2001 Audi Allroad Quattro Base Wagon 4-door 2.7l on 2040-cars

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The Audi R8 e-tron is dead with less than 100 built

According to a report from Car and Driver, the Audi R8 e-tron is dead (again!) after fewer than 100 examples of the all-electric model were built. This is an anticlimactic end to what could be termed an e-saga, with enough twists and turns to make a Hollywood scriptwriter sit up and start pecking out a screenplay. But here's the important number to keep in mind: 100. That's the production number the R8 e-tron failed to reach. The final tally is less than that, an Audi rep told Car and Driver. And what few were built were sold furtively, and only in Europe, in a strange back-channel in which dealers referred potential buyers right to Audi HQ, says the report. All of these transactions happened without the benefit of an online configurator or any published materials, we understand. That doesn't sound like a recipe for wild success – and neither did the $1,000,000+ pricetag. And this is just the latest stumbling block for the R8 e-tron, which was cancelled the first time back in 2012 when it was still based on the sinister, classic shape of the first-generation R8. If you recall, there was some confusion about the limited run of those first-generation cars, which were initially tipped to be sold to the public. In a strange move, Audi walked that back and held onto the cars for "internal purposes." So it was, until 2015, when we saw the second-generation R8 e-tron in Geneva. Audi promised it'd go on sale in 2015 "upon customer request," which was some foreshadowing to the unusual dealership referral sales model we discussed above. Nonetheless, it seemed like it would be a supremely interesting electric sportscar, with 456 horsepower, 679 pound-feet of torque, a 0-62 mph time of 3.9 seconds, and a range of up to 280 miles. Alas, except for the fewer than 100 European owners who managed to take delivery before Audi yanked the cord, the R8 e-tron's emissionless charms will go unappreciated. We're hoping to get more specific confirmation from Audi about the nature of the cancellation and the exact number produced; until then, stay tuned. Related Video:

Watch this Audi RS6 go 208 mph... on ice

In and effort to promote the high-speed grip of its new Hakkapeliitta 8 winter tire, Nokian threw a set of its new rubber on a race-prepped Audi RS6 and got moving - very, very quickly. In fact, on March 9 on top of the very frozen Gulf of Bothinia near Oulu, Finland, Nokian's test driver Janne Laitinen set a new world record for the fastest speed recorded driving on ice. If you'll recall, this isn't the first time that Audi and Nokian have played this game, either.
Using the guidelines set forth by the Guinness Book of World Records for such things, Laitinen averaged 208.602 miles per hour (335.713 kilometers per hour) over the course of two runs on natural, untreated ice. Another constraint is that the ice speed record must be done using commercial available tires, which is obviously great PR for the new Hakkapeliitas. The press release doesn't make any mention of how the RS6 was prepared to reach such high velocities, but the images of the car make it clear that this is no stock machine. Scroll on below to see the impressive video evidence of the Audi's record run.

Audi pits S3 against Ur-Quattro on gravel

If you had to pick a winner between the latest Audi S3 and the original Audi Sport Quattro, which would it be? Both hot hatches pack around 300 horsepower and all-wheel drive, but they're separated by a good thirty years of development.
To find out, Audi took both to the old rally circuit in San Remo. Behind the wheel of the Ur-Quattro they put none other than The Stig himself - no, not the Top Gear test bot, but Stig Blomqvist, the Swedish former rally driver who drove the Quattro to the World Rally Championship in the mid-80s. In the S3 they put someone named Hermann Müller, who as best we can tell was one of Auto Union's original Silver Arrow drivers - but he died in 1975, so it's probably the guy who writes for the Audi magazine. Regardless, the contest was pretty close, so it's worth checking out in the 2:26 video clip below.