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The 4.2-litre V8 is one of the great road car engines of the moment. At 1500rpm in sixth gear there is real urge on offer, yet it sounds and feels sensational at high revs in low gears and delivers the sort of thump only supercar drivers will have been familiar with. Its very best work occurs from 5000rpm upwards: the cam phasing changes slightly, the exhaust note hardens and the acceleration crystallizes into one final burst towards the cut-out…An M3 cannot compete with the RS4’s relentless wave of low- and mid-range flexibility, even if it is marginally more explosive over the final few revs before the limiter. – Autocar

It’s no coincidence that Audis make a good impression from the moment you open the door – just as a living room is more comfortable if filled with soft textures and lighting, so is a car’s interior. Click here for more.

(If they only they were as detail oriented when it comes to how the car feels in motion!)

There is no doubt on of the cleverest and best executed transmissions of all time is VW/Audi’s DSG system. But should you order one if possible?

On the surface – yes. VW has never made a great manual, and while the one in the newest A3/Golf/Jetta is an improvement it’s still quite a way off from the best.

What DSG does do better than even the most expert driver is execute shifts swiftly and smoothly while letting you keep your hand on the wheel. But as this test in evo magazine points out, most of the time you end up using the DSG’s auto mode, and even when you’re using the DSG it lacks the involvement of a manual box.

Owners of clutchless manuals and manumatics will tell you that in many cases a manual may be slower or more work but it’s almost always more involving – that’s especially important in a car that isn’t designed to just lope along like an anodyne appliance…

seen in autocar’s newsletter… (author unknown)

“For those of you for whom it won’t have registered, the Audi A2 is now out of production. I see this as an occasion to mourn the end of an era when VAG was willing to take a risk on a car because the basic principle was so ‘right’. I appreciate that some of you will not care and have no time for such a car, but at a time when cars get heavier, luxury means bulk and function too often fails to be combined with form I still find the A2 a beautiful product. R.I.P. little tank. Your memories and devoted followers will continue to enjoy the many pleasures you continue to bring. This will undoubtedly be my last Audi, and may well be the last car I purchase for a long, long time… It’s smart; not Smart.

...an engine that never sounds hurried or manic, with a rich, melodious growl underlying each different squeeze of throttle. Floor it in, say, third and as it swells and pulls from a few hundred low, rumbling rpm to a top-end howl it goes through a whole host of sonic stages, the most curious of which sounds something like a helicopter taking off.

source: AutoExpress

Given the spectacular horsepower and torque output of AMG tweaked Mercedes Benzes in recent years, its hard to believe they are based on standard production engines.

It used to be that among BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi only BMW went through the trouble of starting ‘from scratch’. Audi would drop the same engine used in their A6 or allroad in the S4, Mercedes strapped a supercharger to their standard V6 or V8 and BMW would push their normally aspirated motors to higher specific outputs and rev limits.

But now Audi’s gotten serious – witness the high revving marvel placed in the upcoming RS4:

Without the assistance of turbos or superchargers, the cooling and accurate fueling benefits of direct injection help this 4.2-litre V8 to produce a vaguely ridiculous 414bhp at 7,800rpm and 317lb ft at 5,500rpm. It combines the low-rev tyre-mangling twist of a small block Chevy V8, with 90 per cent of the torque available from just 2,250rpm right up to 7,600rpm, and yet also revs every bit as manically as a Honda VTEC unit, shrieking all the way to 8,250rpm… [Top Gear]

Mercedes has volleyed back by giving AMG the money to design an engine from scratch for the first time in history (even the Maclaren SLR has the ‘same’ engine used in various AMG models).

Automobile’s Mark Gilles goes into more detail in this piece.

UPDATE: We hear the first AMG model to use the new engine will be the ML63 AMG. (Yes, we think it’s a tad absurd too).