Few cars have captured the public imagination or established a niche for a manufacturer as well as the original Quattro did for Audi. Indeed, now, the term quattro (with lower case ‘q’) is applied to any Audi with an all-wheel drive system. This, though, is the car that started it all for the Ingolstadt outfit. [...]

It’s now a bit over two weeks since the TT RS was revealed in Geneva. Just in case you’d forgotten what all the fuss was about here’s a couple of dozen images and another sound bite to refresh your memory. As always in AUSmotive image galleries, click on each image to load your 2000x1320px wallpaper [...]

A road going BMW 135i will take on the best motor racing has to offer at this year’s Australian Grand Prix when it takes part in the Ultimate Speed Comparison. The 225kW1 Series Coupé driven by motoring hack Paul Gover will race against Greg Murphy in a race prepped V8 Supercar and Christian Klien in [...]

The famous Porsche 917 racing car turns 40 this year. Porsche will hold special birthday celebrations for the 917 at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed (3–5 July). The theme for the FoS this year is ‘True Grit – Epic Feats of Endurance’. It is appropriate then that among the 917′s many achievements are back-to-back [...]

Six of the best hot hatches. An empty aerodrome all to yourself. How could you say no? Chris Harris from Drivers Republic certainly couldn’t, and he took the opportunity to see what’s what in the world of hot hatchery. The car’s on offer were impressive—Honda Civic Type R, Renault Megane R26.R, Ford Focus ST (XR5), [...]

Dutch tuners Exclusive Tuning Worldwide have done something they perhaps shouldn’t have. You see, the Volkswagen GTI W12 650 concept car revealed at the 2007 GTI Festival in Wörthersee, Austria, was kind of cool. It had genuine cachet. The W12 650 was a crazy bonkers idea, in a world where crazy bonkers ideas never make [...]

Under new rules released overnight the 2009 Formula One world driver’s championship will be awarded to the driver with the most wins, irrespective of points scored. Were these same rules in place for last season’s drama filled final race then Felipe Massa would have been the one celebrating in the picture above, having won six [...]

Australian pricing for the MINI Cooper D was announced today, and its entry level figure of $33,750 completes a trifecta of benefits that leave the Hollywood hyped Prius in its dust. We already know the Cooper D uses less fuel than Toyota’s hybrid. We already know the Cooper D emits less CO2 emissions. Now, we [...]

Great news for MINI CHALLENGE fans with confirmation that Paul Stokell and Grant Denyer will be back chasing the 2009 title with DecoRug Racing. Defending champion Neil McFadyen will have his work cut out with the fancied DecoRug duo determined to make amends for 2008′s promising, but ultimately disappointing, season. Bill Gremos, DecoRug Racing team [...]

Ever since the official details of the Audi TT RS were revealed many have been wondering and hoping the 340bhp 2.5 litre 5 cylinder turbo might find it’s way into Audi’s S3 and morph into an RS3 hatch. That hope has been given a tasty turbocharged boost with reports claiming the RS3 is under consideration [...]

In February 2009 crash testing authority EuroNCAP revised its rating system, making its guidelines stricter and more difficult to achieve a 5 star rating. In November 2008 it was announced the new Mk6 Golf achieved the top rating and, today, news comes through that the Golf has maintained its 5 star rating under the new [...]

Big name celebrity endorsements don’t always work. This one, though, pairing infamous football legend Eric Cantona with the new Renault Laguna just might. So far, we only have this small teaser to go on. Watch this space…

This clip, from Jaylenosgarage.com, shows well known car nut and TV guy Jay Leno talking about the MINI E. The film runs for 10 minutes and gives a pretty good inside look at MINI’s electric coupé, including some techno banter and a drive review. Source: Jaylenosgarage.com via MotoringFile

Mercedes-Benz has officially announced details of its SLS AMG supercar, the car to revive the ‘Gullwing’ nickname. The 21st century iteration is set to pack a 420kW punch, with power coming courtesy of a hand built 6.3 litre V8, driven through the rear wheels via a 7-speed double clutch transmission. Built and developed from the [...]

Dutch website 925.nl has published an incredibly detailed PDF on the Aston Martin One-77. They claim the file is an internal Aston Martin document describing everything you ever wanted to know about their new 700bhp supercar. I’ve only had a quick flick through the publication, but it is very comprehensive. Included in the file are [...]