Audi Blog, Performance, Tuning, Motorsport, and Modification News

Audi, if you do this, you have a convert right here. Hardcore Audi fans will remember the original Audi Sport Quattro developed in 1984 for the legendary (notorious) Group B rally series. The rally racing series with cars deemed too fast and powerful for racing which was outlawed by the FIA in 1986. Motorsport fans have not forgotten Group B which is considered the golden age of rallying and clearly neither has Audi (or their 1984 victory) who is rumored to be preparing something special for the 30th anniversary. ...

The 3.0 TFSI supercharged V6 from Audi continues to be a tuners dream. In the Q5 the motor is detuned to 268 horsepower. By virtue of its bypass valve design for the supercharged V6 Audi is able to control output electronically meaning through ECU Software. APR is able to get huge gains by tuning the ECU for Stage I and for Stage II tuning the ECU in combination of a pulley upgrade for more boost from the factory Audi supercharger. ...

There is tasteful modding and there is this. Basically, this car just screams attention and does so more in the manner of a big girl wearing a tight leopard print dress than something a bit more elegant and refined which is what an R8 is supposed to be. Ok, to the blue foil wrap and the 20 inch "blinged out" Forgiato wheels are a bit much. The same can be said about the black vinyl accents especially on the hood that just make one go, "What were they thinking?" ...

The 3.0 TFSI motor is a very popular tuning platform as large gains can be had simply with an ECU tune. For 2013 model years cars equipped with the 3.0 TFSI Audi made changes to the ECU likely to prevent tuning (German OEM's always want to spoil our fun). Currently APR is able to program directly through the OBD-II port the 3.0 TFSI equipped Audi C7 A6, C7 A7, and the Audi Q5 which recently switched to the 3.0 TFSI motor. ...

Back to back to back to back. Even Michael Jordan can't say he did that but Audi can say their 2.5 TFSI turbo inline-5 is the best 2.0 liter to 2.5 liter motor on the planet. And Audi can say it for the fourth straight year. This motor simply dominated the 2.0-2.5 liter displacement category and deservedly so. This is a mod friendly motor with great power and torque for its size not to mention clean emissions for its power level which ranges from 310-360 horsepower depending on application. ...

Turbo kits for the R8 4.2 V8 are nothing new. There are a small handful of options although they all are pretty much stock on stock internals unlike their R8 V10 5.2 counterparts. EVOMS in particular has struggled with the R8 V8 4.2 and turbos so it clearly is not easy to tune for turbos. It is nice to see someone else entering the R8 V8 turbo ring and that would be MRC Tuning with their single turbo based kit for the R8 V8 using a GT45. The other options on the market are all utilizing twin turbos. ...

The video below of a 741 horsepower Audi RS3 in action shows absolutely bonkers acceleration all the way up to a very impressive 234 mile per hour top speed. That begs the question though of if the video is legitimate or staged. There are multiple camera angles showing the driver as well as the speedometer and tachometer but there is no external view. Due to the lack of a view showing the car actually doing the run some people are questioning the legitimacy. ...

You sure this time Audi? Positive? The off again on again off again on again Audi E-Tron is now officially dead. Despite making a cameo in the recent Iron Man 3 movie the car simply will end as a PR boost for Audi. The project was put on indefinite hold last year as Audi evaluated if it was worth bringing the car to market. Audi also made big boasts regarding having the quickest "production" electric car to lap the Nurburgring a claim they can no longer make. ...

Here are more test numbers for the facelifted Audi R8 V10 Plus model with the 550 horsepower 5.2 liter FSI V10 motor and 7-speed S-Tronic dual clutch transmission. Car and driver was able to get a healthy 11.4@126 out of the car in the 1/4 mile which lines up exactly with what German magazine AMS was able to hit. Edmunds got a slightly better elapsed time at 11.3 but their trap speed was lower at 123.8 miles per hour. ...

