2019 Audi E-tron Quattro Premium Plus on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Volkswagen Group previews its wares on eve of Geneva show

The Volkswagen Group is comprised of 11 brands producing 240 vehicles across 49 factories throughout the world. So the best way to show off the range of the VW family is to cram a few thousand journalists and VIPs into a massive makeshift stand to outline the Group's goals, what's in the pipeline and what you'll be able to buy later this year.
To that end, VW pulled out all the stops on the eve of the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, bringing along 10 vehicles from across the range. We'll be delving into the details of each over the next two days of show coverage, but before that happens, you can read all about what we saw tonight from the cheap seats after the break.

Audi's next R8 snapped running the 'Ring nearly naked

Following the debut of the Lamborghini Huracán, work is now well well under way on its cousin. That, of course, would be the next-generation Audi R8, the followup to the model that put Ingolstadt on the supercar map in 2006 and has been on the market ever since. That's an eight-year lifespan, though to be fair, for 2014 it has gotten a pretty meaningful update. Still, that's a long lifecycle, even if the Gallardo with which it shares its underpinnings was around even longer. In other words, it's about due for replacement.
Fortunately, that's just what Audi has in the cards. We've seen prototypes wearing heavy camouflage lapping the Nürburgring a couple of times over the past few weeks, but now it's been snapped nearly completely undisguised, with largely bare black bodywork giving us an even better look at what to anticipate.
So what are we looking at here? A sharper-looking take on the existing design, for starters, so onlookers and customers alike shouldn't have any trouble identifying this as an R8 - but a newer one at that. It seems to take some cues from the new TT, particularly around the headlights, with more squared-off elements throughout. There's an adaptive rear wing poking out the back and more pronounced side-blade intakes between the doors and the rear wheels, which themselves are wearing ultra low-profile rubber.

2016 Audi A6

After dodging light traffic for more than 10 miles at speeds never exceeding 85 miles per hour, the left lane of the derestricted autobahn ahead of us finally opens wide. This is the opportunity we've been waiting for, and we bury the accelerator against its stop and hold it there. The transmission attached to the turbocharged four-cylinder of our 2016 Audi A6 drops a couple gears and begins an arduous battle against aerodynamic drag.
The sleek sedan cuts through the wind effortlessly up until about 125 mph, after which the speedometer needle slows noticeably as the outside world continues to blur. By 145 mph, there's no longer a discernible feeling of acceleration, yet the bright-orange speedometer needle continues its climb. Finally, the speedometer nearly reaches 160 before we are forced to firmly brake and return to saner speeds because of traffic looming ahead.
Automakers routinely host us in Europe and elsewhere to sample their wares in a much less restrictive driving environment. Which explains why we find ourselves standing in Dresden, Germany, a stunningly beautiful 800-year-old city along the Elbe River, overlooking Audi's latest executive express.