Rent A Racer: Audi Race Experience Program Puts You in Race-Spec R8

Forget the fantasy baseball camp -- if you've got a good chunk of change at hand, we'd recommend signing up for Audi's Race Experience program, which will ultimately put you behind the wheel of a race-prepped R8 LMS on the famed Nürburgring.

The program, crafted in partnership with Team Joest, essentially allows participants to play race car driver for a day. After a series of driving lessons (including earning a current racing license), participants will field one of two Joest-owned R8 LMS cars in a VLN race on the 'Ring. Joest and Audi Sport will provide everything else needed to go racing, including tires, fuel, a pit crew, telemetry -- and, if so desired, a professional co-driver.

"For the first time, customers have the opportunity to participate in a race with a professional Audi 'factory' team without having to enter a long-term commitment, or making a high financial investment," said Klaus Demel, head of Audi's Driving Experience programs.

Demel's last point may be true -- this will be less expensive than sponsoring and running an entire race team on your own -- but we don't expect the Race Experience program to come cheap. Audi hasn't talked pricing, but seeing as there are more costs to amortize than the company's Sportscar Experience (which runs roughly $3500 for a two-day program), we know this experience will carry a lengthy bill.

If cost is no object to you, add this to your bucket list -- and quickly. Team Joest is only running these cars in six VLN races at the Nürburgring, so despite the high prices, expect openings to disappear quickly.

Source: Audi

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Audi and Xbox to Host Forza 3 Tournament in New York City

Audi and Xbox to Host Forza 3 Tournament in New York City

Want to watch the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, but can't make your way to France? Perhaps the AXF 24 Challenge -- a party co-hosted by Audi and Microsoft's Xbox team -- is the second-best way to view the classic enduro.

The event celebrates the Le Mans race and serves as a venue for a digital race challenge. Audi's currently asking gamers to fire up Forza Motorsports 3, pilot a digital 2009 Audi R15 TDI race car around the Circuit de la Sarthe, and submit their best lap times. Those with three best times will be invited to the Audi Forum in New York City on June 12, where they'll compete head-to-head in a four-hour Forza-based endurance race. The winner will receive a one-day program with the R8 at Audi's Driving Experience school in Sonoma, California.

Want to watch the cyber-race in person? Audi's opened the event -- which includes a live feed of the Le Mans race, food, door prizes, and Forza 3 game kiosks-- to those over the age of 21. The festivities will be held from 1-5 p.m., and Audi suggests you preregister.

Source: Audi, Forza

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Audi's Stronghold in China Threatened by BMW, Mercedes-Benz

For the last 20 years, Audi has been top dog in the Chinese luxury auto market. Now its reign could be threatened as BMW and Mercedes-Benz begin to gain traction in the emerging market. 

"Mercedes and BMW have more up side than Audi in emerging markets, so it will be difficult for Audi to achieve its target," London-based automotive analyst Arndt Ellinghorst told Automotive News.

As the world's single largest automotive market, Chinese customers are increasingly important to BMW and Mercedes. As a result, both have crafted vehicles specifically aimed at the Chinese market. Tomorrow at the Beijing auto show, BMW will unveil an extended 5 Series, while Mercedes is set to debut its new longer E Class. The reasoning for extended wheelbases is that the wealthier Chinese population is typically chauffeured. 

Earlier this month, Audi posted its first quarter sales figures. With a strong start to 2010, Audi was able to secure the second place spot in global luxury sales, bumping Mercedes down to third. The Ingolstadt based automaker hasn't fared so well in China lately. Over that last 6 years, Audi's market share has slipped from 66 percent down to 46 percent. BMW has climbed from 16 to 23 percent, while Mercedes more than doubled its share, from 7 to 16 percent.

Audi had 159,000 deliveries in 2009, but has a goal to sell 200,000 this year. On track for that target, it sold 51,449 in the first quarter this year. Last year BMW sold 90,500 vehicles, but is on track to surpass that mark, with 34,179 sold through March. Mercedes sold 24,100 vehicles in the first quarter of 2010, and should meet its 100,000 sales goal. BMW is investing $749 million in a new Chinese factory to double capacity to 100,000 units annually. Mercedes already has a 100,000 unit production capacity in China.  

