Here’s another video of the Audi R8 V10 Spyder, which first debuted at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show. The R8 V10 Spyder is equipped with a 5.2-litre engine, with 525 hp and 530 Nm of torque. This video (certainly more exciting than the first one we saw), shows the R8 Spyder in white, a colour we like more than the bronze originally presented, and has some great editing for some exciting driving.

Continue reading: Audi R8 V10 Spyder new video

The Auto Trophy 2009 awards have been given by Auto Zeitung after reader surveys of about 105,000 participants. Obviously the local German cars were very successful, with Audi taking home a total of 40 percent of votes across all categories, but there have been a couple of surprises, too.

A special mention goes to the Opel Astra for its quality-price ratio, while the new BMW 1 Series won the best advertising campaign award. Across the categories, readers voted on 370 different models in total. In the small car category, the Volkswagen Polo won with 32.9 percent, while for imported small cars the Fiat 500 won with 20.6 percent. Among the mid-size range was the Volkswagen Golf 6, and for imported cars in this category, the Skoda Octavia won a divided contest, with 18.5 percent of votes.

The mid-size, top range cars featured some of the larger German models, with the Audi A5 Sportback winning with 27.2 percent of votes, and the Volvo V70 winning in the imported category. The luxury category was dominated by the Mercedes E-Class with 42.7 percent of votes, while the Jaguar XF took the title for imported vehicles. Among the flagship models, the Porsche Panamera won and the Aston Martin Rapide won in the imported category with 33.7 percent.

Continue reading: Auto Zeitung Auto Trophy: SLS AMG top supercar

The Car of the Year prizes have been dominated by the Germans with many being awarded one of Autobild’s “Golden Steering Wheel” awards. The Porsche Panamera won the luxury car category, beating the BMW 7-Series and Mercedes S Class, while the medium to large sedan category was won by the Audi A5 Sportback, followed by the BMW 5-Series GT and the Mercedes E Class.

Among the compact class, a nice win for the new Opel Astra, beating the Skoda Yeti, which came in second ahead of the Renault Megane. In its sector, the Renault Scenic emerged ahead of the Toyota Verso and Peugeot 5008, and among the small cars the Volkswagen Polo won over the Citroen C3 and Hyundai i20. The Toyota Prius took out the ecological prize, followed by the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion and the Mercedes S400 Hybrid.

The supercar category was dominated by the new Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing, followed by the Audi R8 Spider and the Aston Martin One-77. The finalists for overall COTY are the Citroën C3 Picasso, Mercedes-Benz E-class, Opel Astra, Peugeot 3008, Skoda Yeti, Toyota iQ and Volkswagen Polo. Take your bets now…

Continue reading: Golden Steering wheel car of the year prizes: SLS AMG supercar of the year

Here are new videos of the Audi R8 Spyder, where you can hear the sound of the V10 engine (although we were expecting more dynamic videos, to be completely honest). In the video after the jump, you can get a look at how the roof mechanism works, and in third video is the R8 Spyder official trailer. Not to mention the excitement that’s missing from the first! Enjoy.

Continue reading: Audi R8 Spyder videos

The Audi E-Tron and R8 Spider debuts have taken place at the Audi stand at the Frankfurt motor show. On display were also the A5 Sportback and S5 Sportback, and additional announcements were made regarding the Q5 Hybrid, A4 Flexible Fuel and Clean Diesel technology. The Audi A3 with new 1.2-litre TSI engine is also present, along with original sports accessories displayed on a very aggressive Audi TT.

Curiosity regarding the E-Tron has been satisfied, with news that the electric sports car is driven by four electric motors, one for each wheel, and hence is equipped with Quattro or all-wheel drive. The overall power is 313 hp and 450 Nm of torque, enough to reach 100 km/hr in 4.8 seconds with a maximum speed of 200 km/hr. The lithium ion batteries are developed by Sanyo and have a range of 248 km. Recharge can occur in six to eight hours with 230 V, while the high voltage system reduces that time to 2.5 hours.

