Welcome to Fast News Friday – brought to you by the automotive experience and content experts, Foxtrot Papa. This week Audi reveals its incredibly handsome all-electric A6 Avant estate car, Aston Martin pulls the covers off its last V12-engined Vantage sports coupe and with the 2022 F1 circus getting underway in Bahrain this weekend, we take a look at some of the content surrounding the season opener.
You may have already noticed that there are very few all-electric estate cars available. This might all be about to change however, following Audi’s announcement this week of its new A6 Avant e-tron concept – a fine looking, fully electric family wagon, with room for a dog and a few suitcases. Like its saloon sibling – which sports a rakish silhouette in line with a vision to provide an EV alternative to both the current A6 and A7 – the new A6 Avant E-tron sits atop the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture, which Audi is developing in partnership with Porsche and will be deployed first in the new Porsche Macan EV and Audi Q6 E-tron in 2023. Audi hasn’t provided any detailed drivetrain specifications as yet but has confirmed there will be a choice of performance-oriented twin-motor set-ups and efficiency-minded, rear-driven variants in the eventual production version.
With the 2022 F1 season opener set to take place in Bahrain this weekend, and as F1 emerges from the restraints of COVID-19, the stage is set for what should be a thrilling season. As practice got underway on Friday and as online coverage began to ramp up, the organisers released its new opening titles footage, revealing the new cars and the new drivers as they embark on an impressive 22 Grand Prix schedule. Check it out, it’s worth a watch. For a more informative look at this year’s grid line-up, scoot on over to Top Gear and scroll through this brilliant feature.
Aston Martin has revealed the muscular new V12 Vantage, and it’s set to be the last Vantage to be fitted with a mighty 12-cylinder engine. Fitting enormous engines in their most compact sports car has been an Aston Martin trait since the first V12 Vantage in 2009 – who remembers Jeremy Clarkson’s moving Top Gear episode where he wrongly thought he was driving the last V12-engined Vantage? Either way, this really is going to be the last V12 Vantage, and by all accounts it looks pretty memorable. For starters, there’s a 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine under the bonnet producing 700hp and 753Nm of torque. This translates into a 0-60mph time of just 3.4 seconds, and it’ll reach a top speed of 200mph. To keep it stable (and to look amazing), there’s an aerodynamic package with aggressive styling upgrades that includes a rear wing making 204kg of downforce at the car’s top speed. There’s also a host of technical upgrades, including a wider track, designed to make all that power just a little more usable.