Enthusiasts always seem to think what they want in a sports car is a mildly detuned race car. They want to be just like the guys on TV: banging around, scraping the pavement, arms thrashing with every bump. These are guys who have never actually spent time in a race car getting beat up, cooked, and otherwise abused while driving. Truth is, real competition cars are built with driver comfort near the bottom of the priority list. What everyday drivers really want is a car with all the flash and raw sensation of pounding around Circuit de la Sarthe, but with all the comfort they have come to expect in their family transport. Audi has gotten a pretty good handle on this desire and has built an R8 to scratch that itch.

It is hard to fill a segment void in the automotive world these days. But even so, there are certain pockets of opportunity that remain untouched. And in the case of Audi and its lineup of go-fast sedans, there are unique tuners like Stasis Engineering that will happily fill them.

Vehicles like the Audi Q7 TDI have done a lot to change the perception that diesel vehicles are crude, stinky, black smoke-spewers, and the company's lone turbodiesel SUV gets even better for 2011. (Sister company Volkswagen has several other diesels in its line, including the Touareg, with the same engine as the Q7.)

It's hard to improve on greatness, so when Stasis Engineering offered us a short drive of its modified Audi R8 Spyder, we were excited and skittish. The last time we debarked from a stock R8 5.2 FSI, we concluded that Audi had improved upon near-perfection. Could Stasis improve the R8 even further, or would its upgrades actually set the car back? We intend to find out.

While Americans still settle for the 200-horspower Audi A3, our counterparts in Europe have had the option of buying its higher-performance stablemate, the S3 for quite some time. While an RS 3 variant has long been rumored, it has never surfaced from the four-ringed factory; that is until now.

By now you should be well aware of Motoren Technik Mayer, the German tuning firm that does for the four rings what Brabus does for the three-pointed star. Our last MTM subject was an Audi A3 tuned to replicate the home-market S3, a tantalizing piece of forbidden fruit on our shores. This one seeks to genetically engineer a fruit that doesn't even grow in Germany -- the RS 5 Cabriolet.

These days, it's seemingly a requirement for any supercar worth its Y-rated rubber to have a limited-edition evil twin. Names like Scuderia, Superleggera, GT3 RS, and ACR-X are all testament to the current demand for no-nonsense road monsters, sacrificing comfort and practicality for purpose and sheer speed. Audi's R8 was billed as an everyday supercar when it was released, and the addition of a V-10 in the latest example hasn't done anything to change that impression. But such a reputation is a double-edged sword, with some dismissing the mid-engined Audi as too soft, or without soul.

Audi's elegant and aluminum-intensive A8 has always been a solid player in the luxury-car market, but seldom has it been a sales dazzler. For reasons real or imagined, it has, in the eyes of many, taken a back seat to category juggernauts such as the 7 Series and the seminal S-Class. Audi is now out with a virtually new player in the cabin-cruiser class, and it's a fine one.

Attired in sport coats, faces twisted into the same, pathetic "we're players" expressions assumed by all male humans when prowling the Las Vegas Strip, the three of us cut through the bustling, AAA Five Diamond-winning Bellagio hotel and casino and grab a table in the Petrossian Lounge, the sort of gilded neo-classical haven where a man can kick back after a long, hard afternoon driving 500-horsepower, air-conditioned supercars and soothe his aching fingertips with an icy cocktail and the warm view of a hostess who probably moonlights as Heidi Klum. "I'm driving the Gullwing first tomorrow," says Ed Loh, leaning back, libation in hand. "I need seat time to decide whether the V-8 sounds more like the engine room of the USS Nimitz, or KISS playing Wagner during a thunderstorm."

Tiny bits of gravel crunch and pop under our tires as we roll across a hard-packed dirt path, just outside of Ingolstadt. Traffic is bad, really bad; a midweek holiday and long weekend have conspired to pack Germany's usually efficient autobahn tighter than an Oktoberfest biergarten. So we're taking backroads on the return to Munich, which doesn't really explain why we're on a mostly deserted bike path -- or what happens next.

For the privileged few with the means, a private jet is arguably the ultimate luxury accessory, capable of whisking you anywhere in the world quickly and comfortably. With its new 2011 Audi A8 L, which is landing at next week's 2010 Beijing auto show, Audi is doing its best Gulfstream imitation. No, it won't go 500 mph, but Audi's lengthy new sedan -- especially the coming W-12 version -- should fly on the interstates and get the other half where they need to go in high style.

You've likely seen the guy in the local haberdashery holding a blue necktie in one hand and a red tie in the other. He squints to assess the paisleys on one, eyeballs the dancing circus elephants on the other, then sweeps back and forth between the two. (In the background, the salesman slowly disappears under a web of spider silk.) Finally, after a half-hour, it does indeed come down to a tie: "Can't make up my mind," says the shopper. "Guess I'll just take 'em both."

The guy undoubtedly drives one of the cars you see here.

The sport package. And those sexy LED daytime running lights. That's why you buy an Audi A3 over a run-of-the-mill compact sedan or hatchback. Balance is why you buy an A3 TDI diesel over a hybrid.

Audi launched its all-new 2011 Audi A8 at the Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami Beach, where the automaker is a major sponsor of Art Basel December 3-9, the sister event of a show in Switzerland. Actress Lucy Liu emceed the gala.

There are only two reasons Audi's new A5 Sportback won't be seen in U.S. showrooms shortly after production begins in September. The first is the brand's apparently unshakeable belief that Americans don't like and won't buy premium hatchbacks, no matter how sleekly seductive. "This concept is designed for Europe," shrugged Audi executives at the A5 Sportback launch in Italy this week.

Before the Audi R8, it would have been a long shot for Audi to be invited behind the velvet rope of any VIP party for modern sports car makers. But now everyone knows Audi can build a Porsche 911 rival.

When it was released in 2007, the Audi R8 became an instant sensation. But seemingly before the car even turned a wheel the inevitable follow-up question was asked: when is the more-powerful variant coming? After all, Porsche is never content with just a base 911 and with comparisons aplenty between the Stuttgart legend and upstart rookie from Ingolstadt, it was obvious Audi would eventually up its R8 game.

The revised 2009 Audi A4 sedan and wagon have been around for several months now, but there has been no word on the convertible receiving the same treatment. There's a reason for that: After 2009, the A4 Cabriolet is dead. In its place will be the new 2010 Audi A5 Cabriolet, a logical move given that it's easier to convert a coupe into a drop-top than a sedan.

Featuring fresh lines, an improved cabin, and a new 3.2L, 265-hp V-6 under the hood (an updated 2.0L turbo-four is available, too), the all-new 2009 Audi A4 reaches 62 mph in an estimated 6.2 sec, just a couple of ticks slower than a BMW 335i with an automatic transmission. But A4 shoppers looking for a little something extra have no doubt skipped the regular model to wait for Audi's newest go-fast A4 variant, the 2010 Audi S4.

It was only a month ago that Kahn Design unveiled the TR8 - an Audi TT inspired by the R8 sports car. Now the tuner is releasing another package called the TT GT that promises a more powerful driving experience. It still involves an Audi TT dressed up like an R8, but this time the tuner focused on replicating the R8 GT.