This is me reading WAY too much into these paragraphs, but they scare me for the following reasons:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rev ///Me
Van Meel has worked at Audi AG since 1996, in chassis development and technical management, becoming MD of quattro GmbH in 2012.
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While they make great cars, Audi chassis aren't known to be as nimble as BMW's. Would hate to see sacrifices be made to handling in order to accommodate AWD cars.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rev ///Me
However, earlier this year, van Meel was reportedly stood down from leading quattro and reassigned to Audi’s Chinese division, after rumours emerged of a fallout with Audi development boss Ulrich Hackenberg over the direction of the new Audi R8. It seems BMW has taken advantage of Audi’s internal strife and poached the former rising star.
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I don't know what kind of arguments were happening over the direction of the new R8. But I do know that it's shedding weight and staying naturally-aspirated (at least the V10 model is). If Ulrich was the one pushing for that direction, then you assume Van Meel was pushing for something other than lightening the weight and keeping the engine NA, which is bad news.
Anyway, I guess time will tell. Given how far car product pipelines run, we likely won't see his influence for a number of years.