ABT, a Euro tuning house, has been up to all sorts of fun/crazy stuff these days, a heavily modded VW Scirocco Coupe and a worked over Audi Q5 and R8 to mention three. They continue on in that vein with their new massaged Audi S5, which they dub the AS5-R and whose most outstanding feature is 510HP.

The AS5-R makes its debut at next month’s Geneva Show. The ABT version of the A5 coupe includes an updated version of the current S5’s 344HP 4.2-liter V8 engine, modified to crank out 510-horsepower. ABT is staying schtum on any more info on the AS5-R, but aside from the massaged engine, you’ll also notice a new body kit, larger alloy wheels along with a modified suspension and a more powerful braking system. About what you’d expect.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Kurt Gensheimer

Horsepower. Raw, tire-melting horsepower. Every man worth his chest hair can’t deny it’s one of the first criteria for buying a car powered by a V8. Typically, the more the horsepower and the lower the MSRP, the more attractive it looks. It was the formula that made the muscle car era a piece of American history. But nowadays, American automakers aren’t the only ones making rear-wheel-drive radial roasters; Japan and Germany have also gotten in on the unmitigated horsepower wars, albeit with a little more luxury and refinement.

We recently had a Bridgestone bar-b-que with three fire-breathing, rear/all-wheel-drive V8s representing each of the three respective automaking countries. Japan arrived respectfully in the Lexus IS-F, Germany showed up to the cookout well dressed in the Audi S5, and the United States arrived rockin’ a mullet and Miller Lite in the Dodge Challenger SRT8. Three different V8s, three different countries, and three very different cars.

Read the rest of this entry »