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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 Coupé 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 Coupé (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...

A Beginner's Guide to the World of Cars

If you aren't yet versed in car terminology, or the current state of the automotive world, then this is a post to get you up to speed. I'll start with a bit of a glossary, so for the beginners, these words should make a bit more sense now. -bhp: An acronym standing for 'brake horsepower'. This has the effect of making an engine sustain an input under more and more stress. Most sports cars have over 340bhp, most supercars over 550, and most hypercars over 750. -Torque (measured in lb ft): This is the amount of force an engine creates to push the car forward. Most cars have similar torque figures to power figures, but diesel cars and hybrids often push well above their weight. (Figuratively speaking, as most of them are very heavy) -Kerbweight: The weight of a car with no fuel, fluids or driver in it. Quite literally, the sum of a car's parts. A normal car weighs around 1600kg, an SUV about 2 tonnes and a supercar about 1300. We all secretly wish that cars weighed...

The Week in Cars #1

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Geneva Motor Show report and the death of the Audi R8. The Geneva International Motor Show doesn’t need a whole lot of introduction. It is the pinnacle of jaws hitting the floor. Not exactly surprisingly, Geneva last year did nothing short of amazing everyone, with new supercars being the main name of the game. The gleaming machines littered the halls, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that 2018’s GIMS had, despite the weight-reducing efforts of the show cars, a LOT to live up to. Luckily, however, the high rolling cars managed to roll even higher, with the first two days being a frenzy of track-focused hyper and supercars, as you shall see.  As a recap, last year gave us the McLaren 720S, Ferrari 812 Superfast (nope, still sounds weird), Lamborghini Huracán Performante, and much more in the way of start-up electric cars. This is a report on this year’s contenders, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the article. The first thing to come racing onto the showstands was, after a...