Car & Driver Reviews : )
#1
12-10-2010, 12:56 PM
Car & Driver Reviews : )
Hi Member's,
Below are some reviews to check out & keep up with what's new in the automotive industry....
Let us know which want you would like to have, or just take for a test drive....Do you like the direction of the auto industry ? I keep hoping to see Chevrolet bring back the Monte Carlo, (they could use the Caddy Platform & Engines)
"2 dare 2 dream in SpaceVision" LOL
We do our best on the MCF to supply you with the updates on what's happening in the Auto Industry......EnJoy
Thanks to
for their great coverage..
Advice, Awards, Opinion, and Features »
More from Car and Driver »
Click above link for a whole lot more : )
They have some super articles/pictures/test/etc...
Below are some reviews to check out & keep up with what's new in the automotive industry....
Let us know which want you would like to have, or just take for a test drive....Do you like the direction of the auto industry ? I keep hoping to see Chevrolet bring back the Monte Carlo, (they could use the Caddy Platform & Engines)
"2 dare 2 dream in SpaceVision" LOL
We do our best on the MCF to supply you with the updates on what's happening in the Auto Industry......EnJoy
Thanks to
for their great coverage..Advice, Awards, Opinion, and Features »
Toyota, Hummer, Land Rover, and Nissan provide the perfect vehicles for people who drive toward danger.
The 10 Most Unusual Engines of All Time - Feature
Freedom is just another word for "you did what with your crankshaft?"
Car Designers Graded - Feature
The world's major car designers get their report cards.
How Their Wines Qualify: We conduct a snooty tasting.
Runaway-Truck Ramps Explained - Feature
My Little Runaway: A sand trap that trucks sometimes have to drive into.
Hunting Adventure in a $340,000 Critter Gitter - Feature
What has a 400-hp V-8, balloon tires, and a $340,000 price tag?
The supercar lives on in an ecoconscious world.
25 Years of the BMW M3: Four Generations on the Track - Feature
We celebrate 25 years of the M3, including the new GTS.
Continental Evolves the Tire-Pressure Sensor - Tech Dept.
Harder-working sensors benefit safety and performance.
52 weeks, 52 exhaust notes—here are our five favorites.
Save the Manuals! - Car and Driver
2010 10Best Cars - 10Best Cars
58 contenders. $2.5 million total. 12,000 test miles logged. The ultimate quest to find the year's greatest cars.
Cars for drivers: Check out all of our favorite vehicles.
More from Car and Driver »
Update One: Our long-term Infiniti M inspires a few complaints halfway through its 40,000-mile stay.
2012 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Five-Door Official Photos and Info - Auto Shows
An Evoque with more doors breaks cover in Los Angeles.
2011 Hyundai Azera Limited - Short Take Road Test
Hyundai’s big front-driver doesn’t offer much for enthusiasts but packs plenty for everybody else.
Dodge mines historic Mopar gold with the latest Challenger SRT8.
2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG: Doing donuts in a Gullwing - Video
We're ready for Lighning Lap. Are you?
Audi Quattro Concept - First Drive Review
Audi’s homage to its historic rally monster is a real driver—and really capable.
Click above link for a whole lot more : )
They have some super articles/pictures/test/etc...
#2
12-10-2010, 01:58 PM
I would really love to Test`Drive the below 
Wow only 151 CI and a 5 Banger : ) AmaZ'in : )
Audi Quattro Concept - First Drive Review
Audi’s homage to its historic rally monster is a real driver—and really capable.
BY BARRY WINFIELD
December 2010
Pages: 1 Photos
Specifications
VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 3-door hatchback
ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 20-valve inline-5, iron block and aluminum head, direct fuel injection
Displacement: 151 cu in, 2480 cc
Power (mfr’s est): 402 bhp
Torque (mfr’s est): 354 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual
DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 102.4 in Length: 168.5 in
Width: 73.2 in Height: 52.4 in
Curb weight: 2866 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST):
Zero to 60 mph: 3.8 sec
Standing Ľ-mile: 12.1 sec
...SWEET
Decker Canyon Road branches off the Pacific Coast Highway in northern Malibu to snake up the contours of the coastal range to the Mulholland Highway and Westlake Village. The road is narrow, sinuous, and challenging, edged by rock and unyielding Armco—and it is the road Audi management picked for us to try out the company’s priceless, handmade Quattro concept.
Three California Highway Patrol cars accompanied us to block off sections of the road so we could use the entire width. This was supposedly to allow a wide berth to prevent us from grounding the chin spoiler on the tight switchbacks rather than simply to facilitate big speed. But Audi PR chief Josef Schlossmacher, riding shotgun, never once suggested we slow down, which speaks volumes for the Quattro concept. It’s a real car, with a platform adapted from the RS 5 and a tuned version of the direct-injected turbo five from the TT RS.
