2006 Black Sport Audi A8 Used Quattro Base Sedan 4-door 4.2l on 2040-cars

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Audi moves to patent electric Quattro and active-shutter wheels

Audi might have a few tricks up its sleeve for the coming years, with the Brits at Autocar uncovering a pair of patent filings made by the German luxury brand. The first is something we've seen before - wheel flaps - while the second is an evolution of one of Audi's trademark technologies.
We last saw wheel flaps on the Ford Atlas Concept in 2013, but the futuristic fuel-saving tech has so far failed to arrive on a production car. Audi may be seeking to change that, patenting the flaps that open and close automagically based on airflow. They can also open if the brakes get too hot.
The second patent is an evolution of Audi's Quattro all-wheel drive. The new AWD system uses an electrically driven rear axle and wheel sensors to figure out when and at which corner the car might lose traction, and is targeted largely at hybrid offerings, which is a field Audi has only recently dipped its toe into.

Audi design getting big overhaul?

Car and Driver has an update on the design shuffle in Ingolstadt that will ultimately bring more differentiation to Audi products. Last November, Audi design chief Wolfgang Egger spoke of the need to do "something new without breaking from tradition" in Audi design, but talk at the time centered on how the Crosslane Coupe Concept would influence the new looks of the brand's Q cars. The most recent moves appear focused on passenger cars, with designers from Volkswagen Group kin like Bentley and Seat moving to Audi, and outsiders from Alfa Romeo moving in.
While Egger decreed the end of "scalable design" to CD, last November's report said there would be more technology and "greater visual cohesion" between interior and exterior design. We still have no idea what all this means nor when we'll see visible changes in production, but at least we know there's something being done behind the scenes.

Notes from day one of the Rolex 24 at Daytona

We came to Daytona Beach, Florida where you can drive on the beach, gun shops outnumber doughnut shops and you can putt-putt and fish for alligators at the same place. But we're not here for any of that - we've made the trip with Audi in order to experience the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the first race in the 2013 Grand-Am season and the only 24-hour race in America.
Three teams are racing four Audi R8 Grand-Am cars - WeatherTech Racing, Rum Bum Racing and APR, which is running two cars. Shown to the world two years ago, the R8 Grand-Am is part of Audi Sport's R8 LMS customer racing program that was commenced in 2008, and ever since 2009 has been nabbing success all over the world: In four years it has taken 154 victories and 17 series titles. That is with less than 100 cars sold to customers throughout the world, and the trophies - either class wins or overall victories - have been gathered from all of the major endurance races except one: Daytona.