Audi A8 VS Cadillac CT6

First, let me apologize for picking on the CT6 so much. I do liked GM and Cadillac.
But really, I was expecting so much from their "top of the line" model. Especially after all these amazing looking concepts.
Needless to say, I am very disappointed . So there.

I am comparing it to the A8 for 2 reasons. They both have that 3 windows side design.
And, so far, I never really liked the A8. I thought it was always the most boring looking choose in a luxury sedan.
Until now. Until I saw the CT6.
I mean look at both cars. The current A8 came out in 2009 and it looks more modern than the "not even out yet" Cadillac.
The difference will be even greater when the next A8 comes out. (Unless Audi ruins it like they did with the Q7)

But inside, I must say, I do prefer the Cadillac.
It's not a matter of color. ( I couldn't find an official shot with a black interior for the Audi)
But I really hate that big "brush metal strip" Audi is using more and more.
(It is even worse in the new Q7 and upcoming A4) I mean the whole thing almost looks like a mess.

JAGUAR F-TYPE S, SOUND & THE FURY

Called one of the 100 most beautiful cars in the world, the E-Type’s grace was matched by the pace of its 3.8-liter inline six with 265 horsepower. Later it received a V-12. But when the last version of the bullet-shaped roadster once called “the greatest crumpet-catcher known to man” was laid to rest in 1975 that was the last great Jaguar sports cars.

The new F-TYPE comes in supercharged 3-liter V-6 versions with 340 or 380 horsepower, and the 495 horsepower 5-liter supercharged V-8. Ours was the middle model, aimed right at the 350-horsepower Porsche 911 Cabriolet.
 Our 2,700-mile-old roadster emitted a rising snarl as it accelerated toward 60-mph in 4.3 seconds in full Dynamic transmission setting to make shifts more aggressive with higher shift points. Launch control is simplicity – left-foot brake while nailing the throttle, and when the trip computer screen flashes “Dynamic Launch,” releases brakes and go! That gave us a bit of controlled wheel spin at launch to 60 mph in 4 seconds as we paddle-shifted at 6,000 rpm, and 100-mph in 12 seconds. In “Sport,” the throttle is blipped automatically to match engine revs for very rapid downshifts. In a curve, the transmission holds it so we were in the right gear for the exit.


As far as not having a twin-clutch gearbox like the Porsche’s PDK, we didn’t mind. Paddle shift the next gear in “Sport,” and it was clean and quick with an exhaust “whoop!” as the throttle backed off a bit for the next gear, followed by a pop-pop exhaust overrun. This may be the most addictive and feral exhaust note this side of a Ferrari, aided by Active Exhaust that opens bypass valves in the rear of the exhaust under hard acceleration. 

I shut it down in my neighborhood since it was a bit much. Fuel mileage calculated out to 15 mpg after filling up on premium. The engine’s Stop/Start system did turn off the V-6 at stoplights and fire it back up the second I lifted off the brake pedal.


There’s a forged aluminum double wishbone suspension up front and multilink in back with a sports suspension system and adaptive damping that assesses body motion, roll and pitch rates 100 times per second and adjusts accordingly. The Dynamic option, a first for a Jaguar, lets the driver select the firmest steering feel weight and suspension as well as the sharpest throttle response.
The result was a firm suspension in normal, and a really firm setup in Dynamic. We felt every pavement break, but it wasn’t brutal, even at full firm. The well-designed convertible body offered no squeaks/flexing other than some driver’s seat leather creaking. 

The payoff was in any turn. Coupled with the sticky Pirellis, the F-TYPE just carved its way through with a precise steering feel. Power out of a turn and the rear Pirellis stayed planted with no traction control. Push harder into a turn and there was some under steer, but a bit of precise throttle could even it out. The Jag stayed admirably flat in curves as well, a lot of fun to toss around. Large 15-inch front/12.8-inch rear discs with big red-painted calipers had a great initial bite and precise pedal feel as well as no fade after hard repeated use – great dancing shoes for this baby Jag to step out with.

Not just another pretty face! Here is a snarling cat’s face on its grille and a leaping cat on its streamlined tail, with lightweight aluminum body above and architecture underneath. And while the face may have a bit of current XJ sedan, there are some E-Type cues.


The wide mouth grille with gloss black bumper dead center hints at the chrome bar on the E-Type snout. Slim tapered headlights also echo the classic, but with white LED accents down each side. Underneath, twin vertical vents, then a slim lower center air intake over an air dam with small side winglets. A classic slim power dome runs up the bonnet’s centerline, a true clamshell with vents that reveal “SUPERCHARGED” legend on the engine cover. 

