 110 percent qualifying speed regulation. At the end of the first hour, just 7.5 seconds separated the first six cars. Then the factory team #92 Porsche GTE car caught fire, with the the #13 Rebellion P1 car taking frontal damage in the ensuing carnage. With the safety car out, the field is once again bunched up.Hour 2: The slugfest between Audi and Porsche continues, with neither side backing off. Halfway through the second hour the #7 R18 passes both leading Porsches for the top position. After another round of pits stops Porsche regains the lead until lap 30, when the Audi overtake once again and quickly pulls out a three-second gap. Nico Hulkenburg passes the other two Audis to join his Porsche teammates. At the beginning of the third hour it's Audi #7, Porsche #17, #18, and #19, followed by Audi #8 and #9. 33 seconds separates this group, with Toyota a minute back from the front car.Hour 3: On track the action refuses to stop. Although it's early, Audi is looking strong with the overall lead in the #7. What's more is that the Audis run four stints per set of tires, while the Porsche cars have to change rubber every third stop. But after a quick refueling, the lead R18 gets a tire puncture and comes back in 3 laps later, allowing Porsche to take over the top two spots. Then as the hour closes out a yellow flag causes traffic to bunch up and the #8 Audi gets stuck with nowhere to slow down. Driver Loic Duval dives for the side of the road but hits the guard rail and careens across the track, damaging the front and rear bodywork. The rest of the car is still intact, though, and once in the pits Audi replaces the entire front and rear of that in only three minutes.

2018 Audi A8 spied with light camo, lots of Prologue touches

It's been a big week for Audi A8 news. First tech boss Dr. Stefan Knirsch hinted at a range-topping rival to the Mercedes-Maybach S600, and just yesterday CEO Rupert Stadler confirmed that the next-gen car would be the first Audi with autonomous driving systems. Now we have our first pictures of the new large sedan, which will be based on the VW Group's MSB platform. As expected, the 2018 A8 will take cues directly from the Audi Prologue concept, a large coupe that was first shown at the 2015 LA Auto Show. This new A8 is completely devoid of cladding, giving us a great look at its production-ready shape. We can see the Q7's strong influence on the design, especially in front. The fascia is home to a wide hexagonal grille and aggressively canted headlights. The taillights will likely be a similar shape to the Q7's, but the LED pattern is dramatically different – we can almost see individual elements on this A8, whereas the Q7 is more of a light-ribbon design. Overall, this is an attractive if somewhat anonymous look. Our spies couldn't capture any shots of the cabin, but we do expect it to resemble the concept interior Audi showed earlier this year at CES, which featured an evolved version of the Virtual Cockpit system called Virtual Dashboard. Not surprisingly, it looks like there's going to be a lot of room in the back seats. While Rupert Stadler confirmed the next A8 will debut in 2017, he didn't go as far as saying which auto show to expect it at. At this point, Geneva seems like a prime candidate. Related Video: