Used to be that tuning houses wouldn't look sideways at a diesel engine. Now, with Europe's diesel boom in its, oh, zillionth year, yet another tuner diesel is hitting the 'bahn — B&B Automobiltechnik's Audi A4 Cabriolet. With the 3.0-liter TDI as a starting point, the company installs a turbocharger with a custom air-induction system and hot-rodded ECU software to tweak a 70hp boost to 300 hp and 442 ft.-lbs of torque out of the oil-burning drop top. The enhancements included in this top performance level only cut zero-to-62 times from 7.3 seconds to 6.2 seconds, but boost top speed from 150 mph to 163 mph. The downside is the $7200 price tag (and Europe-only spec). (Not that it could run on our sulfur-rich diesel anyway.)
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Audi Unveils New A4 Cabrio for Europe [internal]