Drive Magazine » Quattro

Audi A7 Sportback

Kyle Stone — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:05:29 +0000

Love them or hate them, you could never accuse the Germans of resting on their laurels. They always seem to be either inventing new market segments or individual manufacturers enter segments that are new to themselves. And that according to Audi is what they’re up to with the A7 Sportback, although I’m not entirely convinced the A7 Sportback is all that new for Audi, but it does look very handsome indeed. The A7 Sportback was revealed recently in Munich, hardly the most glamorous city in the world, but I guess it is German.

For Audi the concept of the A7 Sportback is threefold; it needed to combine the elegance of a coupe, be as comfortable as their luxurious sedans and even maintain the practicality of a stationwagon. Well, it certainly is a pleasantly shapely car, so sure, I wouldn’t disagree that the A7 Sportback resembles an elegant coupe. As comfortable as a sedan? I don’t know, haven’t driven it. What I do know however from the numerous Audi’s I have driven is that they have some of the best, possibly even the the best, interiors in the business. Build quality from Audi is always stellar, and the feeling of quality permeates every nook and cranny. So we’ll give Audi the benefit of the doubt on this one. But practicality of a stationwagon, surely not. At least that’s what I though from first impression of the exterior, the dimensions don’t imply a great big boot crammed in there. And yet, when I saw the boot, Audi aren’t that far off. I’m afraid I’m still not absolutely convinced, we’ll have to see about rear legroom, but even if this criteria is a bridge too far, the A7 Sportback still looks very close to the the stationwagon practicality criteria.

he surprisingly big boot

There are four engine options, and as usual there are a variety of nice engines, and silly motors allegedly less harmful to the environment. The split is actually down the middle with two petrols and diesels a pice. Interestingly though, all the engines are V6’s. Power across the four motors ranges from 150kW to 220kW, which when considering this isn’t supposed be a performance range, the power figures are adequate. The 150kW option is a 3.0 TDI and claims impressive fuel figures, at just 5.3L/100km the 150kW A7 Sportback is very efficient for a vehicle of this size. The other diesel makes 180kW but is still a 3.0 TDI. The fuel efficiency is apparently thanks to an inventive thermal management system as well as start-stop technology. The petrol motors are a 2.8 FSI and 3.0 TFSI, the 2.8 produces 150kW and the supercharged 3.0 is the range topping 220kW engine.

In addition to the four engine options there are two transmission options offered by Audi. The standard automatic transmission has two flavours depending on the engine selected, a continuous multitronic front wheel drive variant and of course a quattro system is available as well. If you want quattro you’ll get the slightly sportier seven speed S tronic gearbox, the quattro on the A7 Sportback by the way features Audi’s relatively new crown-gear centre diff, which despite my initial scepticism does indeed help with Audi understeer quite a lot.

The chassis itself deserves a mention, its construction is fairly advanced and sports aluminium control arms. Worryingly though, the power steering system is a new electromechanical system. For me this is troublesome because if there is a trend in Audi steering it’s that the steering can feel a little light and numb, and integrating the word electro anywhere in the power steering can’t help with that. Then again, this isn’t a sports car, so numb could be seen as a positive.

The interior, as I touched on earlier, is sure to be excellent. Nevertheless here are some of the features, a 15 speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system, the MMI Touchpad system, as well as an advance navigation system. Following the crowd somewhat Audi are also offering a heads-up display as an option on the Sportback.

And that’s about it really. The A7 Sportback may not have achieved its goals with complete perfection, but then that could very well be impossible. As it stands then this effort from Audi to target a new market segment for them is on first impressions an admirable offering.

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Audi's Golf in a pretty dress facelifted

Kyle Stone — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:38:09 +0000

Audi TT Facelift

The facelifted Audi TT

Details of the Audi TT facelift to be officially unveiled at the Leipzig Auto Show have been revealed, and all the usual facelift suspects are there. Tweaked styling, refined engines, claims of improved fuel economy and of course a healthy dose of prolific marketing terms like dynamic, thrilling and efficiency getting thrown about by the manufacturer. Audi have updated the TT Coupe as well as the Roadster, and don’t worry, the TTS hasn’t been ignored. The TTS will available in both Coupe and Roadster trims, and once again should be knocking on the Boxster’s door.

The exterior modifications to the TT are minimal at best, a redesigned front bumper which apparently houses larger air inlets, not that I would’ve noticed without been shown, and even then I’m not sure. There’s a rear spoiler that deploys at 120km/h, yet another useful tool for thieving bastards to use against you, and of course this being an Audi they’ve messed about with the LED and Xenon headlight arrangement. Oh, and the TT is now 2cm longer than the outgoing TT, again, no one will notice. It is still shorter than rivals the Z4 and Boxster though, so maybe BMW and Porsche will notice. Then there are four new metallic colour options for the TT (Scuba Blue, Oolong Gray, Volcano Red and Dakota Gray) as well as Dakota Gray with pearl effect for the TTS.

