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Watch this Audi RS6 go 208 mph... on ice

In and effort to promote the high-speed grip of its new Hakkapeliitta 8 winter tire, Nokian threw a set of its new rubber on a race-prepped Audi RS6 and got moving - very, very quickly. In fact, on March 9 on top of the very frozen Gulf of Bothinia near Oulu, Finland, Nokian's test driver Janne Laitinen set a new world record for the fastest speed recorded driving on ice. If you'll recall, this isn't the first time that Audi and Nokian have played this game, either.
Using the guidelines set forth by the Guinness Book of World Records for such things, Laitinen averaged 208.602 miles per hour (335.713 kilometers per hour) over the course of two runs on natural, untreated ice. Another constraint is that the ice speed record must be done using commercial available tires, which is obviously great PR for the new Hakkapeliitas. The press release doesn't make any mention of how the RS6 was prepared to reach such high velocities, but the images of the car make it clear that this is no stock machine. Scroll on below to see the impressive video evidence of the Audi's record run.

Tesla says Model 3 is best-selling midsize premium sedan in America

Auto sales figures are sort of fuzzy numbers, no matter how you slice them and no matter which manufacturer you're talking about. Unless you're specifically tracking vehicle registrations, automakers generally self-report the figures. So, you have to trust that they aren't doing anything too tricky. Plus, not every sale is equal, as some are logged as dealership loaners or demo models, some go to fleets (like to a rental car agency), and still others are, of course, bought by traditional customers looking for a new daily driver. With that preamble out of the way, when we saw a tweet from Tesla claiming that the all-electric Model 3 is the best-selling midsize premium sedan in America, our interest was piqued. According to Tesla, market share of the Model 3 has just surpassed the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which had up until now led the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, and Lexus IS as the best-selling sedan in its class. Note that the graph from Tesla below is, we think, specific to four-door models. So, is it true? Judging by the numbers we can find, including some from Bloomberg, which has a running chart to track Model 3 registrations, the answer is... probably. We don't know exactly how many Model 3 sedans Tesla is currently cranking out, but Bloomberg estimates production at about 2,560 units per week, and total sales for 2018 at 34,414. We know the number is increasing regularly, though, and Elon Musk has said most recently production sits around 500 units per day, which, on a seven-day cycle, would be 3,500 per week. We looked up Mercedes' sales figures for the month of May, 2018, and found that the German brand sold 5,419 C-Class models last month, for a total of 23,917 for the year (incidentally, that's down more than 30 percent from the year prior). While the bulk of those sales would surely be made up of sedans, it would also include a small percentage of coupes. Either way, it's likely that Tesla is currently producing and selling more Model 3s than Mercedes is C-Classes. Now, it's also worth considering if the C-Class is the only vehicle from Mercedes that directly competes with the Model 3. We'd guess customers may also cross-shop the CLA sedan with the Tesla, and if that's the case, you might decide it's worth adding in Mercedes' 2,527 CLA-Class sales last month and 9,622 so far for the year. The same argument could be made for certain versions of the BMW 2 and 4 Series.

2016 Audi A3 Sportback headed to US under diesel power [w/video]

Every get the feeling that automakers aren't really listening to what it is that you want in an automobile? Well, Audi is. Following what it calls "an outpouring of enthusiasts' support," the German automaker has announced that it is bringing the new, 2016 A3 Sportback to the US under diesel power, in the summer of 2015.
Unveiled today at the New York Auto Show, the new A3 TDI Sportback joins an expanding range of A3 models available Stateside. Whereas the Sportback hatch was until now only slated to be offered in E-Tron hybrid form, and the TDI only as a sedan, this model combines the bodystyle of the former with the power of the latter. The new TDI slots into the family alongside the gasoline-powered A3 and S3 sedans and A3 Cabriolet as well.
Power comes from a 2.0-liter turbodiesel four with 150 horsepower and mated to a six-speed S tronic transmission. Because it's still a year away from launch, Audi tells us it hasn't determined figures for performance, fuel economy or carbon emissions numbers, but when it joins the company's considerable diesel offerings (which already include the A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7) as part of the new A3 rollout over the course of the next 18 months, you can bet it'll provide that combination of low-end grunt and long-range capability that diesel enthusiasts crave. In the meantime you can scope out the details and b-roll footage below for a closer look.