Featured car - Driven: Peugeot RCZ
Driven: Peugeot RCZ
TT-rivalling Sports Coupe is a Peugeot you'd actually want to own
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Revenge of the E-Tron
Audi unveils a second electric sports concept in Detroit. It’s a TT for the future…
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It's based on the A6 platform but uses the new A8's interior technology and switchgear, and it will be between the two in pricing. Audi being Audi, none of the inside disappointed when we drove the Sportback concept - the design is clean and the materials good. Like the A5 Sportback, this concept car is only a four-seater. The reason for this is design - if you put a middle rear seat in, you have to raise the roofline by too much and then you lose those coupe looks.
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Because Audi sees the whole Sportback line-up as a crusade for the world, as its way to rid people of having to drive around in ordinary two-door coupes and instead get exciting four-door coupes to pilot. Much as Audi reckons it transformed the wagon market by creating the Avant and making it sexy, so the same goes for the Sportback. Audi wants to create an entire family of these models, and the A7 will sit at the top. There's even a possibility that there will be an RS7, but that will be some time off yet.
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Let's put aside all the clichéd niche-busting for a second. Audi has just announced that it will be building the Sportback concept next year as the new A7, and the important thing is that it looks fantastic. Audi needs crediting for that, before we get stuck into the marketing mush that will surely accompany the A7.
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Underneath the shared face, however, the two cars are quite different. Like the last A8 and the one before, this model has an aluminium space frame. Back in 1994 it became the first luxury car to be made of the stuff, and it's a technique Jaguar copied with the XJ. The fact that the new A8 is just 6.5kg lighter than the outgoing car is no underachievement - it's 24 per cent stiffer, packs more kit than ever and you'd have to make it from tin foil to go much lighter.
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While it may not be the automatic choice for gangsters and pinstriped execs, the A8 has always held a quiet superiority over other luxo-barges. It's big and fast, yet understated and cool, and never feels in-yer-face. So under the disco lights and smokescreens at the launch of the new car in Miami, we wondered if it would retain that modesty.
As the stage doors opened and the assembled glitterati drew breath, the car rolled out. And when the smoke cleared... it looked like they'd sent out the wrong one. Up there under the spotlight, it looked freakishly similar to the A4. Despite being bigger than ever, now the biggest in its class, you could easily mistake it for the smaller sibling. It seems the Audi gene pool has shrunk and the family resemblance is unavoidable. -
Video: TT-driving leopard, spotted
And you thought your golden retriever looked cool hanging out the window of your convertible?
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Self-driving Audi to tackle Pikes Peak?
Stanford University reckons its TT-S is ready to take on the scariest hillclimb in the world…
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Toyota in actually-quite-exciting shocker!
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R8 Spyder leaked
Soft-top version of Audi’s mid-engined supercar escapes onto web, Top Gear catches it in giant butterfly net
Have a look at the Audi R8 Spyder
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