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Ward's reveals annual 10 Best Engines list for 2013

Ward's Auto has released its annual 10 Best Engines award winners. The 2013 list covers the full width and breadth of the internal combustion spectrum, from a spate of efficient four-cylinders to the most powerful production V8 on the planet. As always, the entries must be available in a production vehicle in the first quarter of 2013 with an MSRP of less than $55,000. The supercharged 3.0-liter V6 from the Audi S5 held on for the fourth consecutive year, and BMW earned two spots on the list with its turbo 2.0-liter four-cylinder and turbo 3.0-liter inline-six.
Ford pulled in two awards for its 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder and and the supercharged 5.8-liter V8 from the Shelby GT500. Honda matched BMW and Ford with two wins of its own. Wards awarded the 2.4-liter four-cylinder from the Honda Accord Sport as well as the 3.5-liter V6 from the Honda Accord. Chrysler, General Motors and Subaru each garnered a spot on the list as well for the 3.6-liter V6 in the Ram 1500, the turbo 2.0-liter four-cylinder in the Cadillac ATS and the 2.0-liter four-cylinder the Subaru BRZ, respectively. You can read the full press release below for more information.

Audi bringing Q3 Stateside after all?

One of the major changes that made to the Audi SQ5 to get it ready for the US market was a ride height that was lifted by 1.2 inches compared to its European counterparts. The small increase allowed the SQ5 to retain its "light truck" classification of the Q5 for emissions regulations. In a similar move, Car and Driver is reporting that the Audi Q3 crossover will also be joining the Audi lineup in the US once it receives a facelift and taller ride height.
Expect this facelift to fit in with other recent product updates including the Q5, which mainly focused on a cleaner, more upscale front end and the company's signature LED running lights. The report says that Audi could bring the Q3 Stateside "within a year or two," and it also says that a souped-up RS Q3 will follow close behind. This performance version of the compact crossover gets its power from a 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five-cylinder engine shared with the Audi TT RS.

Audi's Quattro division is now Audi Sport, and it has 8 new models on the way

Audi announced today that its Quattro GmbH performance and technology division will officially be renamed Audi Sport GmbH. The name change is the first since the division's introduction in 1983, and it should more clearly describe its function within the company and remove confusion with the Quattro all-wheel-drive system offered on all Audis, sporty or not. With its new name, Audi Sport will continue to handle the brand's RS models, the R8, customer race cars, customized road cars, and Audi Sport lifestyle products. While the clearer new name is good news, we're more interested in the division's announcement that it will release eight new cars in the next 18 months. The company didn't reveal exactly which cars these will be, but it did clarify which cars Audi Sport is currently responsible for. These include all variants of the RS 3, RS Q3 crossover, RS 6, RS 7, TT RS, R8, and S8 plus. Since the A4/S4 and A5/S5 models were just redone, we can guess that they will be next on the list for RS-ification, resulting in new RS 4 and RS 5 models. If that includes Sportback, coupe, and cabrio versions of the RS 5, and an RS 4 sedan and Avant, that would put us up to five already. Both the A6 and A7 have only seen a minor refresh recently, so it's likely that we'll see new versions of each soon followed by their own RS variants. However, whether those fit in the 18-month window will depend on how soon we see the standard models. Our other guesses are a bit fuzzier, and based completely on speculation. We could imagine one or two ultra-high-performance R8 models being announced – something like the last-gen R8 GT, perhaps offered in coupe and spyder forms – as well as RS versions of the other members in Audi's crossover fleet, the Q5 and Q7. It's also possible one of the models could be a new customer race car, since Audi Sport currently builds and sells the R8 LMS race car. At the very least, we know the Audi Sport folks are busy and people will no longer get them confused with an all-wheel-drive system. Related Video: