The eye catching Audi Cross Cabriolet Quattro concept seen at the LA Auto Show might be destined for production. The SUV could head into showrooms by 2010 as the drop top version of the forthcoming Q5 SUV. The Q5 is set to do battle with the BMW X3 and the Land Rover Freelander.
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German tourists and the Audi R8 by Russ Bond

Good friend and occasional commenter here in The Garage Jouni Ranta is one of those Ontarians whose transplanted himself to a Canadian mountain town. He began his day today with a walk to the office. Rough life in those mountain towns. Anyway, back to our brush with an R8 story.

While walking through a gas station parking lot, Herr Ranta came across a fully fueled R8 about to drive off with it’s fuel door open. Being the friendly Canadian, our hero struck up a conversation with the forgetful R8 driver. One thing led to another and they headed off to a hotel together.

Ok, this is a car blog so get your head out of the gutter. One was working in the hotel, the other was staying there. Hmmm..this isn’t getting any better now, is it? The driver was none other than legendary Canadian automotive trekker Garry Sowerby in one of the Audi R8 Performance Tour cars. Imagine that. One Canadian fellow in a cool car offers a ride to another Canadian fellow in a small mountain town. You’d almost think someone scripted that. This is real life, you can’t script these things. Unless of course there was a Mountie in the picture.

Another friend of The Garage, Russ Bond was actually taking part in the R8 Performance Tour and while Rustye didn’t meet up with the Mounties on his travels from Barrie, Ontario all the way to Thunder Bay, he did manage to get some photo ops with the OPP. Be sure to visit Russ’ full account of the trek over at Painkillerz.ca where he not only has some great shots and the full story, but he’s also filmed a pretty cool V-log of the trip. Very cool.

Back in the good old days, it was pretty common for European manufacturers to offer stripped down sporting versions of their regular road cars. For a long time, the fun side of things vanished as corporations tried to be politically correct or something. Lately though, the design gods are bringing the fun back. Case in point, the Audi TT clubsport quattro concept. Borrowing styling cues from sixties era speedsters, this is one hot looking machine.

Be sure to visit our gallery full of images

Audi press release with all the details after the break
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Super hot Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock has gotten her hands on the super hot new Audi TT. Why does she need a TT? Well, to carve up the mountain roads around her boyfriend’s neighborhood. Why do the rich and royal types get all the hot Olympians? Oh yeah…something about being rich and royal!

Audi press release after the break
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Spring 2007 seems to be the season of the big budget promo video. We’ve had high end shorts from Ferrari/Shell, Red Bull F1 and now Audi is getting in on the action with a pair of shorts for the upcoming A8 supercar.

Shot over 6 days in Mexico with 1050 extras, the films cover Audi’s motorsports heritage from each of the past 7 decades. Shot in HD by veteran camerman Ian Foster, this promises to be a great ride. The spots will debut in Germany on April 6th during the first airing of Will Smith’s I Robot on the RTL Channel.

Full story from Audi after the break
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Here in The Garage, we’re all about the history. Most manufacturers realize the value of their heritage and Audi is no different. This year they are celebrating 75 years of the four rings as the company symbol. It’s been 75 years since 4 manufacturers joined forces to become Auto Union AG. This combination of Audi, Horch, Wanderer and DKW produced the second largest auto manufacturer in Germany. If you’re lucky enough to be in Essen from March 29 to April 1, be sure to spend some time at the Techno Classica show, where Audi is showing a number of vehicles from all 4 partners.

Read all the details from the Audi press release after the break
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Quattro. The name evokes thoughts of white, yellow and black Group B rally cars cresting wet yumps at the 1000 Lakes Rally, or drifting past stone houses in the hills above Monaco. With the evolution of the Quattro, that beast has become known as the über Quattro. Every AWD Audi since has been a Quattro, but never as outrageous as that early Eighties monster. Until now.

Audi has combined modern German technology with German/Italian motivation to create the ultimate road going Audi. Audi’s Quattro system, aluminum construction and a high revving V8 shared by Lamborghini, this really may be the new über Q. Time will tell if this model will back up the motorsports dominance that the original Quattro displayed. What is certain, is that Audi has built a hyper performing, road holding new über Quattro that could be an equally important part of the Quattro legend.

Visit our gallery of shots from the Canadian International Auto Show, taken by Jaimie from Random

Audi press release after the break
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Ok, so maybe I’m going a little overboard with the videos today, but I’m having fun sharing some rally goodness. I just came across this little historical gem. It’s a really nicely done history of Group B, spanning from the Fifties through to the Eighties. The only problem is once again the sound track. I can’t remember the name of the simp who sings this crap. It’s even worse than Bryan Adams.

Over at Autoblog, that Nunez guy has been scouring the gootubes looking for some killer rally videos. One of the treats that he’s found is this compilation from an old Group B video. If you’ve never seen these machines in action, be prepared for double your daily dose of auto erotica! The video these clips came from are what convinced me years ago that road racing was for wussies and rally was where the real men raced.