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Autoblog Podcast #406

Episode #406 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Brandon Turkus, and Chris Bruce talk about the Mustang Shelby GT 350, the Los Angeles Auto Show, and the Volkswagen Golf winning Motor Trend Car of the Year honors. We start with what's in the Autoblog Garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #406: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics: Ford Shelby GT350 LA Auto Show Volkswagen Golf wins Motor Trend COTY In The Autoblog Garage: 2015 Ford Fiesta SFE 2015 Honda CR-V 2015 Audi Q3 Hosts: Dan Roth, Brandon Turkus, Chris Bruce Runtime: 01:26:07 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 - 29:21 LA Auto Show - 40:36 Golf is Motor Trend COTY - 53:50 Q&A - 01:00:42 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes

This gold wrapped R8 is how Audi celebrates an award

We like to think some awards (our Tech of the Year, for example) are more valued than others. Even so, Audi wasn't going to let its winning the Golden Steering Wheel award from Auto Bild go unnoticed, and this gold chrome R8 ought to do the trick. On display now at the Audi Forum in Neckarsulm, Germany, this Audi R8 V10 Plus is all decked out with a gold chrome wrap, similar to what rival Mercedes rolled out in Cannes a few years ago, but with a tone-on-tone satin gold stripe up the center, flanked by black pinstripes for extra contrast. Fortunately the accents – including the wheels, grilles, mirrors, air scoops, and rear wing – were left in black (albeit glossy) rather than chromed up. It looks just as shiny as the mirror-finish Bugatti Veyron displayed at Autostadt 300 miles north in Wolfsburg. Opened a decade ago, the Audi Forum Neckarsulm is one of two such locations run by the German automaker, alongside the one at its headquarters in Ingolstadt. Situated between Frankfurt and Stuttgart, the Neckarsulm facility includes displays from the company's collection, a customization studio, restaurant, a 4,000-square-foot shop, and a concert space. Customers can also pick up their new wheels direct from the factory at the Neckarsulm location, which is also where Audi operates one of its principal assembly plants – and where Quattro GmbH builds the R8. Following the original that debuted in 2006, the new second-generation R8 was introduced earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show. It eschews the V8 available in the previous version exclusively for the 5.2-liter V10. In the Plus spec pictured here, it produces over 600 horsepower, channeled to all four wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The R8 won the Goldenes Lenkrad award this year in the sports car category, alongside the Audi A4, Opel Astra, Hyundai i20, and the BMW X1, 2 Series Gran Tourer, and 7 Series. Related Video: X The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Featured Gallery Audi R8 V10 Plus in gold chrome at Audi Forum Neckarsulm News Source: Audi Forum Neckarsulm via Facebook Audi Coupe Performance Supercars award gold chrome

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.