Hyundai’s new Elantra has received a new performance range-topper in the automaker’s home market. The good news is that the car is headed to the United States with a debut expected to take place at the annual SEMA show the first week of November. It will be badged an Elantra Sport and come with a turbocharged 1.6-liter 4-cylinder...
Red Bull Racing has started testing its proposed race car cockpit protection system known as the Aeroscreen. The Formula One team’s star driver Daniel Ricciardo hopped behind the wheel of a car fitted with the Aeroscreen and successfully completed some laps of the Sochi Autodrom prior to this weekend’s 2016 Formula One Russian Grand...
While the world debates whether American tech giants Apple and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) are actually developing cars, Chinese rivals have been upfront with their intentions and have already started parading concepts previewing their future plans. One of these is LeEco (formerly Letv), which at this week’s 2016 Beijing Auto...
Ford Motor Company’s [NYSE:F] Focus Electric will offer a 100-mile range when the 2017 model rolls in later this year, up from 76 miles at present. However, with the similarly priced Chevrolet Bolt EV and Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] Model 3 promising double the range or more, the Focus Electric is thoroughly outmatched by the competition (the...
Volkswagen used this week’s 2016 Vienna Motor Symposium to present its next-generation 4-cylinder engine. The new engine, dubbed the EA211 TSI evo, is a turbocharged 1.5-liter unit equipped with variable turbine geometry (VTG) like that found on high-performance engines from Porsche. VTG, which first appeared on a gasoline engine in the...
For some people, station wagons aren’t the kind of cars that need aftermarket upgrades. While that may be true to some extent, German automakers like Audi and Mercedes have successfully shifted that way of thinking by introducing performance-oriented wagons like the RS3 Sportback and the C450 AMG 4MATIC. The latter, in particular, has been a revelation thanks in large part to its premium looks and the hefty amount of power and torque it has at its disposal.
The C450 AMG 4MATIC has been a pleasant surprise to the extent that Mercedes tuner extraordinaire Vath has taken an interest to the car. You don’t say that too often for wagons other than Audi’s RS3 Sportback, but given what Mercedes was able to do with the C450 AMG, it was really only a matter of time before a tuner like Vath would take a stab at it.
Now that “that time” has arrived, owners of the performance wagon now have the option of taking Vath up on its aftermarket program. The kit itself does very little to the exterior and interior of the C450 AMG, but Vath makes up for it in spades with a significant engine modification that really brings the life out of the wagon. Not that it needs to do that, but there is a significant difference between the standard model and a Vath-tuned version. The latter is faster and more powerful, two things rarely said to describe a wagon. But it’s all there and it’s all because Vath saw the potential in the C450 AMG.
Continue after the jump to read the full review.
Mostly known as a maker of affordable family cars until the early 1990s, Audi made its entrance on the performance market in 1980 with Quattro. The legendary coupe was replaced by the 80-based S2 from 1991 until 1996. Audi didn’t offer another performance coupe until 2007, when the S5 was launched, but 1998 saw the release of the company’s first full-fledged sports car, the TT. The R8 supercar followed in 2006, giving Audi the proper weapon to compete against other high-end sports car manufacturers. With the R8 having been redesigned for 2015, word has it that Audi is now working on a new sports car to slot below the range-topping model and above the smaller TT.
Likely to break cover sometime in 2018, the new sports car will reportedly be called the R6 and will be developed under codename PO455. The news comes from German outlet Autobild, which also claims that the R6 will share underpinnings with the next-generation Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman. Both a coupe and a roadster are on the table, with the latter to sport an R6 Spyder badge. If these rumors prove to be accurate, the R6 will become the second Audi sports car to borrow its platform from other Volkswagen Group products. As you may already know, the R8 rides on the underpinnings Lamborghini developed for the Huracan.
The fact that Audi wants to build a "baby R8" isn’t exactly news. Rumors of a new sports car have been flying around for a quite a few years now, but the fact that the R6 could share underpinnings with the Porsche 718 gives this story more credibility. Unlike other brands from the Volkswagen Group, Porsche uses two unique platforms for the 911 and 718. By sharing the latter, Porsche will reduce development costs while Audi won’t have to spend a fortune to create one from scratch.
Also, the R6 wouldn’t be the first collaboration between Audi and Porsche. In the early 1990s, the two brands designed and built the RS2 Avant, a high-performance version of the Audi 80 wagon. Its 2.2-liter inline-five was heavily modified by Porsche, which also designed the braking and suspension systems.
Although Audi has yet to confirm the R6, we are confident that the German brand will soon launch its third sports car. With that in mind, we created a rendering of the "baby R8" to go with the speculative review below.
Continue reading to learn more about the upcoming Audi R6.
