Auto News 5

We might have picked somewhere warmer than northern Wales for the Jaguar F-Type's first meeting with its sports car rivals, but despite the chill of a winter that had overstayed its welcome, this frigid clime did offer some benefits: barren rolling hills; traffic consisting of little more than the postman in the morning and a farmer or two in the afternoon; and mother nature's own special driving stages laid out long before man invented the automobile. Here, three high-performance driving machines gathered for the young season's first roadster shoot-out. In one corner, we have the Audi R8 with the 430-hp V-8 engine and an S tronic automatic transmission. In the other corner is the 400-hp Porsche 911 Carrera S with a seven-speed manual. At center stage is the top-of-the-line, 495-hp Jaguar F-Type V8 S with an eight-speed automatic.

Volkswagen has shown several crossovers concepts with plug-in hybrid powertrains at recent auto shows, including the seven-passenger CrossBlue at Detroit and the five-passenger Cross Coupe TDI in Geneva. The latest is the CrossBlue Coupe, which makes its debut at China's Shanghai Motor Show and is claimed to influence future Volkswagen production models.