Audi has taken the wraps off the new A3 Cabriolet at the Frankfurt show, and promised a hotter S3 to follow.

When an unexpected rainshower hits while you’re driving around in your 2014 Audi S3 Cabriolet do you, a) use the car’s 5.4-second 0-100km/h performance to get under shelter, or b) hit the button to electrically raises the triple-layered fabric roof in just 18 seconds while driving at speeds up to 50km/h?

That’s the kind of 1st-world dilemma that’ll face owners when the Audi S3 Cabriolet arrives in late 2014. With 221kW of power and 380Nm from a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine, it promises to be one of the fastest sub-$100k convertibles in Australia.

For those with less of a power fixation, the Audi A3 Cabriolet comes with a 103kW 1.4-litre and 132kW 1.8-litre turbocharged petrol engine, and a 110kW 2.0-litre turbodiesel. It’s not known whether all three variants will make it to Australia, and which will be offered with Audi’s trademark quattro all-wheel drive system. Details are expected to firm closer to launch.

The A3 Cabriolet is both longer (18cm) and lighter (by 50kg) than the outgoing model; the former promises to improve occupant and luggage space, the latter will definitely mean good things for performance and economy.

The new A3 Cabriolet gets a host of active driving safety features, including active cruise control, active lane assist, traffic sign recognition and active park assist. That last one can be paired with an active internet connection to find available parking spots in connected garages – in Europe, at least.

Volkswagen gives its biggest seller, the Golf, a pure electric drivetrain to prove it’s very, very serious about the future.

Before we tee off on Golf, I need to mention the other pure-electric cars Volkswagen unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show. One was a light commercial vehicle based on the up sub-compact hatch, called the load-up. I’d have gone with upload in this digital age, myself. As for the electric up hatchback, which we drive in the next issue of the mag, it’s really hard to say the name without sounding a lot Scottish and craving haggis. E-up laddie.

Jokes aside, this is serious mum. When a company like Porsche calls hybrids “a cornerstone of our future drivetrain strategy”, you know they’re here to stay. And when Volkswagen develops an electric Golf – the e-Golf – for mass production and sale, you know it’s coming to a shopping centre near you very, very soon.

Not too soon for Australia, though. Volkswagen’s local management isn’t convinced we Aussies will buy these battery-powered urban conveyances in sufficient numbers, even though they both have a real-world range well into triple figures. For the record, VW claims the e-up’s 18.7kWh battery pack is good for 140-160km depending on driving style. The e-Golf, which gets a bigger battery pack, can do up to 190km. And these aren’t empty claims; on our e-up test drive, we managed 140km from a single charge – and that’s while driving it with little though towards conservation.

Still, it’s worth bearing in mind the e-up’s European price tag: E26,900. That’s around $38,000 in Aussie pesos, or two Nissan Pulsars. No price details for the e-Golf yet, but it won’t be cheaper. Maybe VW’s Aussie crew are right to be cautious. Until these cars become competitive on price with conventional internal combustion, it’s hard to see them really hitting the big time anywhere but with rich, early-adopting tree huggers.

Bugatti ‘Jean Bugatti’ pays homage to founder’s son, and one of the world’s most expensive classic cars.

Is France’s oldest luxury car brand stuck in a Groundhog Day nightmare, or have they really run out of ideas? Not that we don’t like another opportunity to drool messily over the fastest car in the world. But seriously folks, enough already. It’s been nine years since the Veyron debuted. Time to look to the future again.

This is the Jean Bugatti. It’s the second of a series of six Veyron-based one-offs, each celebrating a legend. The first was the ‘Jean-Pierre Wimille’, celebrating a man who was an F1 driver in the 1930s and a member of the French resistance during World War Two.

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse ‘Jean Bugatti’, to give the second ‘legends’ car its full name, celebrates the son of Bugatti’s founder Ettore.

A gifted automotive designer, Jean’s most celebrated work has to be the Type 57SC Atlantic, an iconic 1930s sports coupe of which only four were ever built.

The specific Altantic to which the Jean Bugatti pays homage is the first one “La Voiture Noire”, hence the jet black paintjob. La Voiture Noire once belonged to Bugatti, but was lost in transit amid the confusion of World War Two. My bet is it’s sitting in a Swiss bank vault somewhere…

Inside the Jean Bugatti, platinum has been used for the first time to lend an air of extravagance to the vehicle. As if it needed any more help in that regard.

Flick through the gallery to check out the special Veyron and the 57SC Atlantic that helped inspire it.

First in, first served, right? Just ask Volkswagen.

The 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show mightn’t open until tomorrow, but VW got the jump on its rivals this morning by revealing its group’s show-stopping displays 24 hours early.

As has become customary for the world’s largest car brand, the VW Group invited select journalists to a special pre-event showing in Frankfurt to reveal its new products.

Highlights included the world premier of the new Audi Sport Quattro concept and the unveiling of the production-ready Porsche 918 Spyder.

Flick through the gallery to see the action, as it happened, from the ground in Frankfurt.

Land Rover has launched the world’s first turbodiesel hybrid in the luxury 4×4 class at the Frankfurt Motor Show with new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport variants.

Both use the same parallel hybrid system, based upon Land Rover’s existing 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel/eight-speed automatic transmission drivetrain.

A 35kW/170Nm electric motor/generator, 1.76kWh/266 volt water-cooled lithium-ion battery and inverter, with a total weight of 120kg, work with the engine for a combined system output of 250kW and 700Nm — the same numbers generated by the 4.4-litre V8 turbodiesel fitted to Range Rover’s current SDV8. The hybrid’s claimed 0-100km/h time of 6.9 seconds also matches the V8.

It’s no contest in the efficiency or emissions stakes, though. The hybrid returns 6.4L/100km with CO2 emissions of 169gkm. The V8 averages 8.7L/100km and 229gkm.

Range Rover’s signature off road ability is unaffected in hybrid form. The hybrids have the same 900mm fording depth capability and ground clearance as other big Range Rovers; they also retain a dual-range transfer case and the Terrain Response adjustable off-road traction control system. Boot space is uncompromised, you still get seven seats in the Sport and a full size spare in all variants.

You can switch to electric-only mode (in high range only), which allows the Rangie to silently stealth through traffic at up to 48km/h for 1.6 kilometres on battery power alone.

On an all too brief drive of just a few kilometres around Frankfurt’s streets we averaged 12.8L/100km. You could do better than that once you had the knack of tapping the car’s regenerative braking and riding its EV capability to the max, but forget hitting the official 6.4L/100km figure on a regular basis. It’s not going to happen when this drivetrain is still pushing 2.4-2.5 tonnes around.

The Range Rover and Range Rover Sport hybrids arrive in Australia in the second quarter of 2014.

Come 2020 there will also be much lighter, plug-in Range Rover hybrids, using up to 70 percent recycled aluminium construction.

Two new models for Bentley’s wild child range scream sports with a capital S.

It’s official. S equals 16kW and 20Nm. It also equals lowered sports suspension and sharper steering. And it equals a more overt sports bodykit to really set the Bentley Continental GTV8S apart from the boring, mundane, yawn-inducing Contintental GTV8.

Okay, the Continental GT is far from yawn-inducing, even ten years after it first debuted. And the standard GT’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with 373kW and 660Nm doesn’t exactly make it the whimpy kid in its class. But if more power is on offer, what sane person could refuse?

Information on exactly what Bentley has done to increase power to 389kW and torque to 680Nm (on tap from 1700rpm) is scarce at this stage. What it has done is lower the time it takes to hit 100km/h: now just 4.3 seconds in the coupe and 4.5 seconds in the convertible.

As we said earlier, the S stands for more than just extra grunt. All the changes are aimed at making the GTV8S a sharper, more involving drive than the standard GTV8. Right down to the louder, prouder exhaust note.

The suspension has been significantly reworked to up the dynamic envelope, and the steering system recalibrated to sharpen response. Engineers even retuned the electronic stability control to allow more wheel slip before lending a hand. This then, must be a Bentley that likes a good drift… An all-wheel drive drift, no less. How positively uncivilised. Can’t wait.

Flick through the gallery to check out the Bentley Continental GTV8S in coupe and convertible variants.

Golf, 911 and now the Audi TT joins the ranks of those iconic German models that can be transformed under the skin, yet very deliberately assume the same basic appearance.

For the third-generation TT – first launched in 1998, after appearing as a concept in 1995 – Audi’s tighten up the styling, exaggerated the single-frame grille, gone even bigger on LED lights and drastically changed the profile proportions. All while maintaining the now classic and much admired TT look in a car that, Audi claims, is more sports car than ever.

