Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Peer into the future, without the crystal ball

We kicked off 2012 by visiting not-so-beautiful Las Vegas to attend CES, with the hope of getting a head start on the exciting new products that will launch over the coming year. While we’ll continue to highlight gadgets revealed there on a regular basis, one of the best parts about being on the ground at [...]

All Right

If the resident car nuts here at Gear Patrol can agree on one thing (which doesn’t happen very often) it’s that we consider ourselves “wagon-ites”, for lack of a better term. Practically no one does it better than Audi, or Subaru, and specifically the all new 2013 Audi allroad Quattro. First introduced in 1999 in [...]

“What happens if we mix the sound of a classical orchestra with the modern tones of a powerful motorsound? What’s the outcome if we try to use the momentum of a melody and blend it to the deep sound of a V8 or the high tone of a biturbo engine?” These are the questions the [...]

How mid-size got its groove back

I fondly remember my father’s 1988 Audi 5000, both of them. After the first one he owned had run its course, he went about purchasing the exact same one again. Same color, same interior, same everything. It was then, despite its infamous foibles, that I was introduced to German engineering, a course on how to [...]

Sexy Back

Well, folks, it looks like the “four door coupe” is one oxymoron that is here to stay. The term is a weird one, but for Audi, the result is positively stunning in the 2012 Audi A7 Sportback 3.0 TFSI, an exercise in what can be done with automotive sheetmetal when the beancounters don’t get a [...]

Woodn't you?

Sometimes aesthetics play second fiddle to environmental sustainability. Some automobiles come to mind. In the case of the 2011 Audi duoCity, design reigns alongside being green. Audi has partnered with Portland, OR based Renovo, maker of custom hardwood bikes. With impressive lightness, stiffness (hold back on the wood jokes) and shock absorbency, the duoCity boasts [...]

What a luxury sedan feels like. Period.

Gets you where Quattro won't

In case Hublot’s sledge doesn’t strike your winter sport fancy, consider Audi’s Carbon Ski Concept a potential alternative. Created in collaboration with Head, Audi’s Munich based concept design team has developed a pair of skis built around a wood core sandwiched between aluminum and titanium and coated in carbon fiber. The result is a more [...]

I crush your Big Wheel

When is a toy car not a toy car? When Audi builds one out of carbon-fiber, throws in an electric motor and makes it so exclusive, you can’t actually buy it (yet). Case in point, the Audi C e-tron, built by the German automaker and modeled after the Auto Union Type C Grand Prix car [...]

The 2010 Paris Motor Show had landed and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to for a man to assume an amplitude of impossibly sexy cars, leggy models, and enough bespoke suits to make the men of Positano blush. Well, if this year’s display of supercar prowess is anything more than a declaration that the recession is [...]

Only True Audi Fans Need Invest

If you’re an Audi fan and aren’t saving your paychecks for an S5, then Audi’s design arm, Audi Design, has provided you another opportunity to keep your money “in the family” with the Audi Foosball Table ($16,000). Having taken a year in development and designed to meet strict foosball tournament standards (whatever the hell that [...]

Lighter, Faster, Tremendous(er)

Move aside Lamborghini Gallardo LP560, Audi’s in town with the bigger, badder 2011 Audi R8 GT ($250,000). 560 hp and 398 lb-ft torque (yes, the same Lambo), ensure the R8 GT will bully with the best (though we’ll settle for our Audi S5). Ingolstadt’s scientists/artists have coaxed and wooed the 5.2 FSI V10 to the [...]

By Michael Curwood | The Truth About Cars Audi is pitching its late-to-the-party Q5 against Lexus’ recently refreshed RX350. Audi’s ad men would have you believe that the Q5 buyer is making a forceful statement of individuality and taste—in contrast to the RX buyer’s safe, boring, follow-the-herd mentality. It’s a strange play during these times [...]