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2018 Audi A5 Sportback First Drive | Cake is delicious

Have your cake and eat it, too – that's supposed to be a fallacy. And yet, the 2018 Audi A5 Sportback defies conventional global wisdom by being more practical and better looking than the A4 sedan upon which it's based. Some may even prefer the way its longer wheelbase and roofline showcase the curves shared by the two-door A5. There's certainly no arguing about not being shoehorned into a coupe's back seat. Compared to its siblings, both of which share a common platform, engines and interior design, the Sportback has virtually the same length, wheelbase and width as the A4, but has a lowered height that's an inch closer to the A5 coupe (54.6 inches versus 56.2 for A4 and 54.0 for A5). Now, you might expect a commensurate loss in headroom, but in fact the Sportback has more front headroom than the A4 (39.4 inches versus 38.9) and only 0.4 less in back. Indeed, someone 6-foot-3 can sit comfortably upright without hair being fussed, and there's still enough legroom. And then there's the trunk lurking beneath its don't-call-it-a-hatchback. With 21.8 cubic feet of space with the back seats raised, the A5 Sportback falls only 2.4 cubes shy of the Audi A4 Allroad ... you know, a don't-call-it-a-wagon. Sure, the Sportback pales in terms of maximum volume (35 cubic feet versus 58.5), but it still offers far more versatility than the 13-cu.ft. A4 or 11.6-cu.ft. A5 coupe. Right, so it's more practical. Then there's the beauty bit. The visual ties to the A5 are obvious, with the exaggerated character line following the car's voluptuous haunches and the Zeppelin-like hood strakes. According to designer Frank Lamberty, however, the difference and indeed the beauty is really in the roofline. He Photoshopped together a for-our-eyes-only image of what the Sportback would look like if they had simply added the A7's roofline and signature window graphic to the A4. "It's not sexy," he said, noting that the resulting profile is too upright and plain. It would just be a more practical A4. Or as the Tamils might say, you'd have a mustache but not be able to drink the soup. Instead, his team created an A5 where everything appears to be pulled back. Both because it literally is in terms of dimensions, but also through lines and details like the little trim piece and badge that bridge the front doors and fenders. The goal was to create a more rear-drive look, drawing attention towards the rear and away from the front overhang.

Audi wants to tattoo your car with a new paint etching process

Those tribal stickers have sort of gone out of style, so Audi has developed a new technique that allows owners to have matte, tattoo-like images etched onto their cars. While initially available on the Audi R8 and R8 Spyder, the technique can be applied to any model, and it goes on after the component has been painted. The process is relatively simple. Audi places a template on the car with the desired design - like the Audi Sport logo in the image above - and then uses a special powder to basically sandblast the paint, roughening the surface of the clear coat. The result is a matt area with a depth of just a few thousandths of a millimeter, less than the width of a human hair, that's basically a permanent decal. Audi can currently handle images up to one meter square and will accept nearly any image that doesn't violate third-party copyrights, presumably excluding any obscene image as well. Just wait for someone to test the limits on that one. The cool thing about the process is that it can be applied at pretty much any point in the car's life. This means any vehicle is a candidate for customization and that an owner could purchase the car at a dealership and have the custom graphic applied afterward. Because the powder affects the paint surface, the image is more resilient than a wrap or sticker. The new option is limited to the side blades on the R8, but Audi will be extending it to other models in the future through its Exclusive program. And while it might affect the resale value of the car, it's a heck of a lot less painful than a tattoo. Related Video: News Source: AudiImage Credit: Audi Auto News Design/Style Audi Technology Convertible Coupe Performance paint customization

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.