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2017 Audi R8 First Drive

You might think the new Audi R8 is a Lamborghini in a business suit. You'd be wrong; the Huracan is an R8 in a Heinlein shock trooper suit. This is the most raucous, rowdy Audi yet, and it's most certainly a supercar – even when parked next to its bawdier Italian cousin. Although the Huracan has been on the street for nearly a year now, the new R8 and the Lambo were developed in parallel. Audi handled most of the engineering workload, with the Huracan receiving Lamborghini's styling and tuning finesse on top of its Audi-built V10 engine and seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The R8 gets Audi's motorsports-inspired best. Tally it all up and you have two very different cars built from very similar components. Of course, that could also be said of the R8 and its racing doppelganger, the R8 LMS, the racecar built for WEC endurance racing. That car, in fact, is more closely related to the R8 than is the road-going Huracan – the wheelbases are the same, 50 percent of the parts are shared, and the bodies-in-white are built on the same line. The racecars are pulled off line for occasional tweaks or additions, then slotted back in to run through most of the same workflow as the R8s that will eventually end up on the streets. Like a new pair of your favorite shoes, the new R8 is familiar and foreign at the same time. This development program pulls from the best of a legendary supercar brand's flair for presence and idiosyncrasy. It also takes lessons from the company's customer racing effort, as well as Audi's own impeccable taste in road manners and clean, elegant design. The end result is an inspired supercar with daily-driver comfort and a surprisingly aggressive side. Like a new pair of your favorite shoes, the new R8 is familiar and foreign at the same time. It's more comfortable and compliant on the street, thanks to a new chassis that's 40 percent stiffer, allowing for a more forgiving suspension tune. The completely reworked 5.2-liter V10 engine has a Great White bite to go with its Rottweiler bark, but only after you provoke it from polite mode with a press of either the Drive Select button or the exhaust sound switch. The seats are comfortable – that can be said for both the standard sport seats or optional carbon-shell, race-style buckets. Wrapped in a cabin that's much more futuristic and forward-looking than the last R8, the overall driving experience is refined, luxurious, and high-tech.

Winterkorn vacates chairs on Audi, Truck & Bus boards

The last remaining vestiges of Martin Winterkorn's power within the Volkswagen Group are slowly melting away. The former chairman of the group's management board resigned as CEO nearly two months ago in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal. He held onto other roles within the group, but one by one he's been vacating those as well. Last month Winterkorn resigned from his role at Porsche SE – Volkswagen's largest shareholder. Now the latest development comes from Bloomberg, which reports that Winterkorn has stepped down from his role as chairman of the supervisory board at Audi. Prior to his promotion to run the entire group, Winterkorn served as chief executive of the Audi division, and prior to his resignation served continued to serve as its board chairman. No date was given for his resignation from that capacity, nor any successor named at this point. Repeated requests for clarification from Audi have gone unanswered. In correspondence with Autoblog, however, spokespeople for VW's commercial vehicle operations confirmed that Winterkorn has also stepped down as the chairman of the board at Truck & Bus GmbH. The newly established division encompasses truck manufacturers Man and Scania. Winterkorn also served as chairman of Scania's board, but requests for confirmation of his departure from that role also went unanswered. The Swedish truck manufacturer, however, named Henrik Henriksson as its a new chief executive only a few days ago.

Delphi plans automated-driving journey across the United States

Delphi is attempting to become the first company to pilot an automated car across the United States. The global automotive supplier will start a cross-country journey from a location near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco starting on Sunday, March 22, and cover approximately 3,500 miles on a trip to New York, where it will arrive sometime during the New York Auto Show. Along the way, Delphi engineers will gather data on how the car, an Audi SQ5, performs in a variety of road and weather conditions that the company says could only be tested in a real-world environment. "Delphi had great success testing its car in California and on the streets of Las Vegas," said Jeff Owens, the company's chief technology officer. "Now it's time to put our vehicle to the ultimate test by broadening the range of driving conditions." A formal announcement is expected tomorrow during the SXSW festival in Austin, TX. The company recently demonstrated many of its advanced-safety and automated driving technologies during CES, driving in Las Vegas. The cross-country trip will include tests on its radar, vision and advanced-drive assistance systems, certain vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, and intelligent software, which includes automated highway pilot with lane-change technology, automated urban pilot and automated parking functions. Though a driver will be behind the wheel throughout the journey, Delphi says its active safety technologies can make complex decisions, like stopping and proceeding at four-way stops, timing highway merges and calculating safe maneuvers around bicyclists. While California has certain motor-vehicle laws that help regulate autonomous vehicles, it was unclear whether Delphi needs special arrangements or permission from other states to conduct automated-vehicle testing elsewhere – or if those concerns might be negated by an active driver. Earlier this year, Audi turned heads at CES by driving an A7 from San Francisco to Las Vegas in a similar display of automated-driving technology. Related video: Image Credit: Delphi CES Audi Technology Emerging Technologies Autonomous Vehicles