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Audi has shrink-wrapped everything it stands for to create the new A1, a more compact and city-friendly three-door premium hatchback that delivers all the celebrated quality, design flair and engineering acumen synonymous with Vorsprung durch Technik in a more concentrated form. The A1 is set to make its World debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March, and will be available to order in the UK from May for late 2010 deliveries. Closely following the look of 2007′ s critically acclaimed Audi A1 project quattro design study, the production-ready A1 distils the essence of Audi into a sleek, streamlined body with an impressively low drag coefficient of 0.32 which occupies a road ‘footprint’  of less than four metres, without sacrificing space for four adults and their luggage.

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As the first examples of the scalp-bronzing Audi R8 Spyder head for the UK to enliven spring 2010, two rather more knuckle-whitening versions of the celebrated Audi supercar are preparing to compete in the 2010 FIA GT3 European Championships in the hands of a new home-grown racing team. The latest R8 road car is based on the 525PS, 5.2-litre FSI model, but features a bespoke body incorporating additional weight-saving carbon fibre composite panels as well as the all-important fully automatic lightweight fabric hood. Good for a 4.1-second 0-62mph sprint and a top speed of 197mph, the R8 Spyder is available to order in the UK now in six-speed manual and six-speed R tronic automated manual forms priced at £111,955 OTR and £117,155 OTR.

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Audi is showing an uncompromising purist compact sports car with all-electric drive at the first major auto show of 2010. The Detroit showcar Audi e-tron is the name of this 3.93 metre long and 1.78 metre wide but just 1.22 metre tall two-seater; just a few months after the debut of the Audi e-tron at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, this is now the second electric concept vehicle from the brand with the four rings. Coupled with the Detroit showcar Audi e-tron’s low gross weight of around only 1,350 kilograms, high-torque power units driving the rear wheels guarantee commensurate road performance. Two electric motors with a combined output of 204PS and 2,650 Nm (1954.54 lb-ft) accelerate the coupe with ASF-design aluminium body from 0 to 62mph in just 5.9 seconds. The Audi e-tron accomplishes the sprint from 37mph to 75mph (60 to 120 km/h) in a mere 5.1 seconds.

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A new, ultra-efficient version of the Audi A3 1.6 TDI – already the most economical premium sector car with the lowest CO2 output – is available to order from this week, extending the compact hatchback’s lead by paring back CO2 output even further to just 99g/km and boosting combined economy to up to 74.3mpg. This exceptional frugality is available in one specific A3 configuration – the three-door body style equipped to Standard specification – priced at £18,005 OTR. All other variations of the 1.6 TDI continue to offer the class-leading combination of 68.9mpg potential and 109g/km CO2 output. The key elements responsible for the efficiency gains in the most focused 1.6 TDI to date include a modified final drive ratio for the standard five-speed manual transmission, a reduced ride height, under-body revisions to reduce aerodynamic drag and the use of slightly smaller 15-inch alloy wheels shod with low rolling resistance tyres.

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Vorsprung durch Technik will come to the fore yet again in 2010 as exciting new technological advances make their debut in the new Audi A8, not least of which being the option of Google information services channelled to the new luxury flagship via the internet. The state-of-the-art online services allow the new A8 to retrieve up-to-date information from the internet via an optional integrated GPRS/EDGE modem in the latest generation MMI navigation plus. The user can search online with Google for points-of-interest directly from within the MMI, the versatile search engine accepting such free text search queries as "delicatessen" or "shoe boutique". The results are then displayed on the onboard map or used as destinations for route calculation. A8 customers can also plan their navigation destinations in Google Maps or the Audi web portal at home or in the office and retrieve these on demand in the car.

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The last word in luxury and the height of efficiency converge in the all-new Audi A8, which makes its world public debut this week at the Design Miami exhibition in Florida, USA. Crafted entirely from lightweight aluminium like its forebears, and bristling with new technology that not only contributes to best-in-class economy and exemplary comfort but also to even greater dynamic accomplishment, the elegant new flagship of the Audi saloon range opens for UK order this month priced from £54,760 OTR. Packed inside the even lighter and 24 per cent more rigid evolution of the aluminium Audi Space Frame (ASF) which forms the ’skeleton’ of the new A8 are myriad new technological advances. These of course include fundamentals such as economy and emissions advantages for the three significantly reworked FSI and TDI engines that will be available from launch – the 3.0-litre V6 TDI with 250PS and 550Nm of torque (up from 233PS and 450Nm), the 4.2-litre V8 TDI with 350PS and 800Nm (up from 326PS and 650Nm) and the 4.2-litre V8 FSI with 372PS and 445Nm (up from 350PS and 440Nm).

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Audi is celebrating another phenomenally successful season in motorsport, an achievement which has even greater poignancy in this, the Centenary year for the Vorsprung durch Technik brand. Audi developed three race cars for the 2009 season: The €262,000 R8 LMS, the first dedicated Audi ‘customer’ sports car developed for international GT3 motorsport, the R15 TDI, notable as the first "second generation" diesel sports prototype and the R14 "plus" A4 DTM for the German Touring Car Masters (DTM). Affiliated with AUDI AG’s Technical Development (TE), Audi Sport has approximately 200 employees in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm primarily responsible for race car development and testing.

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Audi compact hatchback is first in premium sector to combine automatic transmission with economy focused start-stop function. Automatic versions of the latest economy focused Audi A3 models are the first in the premium sector to benefit from the latest engine start-stop technology, which has already helped to cut emissions in manual transmission TDI versions to a sector-leading 109g/km. The new highly efficient 1.4 TFSI petrol and 1.6 TDI versions of the A3 equipped with the acclaimed S tronic twin-clutch automatic transmission will spearhead the new technology, which also goes hand-in-hand with a recuperation system to harness braking energy.

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The world’s largest Audi Centre – West London Audi – is officially being launched with a huge party for the capital’s top glitterati.  Among the guests will be Bryan Ferry, Gordon Ramsay, Dominic Cooper, Jamie and Louise Rednapp, Phil Glenister, Keeley Hawes, Rupert Penry Jones, James Cordon, Ronan Keating, Beverley Knight, Davina McCall, Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Jackie Stewart. The imposing new building, which represents a major investment of £45 million by Audi UK, consolidates the brand’s position as one of the global leaders in prestige car manufacturing.

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A lightweight Audi A5 Coupe prototype has jettisoned over 100kg by swapping steel for advanced aluminium and carbon fibre construction in the interest of fuel economy, emissions reduction and handling agility. The A5 project is the latest example of the pioneering work undertaken by the Vorsprung durch Technik brand to extend efficiency optimisation measures well beyond the engine bay. Taking an existing steel-bodied production car as its basis, the A5 project car clearly demonstrates the benefits of the aluminium Audi Space Frame (ASF) concept with which Audi broke new ground 15 years ago, and which test beds of this kind help to evolve and improve. Use of the ASF principle reduces the weight of a car body by at least 40 per cent compared with conventional steel construction, and this shows in a kerb weight of 1,310kg for the aluminium A5 prototype, versus a total of 1,420kg for the equivalent steel-bodied series production model.

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