This is quite a beatdown and it's hard to understand why it is as bad as it is. Not even much of a race, the M6 just flat out kicks the crap out of the RS6. The RS6 is said to have MTM tuning parts good for 743 horsepower which considering the stock 571 horsepower from the twin turbo 5.0 liter V10 is output reached fairly often with tuned C6 RS6's. The Manhard Racing M6 is said to have a "Stage 4" package whatever that is with a claimed 700 horsepower. ...

BMW is to be commended for creating a niche with the X6 and a successful one at that. Essentially, they took what Mercedes-Benz did with the CLS creating the four door coupe segment and applied to an SUV giving it a lower roofline for sleeker looks. Now everybody else is scrambling to catch up and it seems Audi intends to join the fray with a Q8 to compete. The Q8 of course will be based on the Q7 so just as the X5 and X6 share a platform so will the Q7 and Q8. ...

This comes off a bit spiteful and bitter from Audi. A recent press release titled "Not so fast to put Tesla on that particular pedestal" by Audi lobs shots at the electric car maker. Audi even says the automotive industry is giving Tesla way too much credit. The issue Audi takes is with recent articles about Tesla sales beating Mercedes, BMW, and Audi that Audi claims are not accurate. The reasoning behind this is that Audi sales trump Tesla sales. ...

Congratulations to Audi for winning the second race of the 2013 DTM season which took place at Brand Hatch in the UK. Audi started the race in a strong position with four cars qualifying in the top five spots. Winning the race is nice but Audi is still in last place in the manufacturer standings with BMW remaining in first due to a strong performance taking second, third, fourth, and fifth place spots to pick up a good amount of points. ...

The current Audi Q7 is a solid SUV but also pretty heavy with the diesel and V8 (which has now been replaced with a lighter 3.0 TFSI) versions coming in at about 5500 pounds. Audi has shown a lot of emphasis on as of late on lightweight materials showing they are very aware their vehicles used to be the heaviest in the segment. That is changing and Audi is quite serious about it going so far as to shave 800 pound from the Q7 for the next generation Q7 model. ...

APR announced back in February they would be upgrading their 4.2 FSI supercharger kits to a Stage III offering which would feature the Eaton TVS 1740 blower. This is a seemingly larger supercharger than what they were previously using although still a roots setup. APR previously did not have a supercharger application for the R8 4.2 V8 but with their development on the RS4 and RS5 4.2 V8's they seem to want to tackle the R8 as well. ...

The damn Japanese wonder robot does it again in a comparison against the new facelifted R8 but at least this time it's a fair comparison done by MotorTrend with a stock R8 versus a stock GTR unlike what Chris Harris recently did. Ok, so no tuner special GTR upsetting the balance but that does not matter as the GTR still comes out on top. It manages to do so not only in the 1/4 mile sprint but also around the roadcourse with quite the margin of victory. ...

The 2014 Audi R8 V10 Plus is currently the highest performance Audi R8 options in the lineup. It has the big 5.2 liter V10 with a more aggressive tune sporting 550 horsepower. The dual clutch transmission replaces the sequential manual previously used for quicker shifts. This thing should accelerate impressively especially with its all wheel drive helping the launch so what did Emdunds get out of it? An 11.3@123 .8 in the 1/4 mile. ...

Well, no big surprise here seeing Audi continue to go undefeated after the second round of the FIA WEC (World Endurance Championship). Audi even managed to get all three R18 E-tron Quattro cars on the podium with a perfect 1-2-3 finish. Pretty much as expected after the Audi E-Tron Quattros qualified a perfect 1-2-3. The third round is the 24 Hours of Le Mans and considering Audi was testing the aerodynamics they will be running for the 24 Hours at this race, they sure seem ready for another Le Mans victory. ...

This is almost starting to get a bit boring isn't it? A new year brings the same dominance we have seen from the R18 E-tron hybrid race cars. You may remember the R18 E-Tron took the pole for the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year and also became the first hybrid to win the race. With the second race of the FIA World Endurance Championship set to take place later today, the R18 E-Tron sure looks like the favorite again this year qualifying 1-2-3 for the FIA 6-hours at Spa. ...