The overall weight of the Audi E-Tron is 1,600 kg, and the liquid-cooled batteries are located behind the cabin area and weigh 470 kg. Driving performance and handling is guaranteed with a 42 to 59 percent front-rear weight ratio.

Audi live pics from Frankfurt

Continue reading: Audi E-Tron and R8 Spider pics from Frankfurt motor show

The Audi R8 V10 Spider debuts in these pics from the Frankfurt Motor Show, with some impressive performance figures being presented. The engine is a 5.2-litre V10 with 525 hp and 530 Nm of torque. That’s a lot of wind in your hair from the spider.

The R8 Spider V10 has 0-100 acceleration of 4.1 seconds and, 0-200 km/hr is reached in 12.7 seconds. The top speed is about 313 km/hr. The side-blades have disappeared, as testified by the R8 Spider spy shots, and new carbon fibre body parts have been included.

The soft-top roof and its mechanism weighs only 30 kg, but the overall weight still tops 1,720 kg. The weight-power ration is still respectable though, with 3.3kg per horse power. The R8 spider comes with both manual and R-Tronic sequential automatic.

The roof mechanism takes 19 seconds to open and can function while the car is moving, up to 50 km/hr. The R8 Spider will be available in the first quarter of 2010 and on the German market, will cost about 156,400 euros. Check out the pics below from the Frankfurt debut.

Continue reading: Audi R8 Spider hi-res pics and Frankfurt debut

These leaked pics of the Audi R8 Spider appear after yesterday’s spy shots and before its official debut at the Frankfurt show next week. As we had mentioned, the spy shots gave us a good look at the rear roof mechanism, and as it turns out the R8 Spider gets a traditional top that folds back behind the passengers.

A few other tweaks include new rear speedster humps, air vents and the removal of the sideblades. Full engine details and performance specs are unavailable at the moment, but we expect we’ll get the full deal at Frankfurt.

Source | Carscoop

Continue reading: Audi R8 Spider leaked pics

These fantastic spy shots of the Audi R8 spider show the vehicle virtually without camouflage. Particularly impressive is a look at the rear of the R8 spider to see how the roof mechanism may work. We should the Audi R8 spider debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, to start on Monday.

Spy shots Audi R8 spider

Source | Spyshots.nl

Continue reading: Audi R8 Spider spy shots

The Audi R8 spider will be presented the Frankfurt motor show in September and these shots show what we can expect, with the spider displayed in its final version. This is the 5.2-litre V10 model with 525 hp and 530 Nm of torque.

A second model will be equipped with a 4.2-litre V8 engine at 420hp. The R8 V10 will have added features to distinguish it from the V8, including LED headlights, a more aggressive rear diffuser, larger exhaust, and a chromed grille.

The spider version doesn’t feature the same side blades as the coupé, and on the whole it looks like a tamer car. The only other aspect to examine in the future will be the weight of the new Audi, but with the show not far away, all will soon be revealed.

Source | World Car Fans

Continue reading: Audi R8 spy shots

Thanks to current market conditions, we’re never going to see the Audi R8 V12 TDI, though full speed ahead on the Audi R8 Spider is underway. It’s debut, though, is fixed for some time in 2011, being followed the year after by the RS4.

The news come from an unnamed source within Audi itself, it is down to the expensive engineering feat required to house the V12 diesel unit. While Audi believes it’s the only brand capable of developing a high performance diesel coupé, the market is apparently not ready for this kind of vehicle. Full details on Auto Express.

Continue reading: Audi cancels R8 V12 TDI plans

For 2009, in addition to the arrival of the much-awaited V10, Audi should also present the open-top version of the R8 supercar. Rumours are flying about technical choices that could be adopted to guarantee wind in the hair of the lucky customers.

There’s talk of a spider version with fabric roof to preserve the lightweight style and weight distribution. Others however, maintain that the car will be equipped with a folding metal roof, and today a new hypothesis has appeared from Edmunds Indide line: the next R8 spider could have a completely removable targa top.

Continue reading: Audi R8: possible targa roof for open-top version