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Showing posts from March 25, 2018

Why Germany is in a Super-Saloon Civil War at the NY Auto Show

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The Audi RS5 Sportback and the facelifted Mercedes-AMG C63 are both revealed at the New York Auto Show. Jaguar unveils the F-Pace SVR. The Audi RS5 CoupĂ© hasn't been given a lot of love by journalists, and has been criticised far and wide for being dull and aloof. Audi's answer to this is the new Sportback version, with four doors, a first for the RS5 (although a regular S5 bodystyle) and normal RS innards. That means a 2.9l biturbo V6, also found in some Porsche models, producing 444bhp and 443lb ft of torque, and rocketing the 1840kg (slightly more than usual) RS5 Sportback to 62mph in just 3.9s, which is two tenths tardier than the CoupĂ© (although TopGear has timed that car at a ludicrous 3.2s), and on to an electronically capped top speed of 155mph, or if you tick certain boxes, 174mph. Pricing starts at around 63 grand. We've got high hopes for this one if they can sort the chassis. Naturally, however, in the German holy trinity of £60k super-saloons, it isn&#

The Week in Cars #2

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The F1 season kicks off, Dallara launches the Stradale and the new Ford Mustang is driven. VW unveils the new Tiguan. F1 season F1 2018, after many complaints of the cars sounding rubbish, the new 'halo' device (protection for drivers, shown below) looking hideous, the whole thing being a one-horse race... Basically a lot of abuse and groaning from the loyal fanbase negated Liberty Media's attempts to make people excited for the coming season. That isn't to mention Formula E's stunning looking Gen 5 car, polar-bear friendly propulsion and wheel-to-wheel races. However, it has started off nonetheless with the Melbourne GP this year, and, annoyingly for all the keyboard warriors of the world, the Halo doesn't look all that bad on the cars. Speaking of looking, from Williams' recent onboard video, visibility does seem to be an issue. The central support arm blocks the driver's view on straights, which might make seeing - which, surprisingly, is quit