Press Event

I struggle with the new SQ5 because the Q5 is already an amazing mid-size SUV. There’s so much goodness I’d imagine one would struggle with the idea of anything better, right? The correct answer is, wrong. While the differences are subtle for what you can and cannot see, they might be just enough for the right buyer in search of a high performing vehicle that stands out from the rest of the crowd; especially when there are over 1.5-million first generation Q5 roaming the roads today. That’s where Audi’s S-badge comes in.

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Bravo Honda, bravo. The 2018 Civic Type R is the company’s most powerful car ever to be sold stateside. Indeed, Honda’s people are unofficially referring to it as the fastest front-wheel drive “road legal racecar” on the road. In short, no, the “R” in the name plate isn’t just for show.

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What an epic year. Right around this time last year, I made one New Year’s resolution for 2016: drive as many tracks around the world as humanly possible. To my amazement, I did just that. While I did make that my singular resolution for the new year, I didn’t really care which cars I drove as long as I was on a track somewhere. That opened up some fairly unusual opportunities both for me and for SlashGear: read on for five of the most memorable.

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If California was a country, it would make up the fifth largest market in the world for Porsche. What better place, then, for the US' second Porsche Experience Center (PEC). The first opened roughly a year ago in Atlanta, and also serves as the home base for Porsche North America. The new $60 million, 53-acre facility in Carson, California is also Porsche Motorsport North America’s new headquarters, not to mention being officially open for everyone to enjoy. Porsche invited SlashGear out to Carson for a first-hand experience; after all, the PEC is all about getting hands-on.

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When I think of cutting-edge technology in the automotive world, Audi comes to mind. Performance, it’s Porsche. Bentley, of course, holds the title for luxury and the hypercar trailblazer, without a doubt, is Bugatti. So where does that leave VW? When I think of Volkswagen, I think of reliable cars that are affordable for mass-market consumers.

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It’s track time and Pikes Peak Hill Climb is no ordinary race track. Taking a corner too wide pretty much anywhere within the 14,114 climb along what’s a 12.42 mile course packed with 156 twists and turns has consequences beyond a couple of dents. Luckily, Porsche’s confidence in the new 2017 Macan GTS is off the chart. This is a super rare opportunity where automotive journalists were given the opportunity to drive up Pikes Peaks and then, on the very same day, keep on going right up Mount Evans.

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As decisions go, opting for the newly redesigned 2018 Audi A5 or its hotter S5 sibling is a good problem to have. This past week, I had the opportunity to experience both vehicles in Portugal and walked away impressed with the refined styling, performance, and handling. Much of the improvement can be credited to the same MLB Evo architecture first introduced in the 2017 Audi A4, not least a weight reduction of up to roughly 100 pounds for the US car, not to mention a drag coefficient cut to 0.25 for the base A5 model. Still, the second-gen A5 and S5 don’t go lacking in Audi’s typically meticulous evolutionary changes.

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Classic design ages gracefully, but the 2017 Audi A4 hides its technological prowess under a body that's evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The latest version of the German company's compact executive sedan may look a whole lot like the outgoing model, but to my mind that's the beauty of it: unlike some rivals, change hasn't been made for its own sake.

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This family hauler, tuned by Toyota Technical Center in collaboration with championship-winning performance shop DG-Spec accomplished a super fast lap time of 1:27 which is on par with some of highest performance sports car available at the Streets of Willow Springs.

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Last year, I beat Audi's autonomous race car on the track. Robots might not have feelings, but that didn't stop Audi's engineers calling me back for a re-match with the latest, greatest version of the self-driving RS7s. AJ, Bobby, Jack, and now Robby all have two things in common: first, they’re named after famous race car drivers, and second, they've successfully driven autonomously on racetracks, on the autobahn, and on a cross country trip.

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The first time I saw the Audi TT, I can remember saying to myself, “wow - what a great looking car - I can't wait to grow up and buy one.” I was 21 when Audi first introduced the original TT in 1995; now, 20 years later and in it's third generation, it’s still a great looking car. Technology doesn’t stand still, however, and so the latest TT is more refined and technologically advanced both inside and out. Question is, has two decades been generous to the TT or just put it firmly into middle-age.

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There’s driving, and then there’s driving a car that thinks it’s a racer. Thing is, the Audi R8 has the credentials to back that up, born from an unmistakably noble family of champions and given the same name as a Le Mans winning sports car. For the 2017 R8, Audi turned to the same engineering team that developed the Nurburgring 24 Hours-winning R8 LMS race car, including half a shared parts bucket. It’s something I found hard to forget when Audi invited SlashGear to Portugal, to be among the first to try the new R8 on the track.

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