Audi R8 5.2l V10 Coupe on 2040-cars

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Audi S3 pitted against BMW M135i in track battle

Audi and BMW have long been enemies on both the road and the track, with their respective M and S/RS lines duking it out to the delight of auto enthusiasts everywhere. In this video from Evo, two of the rivalry's newest combatants take to the track - the Audi S3 and the BMW M135i.
The new Audi S3, which is finally coming to America, throws down with a 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder. 290 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque are deployed to a Quattro all-wheel-drive system via a six-speed, S-Tronic dual-clutch transmission, allowing the five-door Audi to scamper to 60 in under five seconds.
The BMW, which Americans will know as a long-roof version of the new M235i Coupe, comes to the track with 320 ponies and 331 lb-ft of torque. That's a good bit more than the Audi, but the M135i has only two wheels to send its power to, an eight-speed single-clutch automatic (a six-speed manual is available) and a slightly higher curb weight.

Audi unveils its Doberhuahua Super Bowl commercial

With Super Bowl Sunday less than a week away, this week is going to be dominated by anything and everything football related. That includes advertising and the auto industry, as some of the biggest players prepare to launch multi-million-dollar spots hawking their latest and greatest products.
A veteran of Super Bowl ads, Audi's history has been rather checkered, ranging from controversial to funny to Jason Statham. We aren't entirely sure where to place this year's ad. The German brand has released a pair of teaser videos on the so-called Doberhuahua, a crossbreed of a Doberman Pinscher and a Chihuahua. Now, we have the full spot.
We get the message Audi is going for - compromise is bad - but delivering it via a slobbery, mutant dog strikes us as trying a bit too hard to be funny. Take a look below and let us know what you think of the Audi's Doberhuahua spot. And of course, you'll be able to see the new ad come Sunday, when it airs during the Super Bowl.

Researchers halfway to cutting carbon fiber costs by 90%

Carbon fiber has been utilized for decades to build racecars, as a means to cut weight while maintaining strength. But until recently, the space-age material has been largely absent from the street on anything but supercars because of the expense to use it. Recently, BMW signaled a major shift in that trend when it starting using carbon fiber reinforced plastic panels on the i3 and i8. This relatively small scale start might be just the beginning; the German company believes that a breakthrough to inexpensively manufacture the lightweight stuff is just on the horizon.
MAI Carbon Cluster Management GmbH counts BMW, Audi, Airbus, the German government and many other organizations as supporters, and it's researching how to make carbon fiber cheaper to produce, according to Automotive News Europe. The company thinks it can reduce costs by 90 percent in the near future. "We've certainly reached a halfway point on our cost-cutting target for suitable carbon-fiber parts," said project head Klaus Drechsler to Automotive News Europe.
Unfortunately, it isn't entirely clear just what MAI Carbon is doing to make such a huge leap possible. However, a recent post on the company's website talks about a new form a carbon fiber using a thermoplastic matrix that could be cured in less than three minutes. That's compared to about 90 minutes in the traditional process with an autoclave.