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Audi claims World Endurance Championship at Fuji

It's been a successful racing season for Audi so far this year. After claiming the drivers' title in the DTM series, the German automaker has successfully defended both its titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The decision came after heavy rain ended the 6 Hours of Fuji after only 16 laps, virtually the entire race having been run behind the safety car. Although Alexander Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima won the race for Toyota - the Japanese automaker's first this season - the second-place finish achieved by Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval propelled Audi Sport Team Joest out of its challengers' reach.
While the actual drivers' title still remains in contention, the battle now comes down exclusively to the two leading Audi trios: McNish, Kristensen and Duval hold the lead with 147 points ahead of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer, who hold 106.25 points in the standings. Either way, Audi will be awarded both the drivers' and manufacturers' titles in the series with two races still to go in Shanghai and Bahrain.

Audi R8 lines up as safety car for Rolex 24 at Daytona

This weekend a new era begins in American sports car racing with the Rolex 24 at Daytona to kick off the new United SportsCar Championship, the freshly inked union between the Grand Am and American Le Mans Series. There'll be a wide variety of machinery lining up on the grid at the Florida speedway, including race-ready versions of the sports cars you can drive on the road, plus Daytona Prototypes, Le Mans Prototypes and even the DeltaWing. But at the front of the pack will be the Audi R8 5.2 FSI.
That's because Ingolstadt's flagship has been named as the official safety car for this, the 52nd annual Rolex 24 at Daytona. And so the R8 becomes the first pace car pressed into service for the United SportsCar Championship, although the model also paced last year's race (pictured above) when it was under the auspices of the Grand Am series.
The car in question appears to bear little in the way of modifications over the showroom version, save for some requisite graphics and maybe some emergency lighting to make it more visible - because while you wouldn't miss an R8 slicing its way through ordinary traffic on the road, it's another story entirely in a field full of competition machinery. Audi points out that the road-going R8 shares a good 50 percent of its components with the R8 LMS competing in the race, including its 5.2-liter V10 engine that's available this year with a new seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.

Audi TT offroad concept wirelessly charges E-Tron quattro powertrain

Audi has been diving deep into the concept ideas pool for a while now, with out-there auto-show-only vehicles like the off-road Nanuk Quattro Concept (last year's Frankfurt Show) and the TT-previewing Allroad Shooting Brake (Detroit earlier this year). The automaker has also been hinting at wireless charging through its work with WiTricitiry and the Urban Concept Sportback from Frankfurt 2011. The latest evolution of these ideas is the brand-new Audi TT offroad concept show car, which makes an appearance at the Beijing Motor Show this weekend after being teased earlier this month. Putting wireless charging into an off-road body makes little sense at first glance - after all, if you're heading out into the wild, you'll be lucky enough to find a standard outlet - finding an in-ground induction pad will be near-impossible. Thankfully, we don't need to worry ourselves with this sort of logical conflict, since this is once again an auto show study. The powertrain is capable of 408 hp and 479.2 lb-ft of torque as well 123 MPGe. And that means interesting powertrain details, like a plug-in hybrid E-Tron quattro powertrain that uses two electric motors (one rated at 40 kW for the front axle, the other at 85 kW for the rear) and can even dispense with the plug part thanks to Audi Wireless Charging technology. The powertrain is capable of a total system output of 408 horsepower and 479.2 pound-feet of torque as well as a provisional fuel efficiency of over 123 miles per gallon equivalent. All with the ability to hit 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) in 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph. All-electric range is pegged at 31 miles thanks to a 12-kWH lithium-ion battery. More details than you can shake a stick at are available below. Audi says the TT offroad concept, which blends both coupe and compact SUV, could be a preview of "a new model in a future TT family," so if you've been hoping for another entry in the growing crossover coupe segment, tell Audi you'd like to see this in the real world some day. The Audi TT offroad concept show car Study combines the sportiness of a coupe with the utility of a compact SUV Powerful and efficient e-tron quattro drive with Audi Wireless Charging technology Prof. Dr.