"The potential of the Chinese market remains enormous, and our targets are correspondingly ambitious," Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said last week.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)

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New Hyundai Models

A relative newcomer to the American marketplace, Hyundai is a Korean automaker with a product line that has improved considerably over the past few years. Hyundai cars and SUVs provide a high level of content for an affordable price, and are currently backed by one of the industry's longest warranties.
In 1947, Chung Ju Yung founded the Hyundai Civil Engineering Company. Mere months later, the outfit was bombed in the Korean War. However, the company regained its footing to distinguish itself as one of Korea's leading construction enterprises during the 1950s.


By the late 1960s, Chung had turned his attention to the automobile industry. The Korean government at that time believed that it made more sense to import vehicles than produce them domestically, and had made its opinion known. Still, Chung opted to follow his own convictions, and in 1967, he founded the Hyundai Motor Company.
The company quickly established an alliance with one of the industry's oldest automakers, signing a two-year contract with Ford in 1968 to share assembly technology. Hyundai's first car, the Cortina, was created from that partnership. The manufacturer's first car to be built and designed in Korea was the compact Pony (although the car was based on Japanese technology courtesy of Mitsubishi). The vehicle made its debut in 1974, and the following year, Hyundai began exporting it to overseas markets.
Hyundai entered the U.S. market in 1986 with the introduction of its subcompact Excel. The car was an immediate hit, with its supreme affordability being a primary selling point; more than 100,000 Excels were sold stateside in the first seven months. By 1988, Hyundai had begun to produce cars using its own technology. The midsize Sonata was the first fruit borne of this endeavor.
Unfortunately, Hyundai's nascent image was soon tarnished by the poor durability and reliability of its vehicles. Sales tanked. However, rather than abandon the American market in the '90s, Hyundai chose to invest heavily in new product designs and improvements in overall quality and reliability.
The decision started to pay off by the start of the new millennium as the quality, performance and overall desirability of Hyundai cars increased sharply. The company has also smoothed over any lingering doubts about quality by enacting an extraordinarily long warranty period. Though Hyundai's product lineup is smaller than those of most other manufacturers, it gains economies of scale through Kia, another Korean auto brand, which it purchased in 1998. These days, Hyundai is known for producing vehicles that offer great value at low price

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Audi Sound Engineers Place 62 Speakers into a Q7

After orchestrating the design and installation of some pretty far-out Bang & Olufsen sound systems into vehicles like the R8, A8, and Q7, you'd think Audi's sound engineers would be perfectly content. Not so. In fact, in pursuit of the perfect sound, some engineers within the company have created their dream sound system, which involves stuffing 62 speakers into a Q7.



The venture, dubbed the Audi Sound Project, is the pet project of infotainment development engineer Peter Gleim. His goal -- to focus on wave field synthesis -- sounds like a scientist's fantasy, but is actually quite impressive. The object is to recreate a sound wave with several sources (i.e. speakers) placed closely together. Each speaker is controlled separately, so the signal can be delayed and staggered, allowing the listener to hear an exact reproduction of the original sound. Better yet, the sound is produced in an identical fashion for each seating position.

"We can simulate any wave front," Gleim said in a release. "With stereo, we can generate a sound as if the two speakers were located far outside the car. We can also add any desired spatial impression computationally -- not as a sound effect, but as a mathematically precise simulation."

Gleim's team managed to cram all 62 speakers, baffles, and amplifiers into the Q7, but its interior looks anything but normal. The ASP system includes five tweeters, five subwoofers, and 52 midrange speakers, all connected to a large power amplifier. Speakers are integrated into the dashboard, pillars, door panels -- virtually anywhere engineers could find space. Three separate PCs are needed to control both the amplifier and the entire speaker array.

"Our goal was to show what is technically feasible; to explore the limits," said Denis Credé, head of Audi's sound development. "What we are learning will be integrated into the sound systems of tomorrow. It's like with racing: A lot of what is first tried out on the race tracks of this world later shows up in modified in production vehicles. The Audi Sound Concept project is like racing for sound systems."

We imagine both packaging and cost are two major hurdles in pushing the ASC into production. On that later note, adding the 14-speaker Bang & Olufsen system in an A8 or Q7 adds roughly $6300. We suspect that figure would grow exponentially for a 62-speaker system.
We're fans of excellent sound systems, but aren't always convinced they're worth the investment. What say you -- when shopping for a car, is the sound system an important component, or do you skip that option box?

Source: Audi

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