The TT’s body is constructed using Audi Space Frame technology (ASF), which essentially means the TT’s body is made out of aluminium in the front, up to the B pillar in fact, and the rear is made of good old steel. The primary benefit of this is a reduction in weight compared to all steel fabrication, additionally as the front of a car is traditionally heavier thanks to bulky engines up front, making the front body lighter allows engineers to balance the car far easier. And as a rule, a lighter and more balanced sports car is always a good thing.

Audi TT

The interior of the TT, well it’s an Audi so it’ll be excellent, that’s without doubt. Although there doesn’t seem to be that much new to the TT’s interior, it does feature a rather pedantic comfort feature, not that that’s a bad thing. The leather seat covers are specially treated, with what Audi don’t say, the treatment reduces the heating of the seat by as much as 20 degrees C when you’ve left your TT parked in the sun. I’ve got to say though, I’ve never really been bothered too much by hot seats, steaming steering wheels on the other hand are a real pain.

Enough talk of hot paws and aluminium body parts though, most of you really just want to know what Audi have done in the engine bay anyway. We’ll start with the standard TT Coupe and Roadster here, which offer three four cylinder options, all of them being turbocharged direct injection motors. Two of those motors are petrol and obviously the third is a diesel. The engine to go for is a new 2.0L TFSI producing 155kW and 350Nm of torque, this motor replaces the previous TT’s 3.2L and 2.0L which made 147kW. So it seems that Audi have slotted in the Golf VI GTI motor to replace the Golf V GTI motor, although exactly who developed that motor is still up for debate with both VW and Audi claiming primary responsibility. And with good reason, it really is very good, no wonder everyone wants to claim for themselves.

The spoiler extends at 120km/h

The other petrol motor is a 1.8L TFSI producing 118kW and 250Nm of torque, with the diesel rounding off the range. The diesel is a 2.0L TDI variant and only just edges out the 1.8L petrol power wise, producing just 125kW. Torque naturally is far more significant from the diesel with 350Nm equalling the range the 2.0L TFSI. Regardless of which engine you choose power will be funneled through a six speed manual, although there is a double clutch flappy paddle option for the 2.0L TFSI. As far as quattro goes, the permanent all-wheel drive system is an option on the 2.0 TFSI but standard on the diesel, the 1.8L however is still stuck with front wheel drive. Another nifty option available for all TT’s is magnetic ride shocks which allows the firming of the ride at the push of a button.

On to the good and proper models though, the ones gunning for their sister company Porsche. The TTS is still only a 2.0L TFSI engine, but the forced induction is somewhat different allowing power to be amped up to 200kW. Torque is still 350Nm, identical to the 2.0 TT. The TTS along with the more powerful engine comes standard with the magnetic shocks.

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Latest RS from Audi

Kyle Stone — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:44:02 +0000

Audi RS 5

Audi RS 5

The latest RS from Audi is going to be officially presented to the public at the fast approaching Geneva Motor Show. So far what we know is that lurking beneath the surprisingly tame exterior of this coupe is a 331kW/450hp high revving V8. Audi’s famous Quattro system has been given an upgrade for this RS 5 too in the form of a newly developed centre differential.

The RS 5’s 331kW is produced by Audi’s illustrious 4.2L FSI motor, the FSI referring to it’s common rail direct fuel injection. Maximum power arrives quite high up for a V8 at 8,250 rpm but maximum torque of 430 Nm will be delivered lower down, between 4,000 and 6,000 rpm. The RS 5’s prodigious power emanating from the hand made V8 will be channelled trough a seven-speed S tronic gearbox. These impressive powertrain figures naturally translate into some equally impressive performance figures; 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds and on to a governed top speed of 250km/h, although Audi will up that to 280km/h if you ask nicely.

Audi's 4.2L FSI V8 in the RS 5 produces 331kW

The aforementioned new development on the Quattro system of the RS 5 is also a new entrant into my list of things I-don’t-understand-but-still-want. This illustrious list includes great things with awesome names such as Ford’s Revo Knuckle’s and Pagani’s Carbo-tanium. The RS 5’s centre diff comes in the form of a crown-gear differential, which is compact, light weight and also self-locking. The new centre diff works in conjunction with electronic torque vectoring and to be honest seems to do the same job Quattro’s always done, it’s just slightly better now. The Quattro system can send up to 85% of it’s power to the rear but the standard setting is a 40:60 rear-biased split.

The RS 5 comes equipped with dynamic steering, Audi calls it’s version of this concept speed-dependent servotronic steering and in the RS 5 is setup to be very tight. Audi’s drive select system is there too with the ability to adjust steering, the seven-speed S tronic, the sport differential, the engine, and even the exhaust system.

Audi RS 5

Should be one to keep an eye on.