Front fenders’ flared edges neatly frame massive Pirelli P-Zero P255/35ZR20-inch radials on carbon fiber blade-accented gray alloy five-spoke wheels. Many people remarked on the highly visible huge disc brakes. The rear wheels are wider P295/30ZR20-inchers. F-TYPES powered by the V-6 get the center exhausts, while the R’s V-8 gets quad tips.


The F-Type’s door handles are flush. But tap the button and they fold out as side mirrors unfurl. Tap the rubberized copper Start/Stop button with a heartbeat pulsing red light inside and the engine barks to life. The heavily bolstered high-back bucket seats done in soft dove gray leather proved to be very comfortable and supportive with lots of door-mounted buttons for the 14-way power adjustments.


Contrasting stitched gray leather lines a J-shaped accent that runs from top of the dash to console base. A white-on-black 180-mph speedometer and 8,000-rpm tach, the latter with a 6,800-rpm redline, face the driver. In between, a color LCD screen with gas and temperature gauge, trip computer, radio, time, outside temperature and digital speedometer as well as gearshift position. A thick leather-clad flat-bottom steering wheel with power tilt and

telescope had the usual buttons for stereo, telephone, cruise and trip computer – but oddly
no voice command for stereo and navigation. Polished alloy pedals live in the foot well,
where I would have loved another inch of legroom.


The central LCD touchscreen has navigation, stereo/video player, phone, parking sensors and backup camera with cross-traffic detection, and phone. That screen also hosts the Configurable Dynamics program that allows the driver to set shift mode, engine and throttle response, steering feel and suspension to normal or dynamic. The screen offers a lap timer, throttle/brake performance and a g-force meter.


Don’t look for a manual gearbox – that’s a BMW-style electronic toggle with eight forward speeds, reverse, and sport setting. There’s a button for active exhaust, an “ECO” switch to engage engine start/stop for gas savings, and another to pop up the spoiler.


Unfortunately we picked up a couple of electrical gremlins – the navigation screen refused to light up twice and the driver’s window would close, and then open. The power top folds flat in 12 seconds up to 30-mph and is beautifully finished inside. We found the seating position with door tops at shoulder height a bit low. But thanks to the laid-back windshield and mesh wind-blocker clipped between the rear roll bars, lots of typical wind noise at 70-mph was blocked out.


A base 340 horsepower Jaguar F-TYPE starts at $69,000, while the 495 horsepower R version starts at $92,000. Our mid-spec S started at $81,000 with standard leather, active exhaust, bigger brakes, 380-watt Meridian stereo, navigation and alarm. Options including Performance Pack S with the high-back performance seats, configurable Dynamic mode, bigger brakes with red calipers, active exhaust and flat-bottom steering wheel brought the total MSRP to $100,538.


This cat has the looks, sound, power and handling to be a player in its exclusive field. If the Porsche is a better dancer, the Jag is the better-looking partner!

AUDI RS7 PRACTICAL MAGIC

Remember the Seventies? Back then; if you were a testosterone-charged teen, chances are your bedroom would have had a poster of a Lamborghini Countach pinned to the wall. Race-me red paint, scissor-style doors raised skywards, more air-gulping intakes than an F-16 fighter.  No doubt it would have been positioned right next to a poster of a red swim-suited Farrah Fawcett, all tumbling blond locks and Chiclets-white smile. Back in 1976 it was an iconic, inseparable combo.

   

Of course, the original Countach was everybody’s dream machine. Crazy, origami-folded-paper styling, screaming 12-cylinder engine and bat-out-of-hell performance. The only problem was one of entry and exit. Getting in and out of a hip-high Countach would be best attempted only after a consultation with your chiropractor. Or with the help of lowering straps! And once ensconced in seats more suited to the torsos of waif-like Italian male models, your spreading derriere would mean you were not extracting yourself any time soon.

Fast forward 40 years, and while today’s Supercars, like the latest Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari F458 Italia, and Bugatti Veyron can provide unparalleled driving thrills, they’re generally still a pain in the back to live with. Which is why, to my mind, the new genre of practical supercars, like Audi’s breathtaking RS7, the Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG, Porsche’s Panamera Turbo and the BMW M6 Gran Coupe, have so much appeal. 

Take the RS7. Here is a car with a weapons-grade twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 under the hood cranking out a staggering 560 horsepower - or 185-hp more than that old Countach. Pedal to the metal, it can scythe from standstill to 60 in an insane 3.5 seconds. That’s almost two seconds faster than the Lambo.

   

Yet this sport-back Audi offers stretch-out seating for four - five at a push - a quartet of doors, superb leather upholstery and a trunk beneath the high-lifting liftback that could double as one of those PODS storage units!

