Porshe Foxster & Cayman New Facelift

Porsche unveiled the facelifted Porsche Boxster roadster and the facelifted Porsche Cayman coupe at the 2008 Los Angeles International Auto Show. The duo now offers the PDK dual clutch transmission replacing the outgoing Tiptronic S slushbox, and the Boxster S and Cayman S now has direct fuel injection on its 3.4 liter engines.

Other than a folding soft top on the Boxster and a coupe roof on the Cayman, the two cars also have some differences in design such as the extra diffuser inserts on the Boxster and the wind deflector plate on the Cayman. On the front end, each have their own front bumper design. Even the front signal lamps are configured differently. While both use LED signal lamps, the Cayman’s LEDs are arranged in a square like the face of dice while the Boxster gets a horizontal row of 4 LEDs.

The base engine in the Boxster and Cayman is the 2.9 liter boxer engine, producing 255hp in the Boxster and 265hp in the Cayman. This mean other than being a roadster and coupe version of the same car, the coupe is now more powerful than the roadster across the range as even in the S versions, the direct fuel injected 3.4 liter engine in the Cayman makes 320hp, a 10hp advantage over the 3.4 liter unit in the Boxster S which makes 310hp.

The new cars are more fuel efficient than the pre-facelift versions. The 2.9 liter version does 8.9 liters per 100km according to the EU4 standard, which is 11% less than the outgoing Tiptronic S model.

Audi R8 V12 TDI

Audi displayed this turbodiesel-powered Audi R8 at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show earlier this month. Peek through the rear hatch where the engine bay is and you will see the huge 6.0 liter V12 TDI turbodiesel engine based on the 5.5 liter V12 TDI engine used in Audi’s 24 Hours of Lemans 2006 and 2007 winner, the Audi R10 race car. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox.











This road-going, Euro VI-compliant version of the engine is built at Audi’s Gyor plant in Hungary, and puts out 500 horsepower and 1,000Nm of torque from as low as 1,750rpm, just over idle speed! This massive amount of power and torque sends the Audi R8 V12 TDI to 100km/h in just 4.2 seconds. Putting all that torque to the wheels is Audi’s famous quattro system, sending power to all four wheels in a 40:60 front to rear ratio. The engine bay is illuminated at night with LEDs and can be seen through the rear glass hatch.

The V12 TDI’s crank case is made of gray cast iron with vermicular graphite, a material that Audi calls GJV-450. Audi is already using it in its V6 TDI and V8 TDI engines. This material is 40% more rigid and 100% more fatigue-resistant than conventional gray cast iron. This allowed Audi to make the engine block thinner, cutting weight by 15%.

The mind-boggling grand total of 1000Nm of torque between 1,750rpm and 3,000rpm are thanks to two variable turbine turbochargers located outside of the V bank that blow up to 2.6 bar of boost pressure into the two banks of cylinders. These turbos have two large intercoolers. Exhaust exists from each turbo into its own exhaust system - this means twin exhaust and even twin particular filters.

Subaru WRC Concept STi

This concept called the Subaru WRC Concept will be making it’s public debut at the 2007 Frankfurt International Motor Show next month. It gives us a preview of what the Subaru Impreza STi will look like when it is released in 2008.

The Subaru WRC Concept has twin exhaust pipes on the rear - one on each side, however the production version is said to get quad tail pipes, with the twin pipe setup for rally-going versions of the car only. It will have a wider track than the standard Impreza and Impreza S-GT.