2007 Audi A4 Quattro Base Sedan 4-door 3.2l V-6 on 2040-cars

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ABT Sportsline coming to US, premiering AS6 at SEMA

ABT Sportsline, known as ABT Tuning from its founding in 1967 until 1991, is a German aftermarket parts and tuning company that has focused on enhancing Volkswagens and Audis since the VW GTI bowed in 1978 (in Europe, at least) and races competitively in DTM (Germany's touring car racing series). The company has kept its roots in Europe for all of these years, but will debut the AS6, based on the Audi A6, at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) in a couple weeks before opening up shop in Los Angeles in early 2014.
ABT focused on making the AS6 a balanced package by increasing engine output, tuning the suspension, giving it understated style and improving the brakes. Details are light, but the AS6's 3.0-liter diesel V6 makes 286 horsepower, a 41-hp increase over stock. Not paying attention yet? Torque jumps from 369 pound-feet to 500 lb-ft, endowing the Audi with a lot of much-appreciated low-rpm grunt. The springs are swapped out for a set of ABT units, and the body kit adds front and rear spoilers, side and rear skirts and carbon-fiber mirror covers. ABT's ER-C 20-inch wheels fit over new brakes.
We'll have more details on the car at SEMA, so stay tuned. But in the meantime, head on below to read the press release.

Audi reveals S3 Cabriolet ahead of Geneva debut

It used to be if you wanted an Audi S3, your choices in bodystyle came down to hatchback or... hatchback. That is, in markets where the model was offered at all. But Audi has been expanding the A3 global family upon which the S3 is based, and it intends to offer the performance-minded derivative as a three-door hatch, five-door hatch, four-door sedan and - with the introduction of the version you see here - a two-door convertible.
Set to be presented in public for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show early next month, the new Audi S3 Cabriolet packs the same 2.0-liter turbo four as its fixed-roof counterparts - all 290 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of it - but ditches the extra doors and the tin top in favor of the two-door cabriolet bodystyle of the A3 Cabriolet.
The added weight of the folding fabric roof mechanism and the extra body reinforcement required means that the S3 cabrio takes half a second more to reach 62 miles per hour from a standstill than it would take the sedan version, clocking the run at 5.4 seconds instead of 4.9. This, despite more generous use of magnesium, aluminum and high-strength steel in its construction. Top speed, as is the German custom, remains pinned at 155 mph.

Audi's CES interior concept foretells a screen-filled A8

Audi is once again offering a glimpse into its future interior-design plans at CES. The new setup is called Virtual Dashboard and is both an extension and an evolution of Virtual Cockpit, which made its debut in Vegas two years ago before winding up in the TT. While this interior mockup is pulled from Audi's recent E-Tron Quattro concept, our man on the ground at CES was told this is "very close" to the interior we'll see in the next Audi A8, which is due in a year or so. Virtual Dashboard is screen-heavy in stark contrast to Virtual Cockpit's single, driver-focussed gauge display. It keeps that and adds a pair of screens to the mix, all of them using OLED (organic light-emitting diode) tech. The central screen measures 14.1 inches diagonally and is curved with a rhomboid border; its AMOLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) allows for the irregular shape and curvature. Below that sits a more normal, rectangular screen; both are very well integrated into their surroundings. And as in many current Audis, the shift lever acts as a comfy wrist rest. On the top screen, drivers and passengers get what Audi calls classic information – navigation, audio, settings. The lower screen provides big favorite buttons and also houses on-screen buttons for the climate control. When it's called for, the lower display turns into an input tablet for handwritten entries, an evolution of the small separate touchpad offered in current Audis. The displays use swiping and other gestures familiar to smartphone users, which allow them to interact with each other, for example when swiping to accept a call and move its info to the gauge display. The screens provide haptic feedback that goes beyond what automakers are offering today. Our man at CES says button presses only result from deliberate presses of the screen, meaning you can rest a finger over your selection and it won't activate until you press, just like a real button. Novel. The steering-wheel controls also provide haptic feedback and have been simplified compared to what's on Virtual Cockpit today. When it hits production in the A8 and other vehicles, all of this will be built on the next generation of Audi's infotainment platform, which it's creatively calling MIB2+. It offers more computing power than the current MIB2 system, allowing it to run more displays and offer more connected services over an LTE connection.