Ooh, That Sound
In this application, the engine is mounted longitudinally and hooked to a six-speed manual transmission borrowed from an S4. Audi says it produces 402 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque. As the revs rise and the boost gets hot and heavy, that familiar warbling yell from the inline-five took your author right back to the forests of Mpumalanga in South Africa, where he once heard the original, “Ur-Quattro” rally car rampaging through the trees.
Everything about this car is evocative. But as designer Wolf Seebers puts it, “We did not simply graft pieces of the original car’s styling onto the new one. You have to be careful with retro design. We wanted something that would express a new design language, something that will appear on all new Audi sport vehicles.”
A design that has to commemorate a classic but also lead the way for future vehicles sounds like a stylistic pressure cooker, but design chief Wolfgang Egger’s team pulled it off. The body is a combination of Audi’s aluminum space-frame technology and assorted carbon-fiber pieces (the hood, the hatch), and the body in white weighs 350 pounds. The whole thing is claimed to weigh 2866 pounds (1300 kg), about the same as the old steel Sport Quattro. But bear in mind that the old car carried none of the multifarious safety systems present in a modern vehicle. Thus, in the Quattro concept, even the seats are light, weighing in at about 40 pounds each, despite being equipped with the usual adjustment motors.
Quattrwhoa
From the driver’s seat, the virtual instrumentation immediately grabbed our attention. It can display a navigation screen and other Multi Media Interface functions, as well as vehicle status and the usual speed and revs. Buttons arrayed around the gauge binnacle hark back to the Ur-Quattro. Compared with the RS 5 donor car, the concept's wheelbase was shortened by about six inches, and its roofline is 1.4 inches lower. It’s clearly a two-seater, and space is tight for tall drivers. There is reasonable space behind the seats for luggage, but the footwell is pretty cramped. Heel-and-toeing requires careful footwork.
Yet from the moment it launches, the Quattro feels as though it has a completely sorted drivetrain. The clutch engages smoothly, and the car moves off. It then gathers speed like a fully calibrated production car. And then it gathers more speed like a seriouslyfast production car. Audi claims 0 to 62 mph in fewer than four seconds, and we don’t doubt it. There’s a brief twitter from the waste gate as you shift, and then the turbo five is right back to its frantic warble—just not for long. Decker Canyon is too convoluted for protracted acceleration, and it’s soon time to get hard on the brakes for the first of many corners.
The Quattro system under the car is Audi’s latest. There’s a torque-sensing, rear-biased center diff of the company’s own design that senses slip at either axle and compensates by sending power to the other one. At the rear is a two-stage diff that uses planetary gears to vary power distribution side to side, sending torque to the outer wheel in corners to keep the rear axle benign. Altogether, these mechanisms thrust the car through Decker Canyon with ease.
The short wheelbase and the low weight lend quick response to the steering, adding to the car’s tenacious grip the responsiveness and nimbleness one expects from short-coupled coupes. Carbon-ceramic rotors halt the Quattro concept, and the car slows forcefully before turning in. Yet the longitudinal stability is there, and braking hard fails to upset the chassis in any way. The calibrations are, according to project coordinator Peter Seizinger, an estimate, but the car feels utterly composed. All the ride motions are well controlled—good enough to carry us through fast left-right transitions with complete confidence.
Now the Pleading Begins
From our short drive, it’s clear the Quattro concept is already a real driver’s car, which brings us to the important question. No decision has yet been finalized, but in the likely event that the project gets the green light for production, probably no more than 500 to 600 examples would be made. We can’t begin to guess at the price, since this would necessarily be a short, essentially handmade production run. Seizinger says that unique (read, “expensive”) lightweight suspension pieces are indispensable to the weight target.
Still, the engine is an affordable unit by supercar standards, and other mechanical commonalities would undoubtedly be explored. This is too nice a car not to go into production. Unlike the Audi Quattro spyder show car of 1991, which everyone loved but which was too expensive to be put into production, the Quattro concept follows Audi’s strict directive that all concepts share current platform technologies for affordable manufacture. Let’s hope for a price on the low side of Bill Gates’s budget.
Wow only 151 CI and a 5 Banger : ) AmaZ'in : )Audi Quattro Concept - First Drive Review
Audi’s homage to its historic rally monster is a real driver—and really capable.
BY BARRY WINFIELD
December 2010
Pages: 1 Photos
Specifications
VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 3-door hatchback
ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 20-valve inline-5, iron block and aluminum head, direct fuel injection
Displacement: 151 cu in, 2480 cc
Power (mfr’s est): 402 bhp
Torque (mfr’s est): 354 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual
DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 102.4 in Length: 168.5 in
Width: 73.2 in Height: 52.4 in
Curb weight: 2866 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST):
Zero to 60 mph: 3.8 sec
Standing Ľ-mile: 12.1 sec
...SWEET Decker Canyon Road branches off the Pacific Coast Highway in northern Malibu to snake up the contours of the coastal range to the Mulholland Highway and Westlake Village. The road is narrow, sinuous, and challenging, edged by rock and unyielding Armco—and it is the road Audi management picked for us to try out the company’s priceless, handmade Quattro concept.
