Articles by Tim Vaughan

As I am rocketing around the Phillip Island track in some of Ingolstadt's finest while grinning like a loon, I park that thought for later scrutiny and get on with clipping apexes, Audi Driving Experience-style.This is the hot-laps part of the day and we're doing them in the returnees, the RS6 Avant and RS7 Sportback.In line astern of the Audi instructor, four RS jobs loudly loop the circuit, steered by helmeted hacks getting the double benefits of a media launch and a track day.The track days are increasingly popular on the Audi calendar and this year there are 60-plus around the country, catering to nearly 1500 participants. Drivers don't have to be Audi owners or in a dealer's sights, just moved to part with several hundred dollars — for starters anyway.Why do we have to get into trouble to get out of trouble?Get hooked and there are five tiers, topping out with race-style programs and, among other diversions, ice driving in Europe. If you have to ask what they cost...Our Driving Experience program starts with hazards, some of them driver-induced, then focuses on the electronic nannies that enable today's vehicles to deal with them, then takes in a little attitude adjustment.We must go against instinct on some manoeuvres but we are, as they say, in controlled conditions. This is when the Off-Camber Kid murmurs, "Why do we have to get into trouble to get out of trouble? And can this make us too confident on the road?"We rotate through braking, oversteer and slalom exercises, when marker cones take more of a battering than the view of one's skills. Among our cohort of two dozen, no one has a mortgage on blunders.The activities are about awareness and avoidanceLater there's a motorkhana course in SUVs on the skidpan, where there's no shortage of inundation coming in from the Antarctic via Bass Strait. Chief instructor is motoring all-rounder Steve Pizzati. How does he view chucking Audis around to underscore their safety cred?Ultimately, he says, the activities are about awareness and avoidance "and we've also got to show what can go wrong".In Victoria, where grisly road safety billboards are common, there's plenty of that. As opposed to shock tactics and "little carrots and lots of stick" from road authorities, Pizzati says, the track days get drivers to appreciate the perils of the road as well as the safety gear on their vehicles."They'll spend a full day to get their rhythm. We have few participants so they get more drive time. They'll come away saying, 'How tricky was that?' "It's about here that Off-Camber Kid gets the metaphorical blue flag from the marshal and yields to the front runners. This is, after all, not a safety course but a Driving Experience and we're here to steer.My co-driver and I leave the RS7 burbling at idle, belt up in the Avant and boom out behind the instructor on to the drying track under clearing skies. We roar some more.

Parent company builds vehicles with differing approaches and one aim: to mirror the popularity of Subaru's Outback. Tim Vaughan circles the wagons.

Tim Vaughan road tests and reviews the Range Rover Evoque with specs, fuel consumption and verdict at its international launch in England.

Propelling them into this sophisticated stoush is a refreshed V8 that is monstrous in its outputs yet relatively mild in its thirst and emissions.As they vie for supremacy over the dearer AMG and M division rivals, the pair also cosset occupants in the customary manner, tempt them with luxo-info-safety-performance add-ons and, further in Audi fashion, encourage them to option the beasts up to be different from and dearer than the neighbour in the country club car park.In Sportback and Avant alike, the engine bay gloats over the presence of the 412kW bent eight. For greater thermal efficiency, the twin turbos and outlets are within the vee while the intake plumbing is external.Cylinder-on-demand tech deactivates four of these in traffic and at other idle moments, not that there were many such times at the Phillip Island reveal this week.Fully kitted, each car could nudge $300,000Audi claims for each a 0-100km/h sprint in an astonishing 3.9 seconds yet mid-9L/100km fuel use and, thanks to Euro6 compliance, moderate contributions to greenhouse gases.Add all the fruit on the options list — the $12,000 Bang & Olufsen audio seems a steal — and you’ve got the price of a decent Lexus.Fully kitted, each car could nudge $300,000 but unadorned versions are still tasty in the $230K-$240K band.The RSs of course bristle with digital assistance and there’s sufficient infotainment gear to run your corporation from the front seat.The pair perform an exhaust-note opera as they hustle aroundThe phone contacts capacity doubles to 4000 so you can tell all your friends (and all your employees) how well you’re travelling.The peak RS pair represent, in Audi’s view, the last word in style (Sportback) and practicality (Avant). Include the S variants and R8 and the performance vehicles account for about one in six Audi sales, legging up the brand to outsell the German rivals year to date.Driven solely on the Island’s smooth blacktop, the pair perform an exhaust-note opera as they hustle around, the swoopy coupe slightly less at ease when cornering than the wagon, whose slightly wider track and haunches give it the stance of a staffordshire.As colleague Craig Duff found on the first drive of the RSs in Europe, the Avant might be the better prospect given its sticker reads $12,500 less than the sibling. TVAudi RS6 Avant, RS7 SportbackPrice from: $229,500, $242,000Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin turbo, 412kW/700NmTransmission: 8-speed auto; AWDThirst: 9.6L, 9.5L/100km, 223g, 221g/km CO2Top speed: 250km/h

