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Audi claims World Endurance Championship at Fuji

It's been a successful racing season for Audi so far this year. After claiming the drivers' title in the DTM series, the German automaker has successfully defended both its titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The decision came after heavy rain ended the 6 Hours of Fuji after only 16 laps, virtually the entire race having been run behind the safety car. Although Alexander Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima won the race for Toyota - the Japanese automaker's first this season - the second-place finish achieved by Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval propelled Audi Sport Team Joest out of its challengers' reach.
While the actual drivers' title still remains in contention, the battle now comes down exclusively to the two leading Audi trios: McNish, Kristensen and Duval hold the lead with 147 points ahead of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer, who hold 106.25 points in the standings. Either way, Audi will be awarded both the drivers' and manufacturers' titles in the series with two races still to go in Shanghai and Bahrain.

2014 Audi R8 V10 Plus

Ignore the naysayers who say the Audi R8 is too refined to be a proper supercar, or that it has begun to show its age - after a few tweaks for the 2014 model year, the automaker's flagship remains one of my favorite exotics.
Audi has treated all of its R8 models to a host of enhancements for the 2014 model year that include new LED headlights and tail lamps, larger steering wheel-mounted shift paddles, new exhaust finishes, updated alloy wheel designs and fresh exterior colors. However, the most significant news is the arrival of a proper seven-speed S-Tronic dual-clutch automatic transmission (it replaces the six-speed R-Tronic). The rapid-fire gearbox shaves a coupe tenths off the 0-60 sprint and improves fuel economy for both the eight- and ten-cylinder models (thankfully, a traditional six-speed manual is still on the order form).
I recently spent time with the new-for-2014 V10 Plus model, which is only available in a coupe body style. Compared to the standard V10 models, the Plus sheds upwards of 130 pounds thanks to lightweight manual seats (not fitted to my test car), carbon-ceramic brakes, reduced sound bay insulation, a smaller fuel tank and an assortment of carbon-fiber pieces (including side blades, front splitter, rear diffuser and spoiler). But that's not all, as the V10 Plus also receives a bump in output that pushes its ten-cylinder to an even 550 horsepower.

Audi builds its six-millionth Quattro-equipped car

All-wheel drive has become the norm particularly among German automakers. Mercedes offers its 4Matic system on a broad range of models, BMW counters with its xDrive system, Volkswagen has 4Motion, and the only Porsche you actually can't get with all-wheel traction is the Boxster/Cayman. But before all its competitors got on board with channeling power to all four wheels, Audi was making a name for itself with its Quattro all-wheel-drive system.
Now 34 years since the advent of the original Audi Quattro, the House of the Four Rings has built its six millionth vehicle equipped with all-wheel drive - only a year and a half since it hit the five-million mark. In fact these days nearly half of all new Audis are ordered in Quattro spec - more than any other automaker - resulting in a total of 710,095 Quattro-equipped Audis produced last year alone.
The landmark 6,000,000th vehicle was an SQ5 in monsoon gray metallic that rolled off the assembly line on Friday and is bound for a customer right here in the United States.