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Audi Q7 plug-in hybrid spied, Porsche powertrain possible

It's no secret that a new Audi Q7 is on the way. The replacement for the aging, three-row luxury CUV has already been spotted once, in December of 2013. Now, though, we have images of the second-generation model lapping Germany's Nürburgring Nordschleife, and it just happens to be showing a feature we reported on at the end of July - a plug-in-hybrid powertrain.
Given away by its high-voltage stickers on the window and a spare door to hide the charger - note how both the driver and passenger sides sport an access point - our spies snapped a series of photos, and put forth the compelling idea that the new Q7 would use the PHV system from the Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid.
If that's the case, that should mean at least 320 horsepower from a 3.0-liter, supercharged V6, while an electric motor chips in a further 95 ponies for a total system output of 416 hp.

Audi reveals special A5 DTM Champion edition

For this year's DTM touring car championship in Germany, Audi switched (at least in appearance) from the A5 to the more muscular look of the RS5. But now that it's won the title (the driver's title anyway), it's the base A5 that's getting the celebratory treatment.
Limited to just 300 units, the new A5 DTM Champion edition honors its winning driver Mike Rockenfeller in similar fashion to the special-edition BMW M3 that paid tribute to last year's champion, Bruno Spengler. It comes with a rear spoiler, special 20-inch alloys, aluminum trim on the mirror caps and, of course, a smattering of special badges inside and out.
Buyers will be able to place their orders next week in red, white or grey, with any of four engine choices, at a €1,900 premium. That is, in Europe, anyway. Given that DTM hasn't picked up on this side of the Atlantic just yet, we wouldn't go looking for this model at our local Audi dealer Stateside.

Audi kills off its 420-hp four-cylinder engine project

Audi's supercar-slapping, fire-breathing four-cylinder concept engine will remain just that, with Autoblog confirming that it has been internally killed off. Speaking at the launch of the TT RS, the engineering boss of Audi's Quattro GmbH division, Stephan Reil, said the Volkswagen Group had stopped all development of the 420-horsepower, 2.0-liter four it showed in the 2014 TT Quattro Sport Concept car (above). Despite previous assurances that Quattro had roles for both the EA888-based engine and Audi's wildly charismatic 2.5-liter, five-cylinder motor, post-Dieselgate reality has killed the smaller engine. "The 400-horsepower EA888 engine is dead," Reil said. The EA888 engine was conceived and developed by the same man behind AMG's powerhouse 2.0-liter four. Friedrich Eichler left AMG to become the Volkswagen Group's gasoline engine development go-to guy, and he was confident the 420-hp engine could be turned into a production car quickly, as was then-Audi development boss, Ulrich Hackenberg. It was even suggested that because the EA888 engine family bolted straight into the Volkswagen Group's ubiquitous MQB small-car architecture, the little powerhouse could be cheaply and quickly dropped into any of the company's cars that needed an image boost. Since then, Quattro has elevated the five-cylinder motor, switching it to an all-alloy block with a magnesium oil pan to cut down its weight while boosting its power and torque levels. Where the four-cylinder engine was shown with 420 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque, the production version of the TT RS's new five-cylinder engine totes 400 hp and 354 pound-feet of torque. The smaller engine's proponents claimed a 0-62 mph acceleration figure of just 3.7 seconds for the concept TT that carried it, and it might not be a coincidence that the all-new TT RS claims exactly the same figure. The 2.0-liter motor had a torque peak that arrived at 2,400 rpm and began to taper off at 6,300 rpm, while its power apexed at 6,700 rpm, thanks in part to a turbocharger that could feed it up to 1.8 bar of air. Flip to the TT RS' data and you're looking at more torque at lower revs and a touch less power, but at higher revs. That's not a lot of wriggle room for the concept engine to operate, especially when the perceived value of the five-cylinder engine is higher than the four, and the four's development and production costs would be higher than the five's.