New Range Rover Sport crosses ‘Empty Quarter’ Desert in record time

The new Range Rover Sport crosses the ‘Empty Quarter’ Desert in record time We all know that almost every Range Rover Sport sold will never do anything more rugged than crossing a boot sale car park. But that doesn’t stop Land Rover hanging the Sport’s reputation on its ability to go anywhere, and do it more quickly. To demonstrate that combination of off-road prowess and speed they recently put the new Range Rover Sport up Pikes Peak in a record time (for an SUV) to demonstrate it could do rough stuff at speed, and now they’ve been out playing in the deserts of Saudi Arabia to ram the point home.

Audi A3 Saloon arrives in the UK from £24,275

The Audi A3 Saloon (pictured) arrives in the UK Audi isn’t afraid of covering every possible niche in its ambition to be the world’s top ‘Premier’ marque, so we now get a third body shape for the new A3 – the Audi A3 saloon. Designed to sell in markets that prefer a traditional 3-box car to a hatch – like the US and China – Audi still believes there’s a market for an A3 with a boot in the UK, so the new A3 Saloon arrives on sale with a choice, at least initially, of three engines – two petrols and a diesel. Cosmetically, apart from the addition of a boot, the A3 Saloon gets more pronounced curves, bigger wheel arches, new shapes on the bonnet, new bumper, new lights and a boot spoiler.

One lap of the Web: Amphibious awesomeness, retro Land Rovers and a toy Toyota engine

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Looks like the Willow Run assembly plant outside of Ypsilanti, Mich.