   

Sure the RS7 lacks a certain exclusivity being based on Audi’s high-volume A7 sedan. That said, you’re unlikely to see too many of these $104,900 projectiles cruising the beach. The RS7 does orbit in a whole different stratosphere. It’s honed and developed by Audi’s in-house performance meisters, quattroGmbH, which acts like Mercedes’ AMG division.

See it in the metal and it treads the design-line perfectly between racer-for-the-road and unassuming stealth machine. While aficionados will instantly zero-in on the bulging fenders, the ground-scraping front spoiler, pop-up rear wing and huge 21-inch rims, others will see it as simply one helluva cool car.

And there is really nothing like the RS7’s twin-turbo V8. It is simply a masterpiece of automotive technology, capable of enthusiastically delivering 100 percent of its massive 516 pound-feet of torque from just 1,750 rpm. Squeeze the throttle from low speed and the car erupts with a tsunami of torque, slingshotting you past slower traffic or blasting you from an on-ramp into fast-moving traffic.

Then there’s the noise. The optional sport exhaust with its pair of huge ovoid tailpipes, delivers a wall of primordial snarling, crackling and bellowing. Linda Blair in The Exorcist didn’t have this many demonic voices!

   

And boy can this 4,500-pound monster carve curves. The magical combo of Quattro all-wheel drive which can channel as much as 85 percent of power to the rear wheels, huge 21-inch rubber at each corner, and laser-precise electric-assist steering make the RS7 feel truly alive

.

Inside there’s all the style and luxe befitting a $100-grand sports-luxury sedan. I love the crazy honeycomb-paneled leather seats, the black wood and aluminum inlays, and the optional, ear-bleeding Bang & Olufsen audio - a snip at $5,900. 

Maybe it’s a sign of maturing. But it sure is fun driving an RS7 and enjoying all the power of an exotic two-seat Super car without needing to be a contortionist to clamber in and out.

PORSCHE PANAMERA S E-HYBRID

Chances are if you can afford the $99,975 asking price for Porsche’s latest Eco-offering, the Parameter S E-Hybrid, you won’t be too concerned about saving a few bucks at the gas station. But if you’re keen on doing your bit to help the environment, and you like the thought of piloting a more socially responsible, smoldering-hot sports sedan, this latest Porsche could be for you. And who wouldn’t want to drive a Porsche with Kermit-the-Frog, psychedelic 

lime green brake calipers?

Perhaps the coolest feature of this new Panamera is the fact that it can cruise on a full charge of ions for close to 20 miles. And at speeds up to 83 mph. For most of us, that means Monday-to-Friday commutes - either to the office or mall - can be done with zero emission, electric-only power. When you get Ohm, sorry home, or to the office, just plug it into the socket - preferably the 240-volt one you installed - and you’ll get a full re-charge in just two and a half hours.

So what happens when you hit 20 miles and run out of juice? Nothing. The supercharged 3.0-liter 333-horsepower Audi-based V6 gas motor seamlessly kicks in you’re good to keep going. Of course, with the batteries nicely charged, the V6 Pamamera will perform just like a V8 Panamera, the 95-horse electric motor juiced by a big 9.4kWh lithium-ion battery working with the V6 to give a total 416 horses.

Pedal-to-the-metal and Al Gore be damned, the Porsche will whiz from standstill to 60 mph in just 5.2 seconds and not quit until the speeds needle is showing 167 mph. And driving the E-Hybrid like a regular Panamera, you should see 26 mpg in the city and an impressive 33 to

the gallon on the highway.

I just spent a morning driving this new Eco-Porsche and really came away er, juiced. There’s something delightful about cruising around town in near total silence, with just the distant hum of tires to give the impression of speed.

Off the line in electric mode, this hybrid Panamera is no slouch, squeezing you back into

the seats with none of those soaring engine revs. Talk about a conversation piece

with new passengers. And what young kid in the back seat isn’t going to adore

this rolling science project?

And this being a Porsche, it does tend to handle itself pretty well. With nicely precise elector-hydraulic steering and meaty 245/50-18 front and 275/45-18-rear rubber ware to grip the asphalt, the Panamera is a fun drive.

As for letting the neighbors know you’re driving a green machine, visual cues include those lime green brake calipers, plus a new front bumper design with re-shaped air ducts, aero-style side sills beneath the doors and unique alloy wheels.

If you seem to remember there was a previous Panamera hybrid, you’re right. But the old Panamera S Hybrid was pretty hopeless, with its meager 1.2-mile electric-only range from its nickel-metal hydride batteries.

Of course this new S E-Hybrid won’t be for everyone. Great fuel economy isn’t too high on the list of qualities most buyers are looking for in a Porsche. But this is a splendid way of doing your bit for the environment and still driving a Porsche.