Audi confirmed the arrival of the new S6 awhile ago with the car’s world debut date set for the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. Now that the debut is only a few short months away, the S6 Avant is getting stripped of its camouflage and enduring some of its final testing. Our newest spy shots reveal every aspect of the new station wagon, minus the S6 badges, but what we’re really interested in is the upgraded engine underneath the sparkling exterior.
The 2012 Audi S6 will be powered by a newly developed 4.0 liter V8 engine with twin-turbos, allowing the wagon to deliver about 450 HP. Not only will the new engine deliver more power, but true to the times, it will also reduce fuel consumption and emissions by about 20%. The model will be offered with a Quattro four-wheel-drive system and an eight-speed automatic gearbox fitted as standard.
After its world debut later this year, the Audi S6 Avant will go on sale - in both sedan and station wagon versions - at the beginning of 2012. If you live in the U.S. and don’t care for station wagons (which covers most Americans), don’t worry, the S6 Avant won’t be coming over here anyway.
Apparently owning a wagon over in Dubai is about as cool as doing the Irish Jig in a Hip Hop dance club, but two guys over in the Middle East are combating this ridiculous notion with a rendering of a CTS-V Wagon Racer. Yes, sadly, it’s just a rendering, but Lap 57’s Emirati race driver, Omran Al Owais, and his brother Mohammed are hoping these images will increase interest and gather up some sponsors to make this vehicle a reality.
The Cadillac wagon seen in these images actually belongs to the brothers and they hope to take them to Nurburgring to complete the next step towards possible production. Before that happens, though, the two brothers are looking for advice from some top tuners, including Hennessey Performance and D3, on how to make this happen.
Currently, the CTS-V wagon is still in standard form which means it is being powered by a 6.2 liter supercharged V8 engine that delivers a total of 556 hp and 551 lb.-ft. of torque. We don’t expect to see many changes, but we imagine the changes actually made will resemble Cadillac’s adjustments to the CTS-V Coupe racer.
A CTS-V Wagon Racer is the dream car of Lap 57’s Emirati race driver Omran Al Owais who said: “We are hoping this fetish might catch on with other Emiratis and see them ditching their X6Ms and G55s, so that we start seeing serious girls on the road such as the RS6/E63 or the new exciting M5 Wagon. The streets of Jumeirah at night will never be the same.”
The German tuner Edo Competition is usually focusing on models from Ferrari or Lamborghini, but this time they came with the M5 Dark Edition - a 555 HP BMW M5 wagon that wants to prove that even family cars can be fun.
The most important part of he tuning package is of course the engine update. The tuner is offering a recalibrated ECU, high-flow air filters and catalytic converters as well as a newly developed high-performance exhaust system that will increase the engine’s output from 500 to 555 HP and the peak torque from 384 lbs-ft to 413 lbs-ft. Also, after removing the speed limiter the car can hit a top speed of 190 mph. The 0 to 60 mph sprint is also made 0.5 seconds faster (4.2 seconds).
The package also includes a modified front and the new rear skirt, a new rear wing and a new set of 20" light alloy wheels with painted centers and Dunlop tires. The interior combined carbon fiber with precious leather, making the M5 a very elegant and enjoyable car.
Hennessey Performance is bringing a bit more class to their Cadillac CTS-V V700 package by dropping it into one of the rarest Cadillac CTS-V models ever: the Black Diamond Edition with a manual transmission. Now owners of the exclusive Black Diamond can also take part in the 707 HP madness that was provided to the standard model last year.
The Black Diamond CTS-V features a dark tri-coat paint an embedded with SpectraFlair Bright Silver pigment. This special pigment uses aluminum flakes encapsulated in a glass-like substance called magnesium fluoride. The result is a paint that has a diamond-like sparkle as light hits the surface from different angles. The special exterior paint is further highlighted by Satin Graphite 19-inch wheels with yellow Brembo brake calipers and a special Midnight Sapele wood trim.
The sparkling exterior of the Black Diamond makes it a hot commodity to begin with, but Hennessey’s V700 upgrade package causes the temperature to spike with 707 raging horses, up from the CTS-V’s standard 556 HP. For this increase, the Cadillac’s 6.2 liter supercharged V8 engine was given a plethora of goodies, including an HPE Cold Air Induction System, supercharger pulley upgrade, intercooler heat exchanger upgrade, and a V700 camshaft upgrade. Other features include high flow cylinder heads, stainless steel long tube headers, high flow catalytic converters, and stainless steel mid-pipes.
With these additions, the Cadillac CTS-V Black Diamond V700 can sprint from 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds, make the quarter mile in 10.9 second at a speed of 128 mph, and will be capable of a top speed of 211 mph.
BMW is readying yet another X1 variant for this year’s Fall lineup with the new X1 sDrive20d EfficientDynamics Edition. This new model will be powered by a four cylinder engine that delivers a total of 163 HP and delivers an average fuel consumption of 4.5 liters/100 km with a CO2 emission of only 119 grams per kilometer. With these numbers, the new model will become the most fuel efficient X model yet.
The engine for the new X1 has been optimized with a centrifugal force pendulum in the dual-mass flywheel, which compensates vibration experienced at low engine speeds, thus providing more riding comfort when the vehicle is driven within the economic low engine speed range. The gear-shift point indicator fitted as standard has been adapted to suit the new engine characteristics.
The new engine will also be combined with brake energy regeneration, Auto Start Stop function, electromechanical power steering, a disengageable air-conditioning compressor, and tires with reduced rolling resistance.
All told, the BMW X1 lineup will include three petrol and four diesel power units with power ranging from 143 to 245 HP.
