Today, during the U.S. debut of the 2011 Volkswagen Touareg at the New York auto show, VW of North America CEO Stefan Jacoby confirmed that the upcoming New Mid-Size Sedan (NMS) will have a diesel engine option for North America. The NMS, which is the working title for the Passat replacement, most likely will be powered by the current corporate 140-hp, 2.0-liter TDI turbo-diesel. We are crossing our fingers that maybe, just maybe, VW will give us the uprated Euro version which puts out 170 hp.

While little else is known about the NMS, we can tell you that it will be built at VW’s new plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, alongside the next Jetta, which was previewed by the NCC concept. VW previously handed out the above NMS sketch which shows that it will wear the current VW family face, as seen on the latest Golf and Touareg.

Look for the NMS to debut sometime later this year as a 2011 model; by then we should know its official name. We hope.

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Quattro-lovers, rejoice: it seems Audi's awesome RS5 may be headed stateside after all.

We loved Audi's RS5 the first time we laid eyes upon it at the Geneva motor show -- and how could we not? The engineers in Ingolstadt managed to pack the already shapely coupe with an even more potent form of the S5's 4.2-liter V-8, which throws down 450 horsepower at a screaming 8250 rpm. Couple that with Audi's legendary all-wheel-drive system, plus its new torque-vectoring rear-differential, and...well, how could we not be tempted?

Fortunately, it appears the RS5 may not be forbidden fruit to North America. We've heard the muscle-bound two-door is increasingly likely to arrive in the U.S, making it one of the first RS-cars to be shipped stateside since the departure of the slow-selling RS4 Cabriolet in 2008.

Timing (along with pricing) is still up in the air, but seeing as the RS5 will reach European markets by October, expect a U.S.-version to arrive by the summer of 2011.

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· Second win for Audi R8 in World Performance Car category at World Car of the Year Awards
· Third win out of five for Audi in World Performance Car category

INGOLSTADT/NEW YORK, - The Audi R8 V10 was named as the 2010 World Performance Car at the World Car of the Year Awards ceremony at the New York Auto Show. This is the second time that the R8 has won the World Performance Car award: the V8-powered R8 took this award in 2008.

The World Car Awards jurors observed that: “In the opinion of many on the World Car Awards jury, Audi has at long last satisfied our hunger for a street car that lives up to the excitement of the original Le Mans series-dominating R8 LMP1 race car.”

Developed jointly with quattro GmbH, the Audi R8 V10 is powered by a 5.2 liter direct injection ten-cylinder engine which develops 386 kW (525 hp), enabling it to sprint from zero to 100 km/h (62.14 mph) in just 3.9 seconds and then to a top speed of 316 km/h (196.35 mph). It features Audi technologies such as quattro permanent all-wheel drive, a lightweight aluminum body and the innovative all-LED lights.

This is the second World Performance Car award win for the Audi R8: the original V8-powered version won the same award in 2008. Whether a customer chooses an R8 with a V8 or a V10 engine, they will get a World Performance Car award winner.

This is also the third Word Performance Car award for Audi in the five years that the award has been on offer: the RS 4 was named as the 2007 World Performance Car.

The truly global nature of the World Car jury is evidence that Audi is hitting the performance car sweet spot of car lovers around the world.

Since the awards began, Audi has claimed one overall award and five category awards:

2005
Audi A6 World Car of the Year

2007
Audi RS 4 World Performance Car
Audi TT World Car Design of the Year

2008
Audi R8 World Performance Car
Audi R8 World Car Design of the Year

2010
Audi R8 V10 World Performance Car

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Porsche parked its orange-and-white 911 GT3 R Hybrid at a media event on Tuesday at a former bathhouse in the East Village, where the racecar was definitely the hottest body in the room.

Audi’s diesel-driven racecars have already dominated at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Now Porsche will see if a hybrid can pull the same trick of saving fuel while shrieking toward the checkered flag. The driver, Marc Lieb, a 29-year-old native of Stuttgart, Germany, has been testing the car that Porsche will run in a series of European races leading up to the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in May.

But you don’t have to look for a hybrid battery pack inside the Porsche, or wonder where it would fit in the rear-engined racer. Like a conventional hybrid, the Porsche does capture energy from its brakes. But instead of a battery, the Porsche stores the electricity in a huge flywheel generator that is plopped next to the driver. That flywheel sends brief 160-horsepower squirts of power to the Porsche’s front wheels through dual electric motors, giving the Porsche a burst of acceleration while momentarily turning it into an all-wheel-drive car. At all times, the roughly 480-horsepower internal combustion engine continues to power the rear wheels.


The flywheel can store 0.2 kilowatt hours of energy and spins at a dizzying 40,000 r.p.m. That flywheel, Mr. Lieb said, requires only a few corners worth of brutal racetrack braking to fully charge up. Mr. Lieb then pushes a boost button when exiting turns for the high-tech equivalent of a nitrous-oxide jolt, while monitoring a gauge that shows how much electric assist is left. The driver said that a hybrid battery wouldn’t work in the racecar, largely because the stresses of such rapid-fire charging and discharging would wreck a battery after only a few laps.

In addition to a performance and traction boost, the Porsche sips less high-octane racing fuel. As with the Le Mans-winning Audis, saving fuel is a winning race strategy, especially in long endurance races in which limiting fuel stops saves critical minutes. The goal at Nürburgring’s nearly 12-mile track, Mr. Lieb said, is to stay out one extra lap – making roughly nine circuits instead of eight – before having to pit for fuel.

A few days ago, Mr. Lieb, who also races Porsches in the American Le Mans Series, and two fellow drivers won the season opener of the Nürburgring Long Distance Championship, driving the conventional GT3 R. But the hybrid finished sixth in its inaugural race, an encouraging result for the factory team.

Mr. Lieb said the hybrid was still a bit slower on the track than the nonhybrid race version, as engineers seek to fully integrate the weight-adding hybrid system, a huge technical undertaking.

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Awards season is finally winding down with the 2010 World Car of the Year and World Performance Car of the Year being handed out this morning at the 2010 New York Auto Show. After whittling the fields down to three finalists in each category, the panel of 59 international journalists voted one last time to crown the World Car of the Year.

While the Toyota Prius, Volkswagen Polo and Mercedes-Benz E-Class were nominated, it was the Polo that took home the gold for 2010 World Car of the Year.

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