Three California Highway Patrol cars accompanied us to block off sections of the road so we could use the entire width. This was supposedly to allow a wide berth to prevent us from grounding the chin spoiler on the tight switchbacks rather than simply to facilitate big speed. But Audi PR chief Josef Schlossmacher, riding shotgun, never once suggested we slow down, which speaks volumes for the Quattro concept. It’s a real car, with a platform adapted from the RS 5 and a tuned version of the direct-injected turbo five from the TT RS.
Ooh, That Sound
In this application, the engine is mounted longitudinally and hooked to a six-speed manual transmission borrowed from an S4. Audi says it produces 402 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque. As the revs rise and the boost gets hot and heavy, that familiar warbling yell from the inline-five took your author right back to the forests of Mpumalanga in South Africa, where he once heard the original, “Ur-Quattro” rally car rampaging through the trees.
Everything about this car is evocative. But as designer Wolf Seebers puts it, “We did not simply graft pieces of the original car’s styling onto the new one. You have to be careful with retro design. We wanted something that would express a new design language, something that will appear on all new Audi sport vehicles.”
A design that has to commemorate a classic but also lead the way for future vehicles sounds like a stylistic pressure cooker, but design chief Wolfgang Egger’s team pulled it off. The body is a combination of Audi’s aluminum space-frame technology and assorted carbon-fiber pieces (the hood, the hatch), and the body in white weighs 350 pounds. The whole thing is claimed to weigh 2866 pounds (1300 kg), about the same as the old steel Sport Quattro. But bear in mind that the old car carried none of the multifarious safety systems present in a modern vehicle. Thus, in the Quattro concept, even the seats are light, weighing in at about 40 pounds each, despite being equipped with the usual adjustment motors.
Quattrwhoa
From the driver’s seat, the virtual instrumentation immediately grabbed our attention. It can display a navigation screen and other Multi Media Interface functions, as well as vehicle status and the usual speed and revs. Buttons arrayed around the gauge binnacle hark back to the Ur-Quattro. Compared with the RS 5 donor car, the concept's wheelbase was shortened by about six inches, and its roofline is 1.4 inches lower. It’s clearly a two-seater, and space is tight for tall drivers. There is reasonable space behind the seats for luggage, but the footwell is pretty cramped. Heel-and-toeing requires careful footwork.
Yet from the moment it launches, the Quattro feels as though it has a completely sorted drivetrain. The clutch engages smoothly, and the car moves off. It then gathers speed like a fully calibrated production car. And then it gathers more speed like a seriouslyfast production car. Audi claims 0 to 62 mph in fewer than four seconds, and we don’t doubt it. There’s a brief twitter from the waste gate as you shift, and then the turbo five is right back to its frantic warble—just not for long. Decker Canyon is too convoluted for protracted acceleration, and it’s soon time to get hard on the brakes for the first of many corners.
The Quattro system under the car is Audi’s latest. There’s a torque-sensing, rear-biased center diff of the company’s own design that senses slip at either axle and compensates by sending power to the other one. At the rear is a two-stage diff that uses planetary gears to vary power distribution side to side, sending torque to the outer wheel in corners to keep the rear axle benign. Altogether, these mechanisms thrust the car through Decker Canyon with ease.
The short wheelbase and the low weight lend quick response to the steering, adding to the car’s tenacious grip the responsiveness and nimbleness one expects from short-coupled coupes. Carbon-ceramic rotors halt the Quattro concept, and the car slows forcefully before turning in. Yet the longitudinal stability is there, and braking hard fails to upset the chassis in any way. The calibrations are, according to project coordinator Peter Seizinger, an estimate, but the car feels utterly composed. All the ride motions are well controlled—good enough to carry us through fast left-right transitions with complete confidence.
Now the Pleading Begins
From our short drive, it’s clear the Quattro concept is already a real driver’s car, which brings us to the important question. No decision has yet been finalized, but in the likely event that the project gets the green light for production, probably no more than 500 to 600 examples would be made. We can’t begin to guess at the price, since this would necessarily be a short, essentially handmade production run. Seizinger says that unique (read, “expensive”) lightweight suspension pieces are indispensable to the weight target.
Still, the engine is an affordable unit by supercar standards, and other mechanical commonalities would undoubtedly be explored. This is too nice a car not to go into production. Unlike the Audi Quattro spyder show car of 1991, which everyone loved but which was too expensive to be put into production, the Quattro concept follows Audi’s strict directive that all concepts share current platform technologies for affordable manufacture. Let’s hope for a price on the low side of Bill Gates’s budget.
Last edited by Space; 12-10-2010 at 02:01 PM.
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