Tim Vaughan road tests and reviews the Range Rover Sport SDV6, with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

...to precede a horseless carriage to warn the unsuspecting populace of the danger approaching at 3km/h.

It's chips or straws, a toss-up between the petrol DSG and the diesel manual versions of Skoda's Octavia RS, due in Australia in March.

The easiest devices are external and require no bike disassembly. That is, a rear carrier or some roof racks. But these may not guarantee security and can be susceptible to damage in an accident, or breakage of the carrier or its tethers. Tow-bar mounted racks are quick and easy to carry and can have quick release devices to remove them entirely. Tow-bar bike beaks are priced from about $120 (Buzz Rack), $400 (4-bike Yakima) and $649 (Thule Reece-hitch bar). Strap-on racks can be transferred between vehicles but will require a lot of adjustment to fit correctly. They also carry a fear of coming adrift from the car. Strap-on racks cost from about $100 (Allen) to $250 (Saris Bones). Roof-top carriers are handy because they reduce the risk of theft. But taller vehicles, including SUVs, can make installation of the bicycle difficult and introduce the potential for damage to the bicycles from passing low overhead trees or bridges or even driver distraction when entering a garage. Roof-top carriers are priced from $70 per bike plus roof rack but can be used to also load kayaks, timber, surfboards and so on. Floor mounts - often called cool bars - fit into a ute tray. They are a single bar with quick-release attachments for the front wheels. The front wheel must be removed (to be stored elsewhere) and the bikes are carried upright, making it possible to fit three bikes abreast on the tray. Cool bars for utes, trucks and wagons cost from about $90 for a single-block mount (Thule), $270 for a two-bike bar (Yakima) and a three-bike is about $400 (Thule). Placing a bike within a vehicle interior has maximum security but you need a large vehicle and generally only two occupants. Bicycles usually have to have the front wheels removed to fit. The process can be awkward but does away with the need for additional carrying gear. And there's no extra cost. To paraphrase Fats Waller: my pedal extremities are colossal. That is, one day I'll whirr through side streets on the old $1000 road bike and lock it in the well-patronised racks four floors below the throbbing nerve centre of Carsguide. Next day in a $90K Audi I'll be giving the brakes and clutch a workout along a favoured obscure escarpment. Comrade Dowling's suggestions for family and cycle-friendly conveyances bring those poles closer and, we can but hope, might help to get a little love on the roads. The more I see of other cyclists from the saddle, and of other drivers from behind the wheel, the greater the need I see for anguished types on either side to pull their heads in. Drivers, less aggression please, riders have scant protection; and as ESP is not a licence requirement, could you use the blinkers? Cyclists, stop being so pious and work on being pragmatic; put some air in the tyres, lube the chain (and the place for the helmet is on the head, not draped on the handlebars). If this apartheid is to crumble, we'll need competent drivers and confident cyclists. If the former foster the latter, by taking them to the parks and paths to gain skills, so much the better. Meanwhile, to paraphrase George Orwell: two wheels good, four wheels good too.