The TT, built on a shorter A3/Golf wheelbase (2505mm, down 130mm on the hatchbacks, but up 37mm on the previous TT), shares the MQB architecture. With a tiny reduction in overall length, this reduces overhangs for a stronger stance. An all new and spectacular interior includes a fully digital dashboard that, at the touch of a button, switches from speedo/tacho, to navigation with a digital speedo or, on the TTS, a dominant central tacho.

Alloy and light weight steel construction account for a 50kg weight reduction – the 2.0TFSI is 1230kg. Confirmed for Australia is a 169kW (up 14kW) 2.0 TFSI in front and quattro drive – 0-100km/h in 6.0secs – and the quattro-only 228kW TTS – 4.7secs to 100km/h – driving through six-speed manual or S-tronic twin clutch gearbox. A variable ratio steering rack is standard, with adaptive damping an option, except on the TTS where it’s included.

The TT Coupe – front and quattro – arrives in Australia in the first quarter of 2015, with the roadster to follow a few months later.

As you read this, some lucky bloke is about to become the first Australian to take delivery of McLaren’s new supercar, the 650S. Yep, Australia is one of the first markets in the world to receive McLaren’s bonkers new supercar, which is designed to sit above the MP4-12C and below the science-meets-tarmac hybrid-powered P1.

Unveiled at Geneva this morning, McLaren’s latest addition will hit Aussie roads later this month and although it sports a new look, bits of the 650S are familiar.

For instance, it keeps true to the proven formula of a lightweight, twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8 wrapped in a cocoon of carbon composite. Of course, it’s mid-engined and rear-drive.

The 650 part of the supercar’s name refers to its metric horsepower, equating to 641bhp (478kW) delivered at 7250rpm. The forced induction results in 95 percent of the V8’s 678Nm of torque arriving from 3000rpm, and it only starts to fall off from 7000rpm. The 650S will fire those big numbers to the Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

Externally, the 650S borrows much of its styling cues from the larger P1.

A wide, deep splitter is framed on either side by low-energy LED headlights, with large hook-shaped intakes feeding cooling air to the brakes. Behind the front wheels, “air blades” formed from the sharply sculpted rocker panels help suck the 650S’s aerodynamic form to the road, as well as feeding even more air into the blade-like air intakes behind the gullwing-style doors.

Inside, contrast-stitched Alcantara is offset with carbon-fibre in a cabin featuring satellite navigation, digital radio and even air-conditioning as standard.

McLaren won’t say how many potential Australian buyers have stumped up money for the 650S, only that within days of its announcement in February, the car-maker already had a queue forming at the door.

Jeep’s major reveal at the Geneva motor show was the chunky little Renegade, which will be a hugely important model for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

It is the first small SUV from Jeep, the Italian-American company’s only truly global brand.

Booming worldwide demand for small SUVs means the Renegade has big-time sales potential; enough, perhaps, to push Jeep’s annual sales beyond the one-million mark.

Renegade also shows how FCA (the name adopted after Fiat finally took 100 percent control early this year) will work in practice.

The Wrangler-inspired exterior and soft-form interior with tough-look details were designed in the US, but the Renegade is to be built in Italy, at Fiat’s Melfi facility in the south of the country.

This plant currently produces the Punto, but later in the year will add a new Fiat model that shares the new Renegade’s ‘Small Wide 4×4’ architecture. The 500X, rumoured for a 2014 Paris show reveal, will add a neatly-styled small SUV to Fiat’s expanding 500 line-up.

Some 16 different drivetrain combinations have been developed for Renegade, a record for Jeep, with engines and transmissions coming from Italy, the US and Brazil. There are 1.4, 1.6 and 2.4-litre petrol fours (turbo and non-turbo), 1.6 and 2.0-litre turbo-diesel fours, with manual, double-clutch and conventional torque-convertor auto transmissions. The auto is a highlight, being ZF’s new nine-speeder.

For the Australian market, the nine-speed auto will be teamed with Renegade’s most powerful engine, the 137kW American-made 2.4-litre MultiAir2 Tigershark. An economical Brazilian 81kW 1.6-litre with five speed manual is also confirmed, while Italian 1.4-litre petrol and 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engines are likely to flesh out the local line-up.

Renegade features go-anywhere technology to support the sell-everywhere aspirations.

The off-road-oriented Trailhawk 4×4 model is equipped with a special and class-unique crawler gear for difficult terrain. But it’s the front-drive or 4WD Sport and Latitude (Longitude in Australia) models that will surely account for the majority of sales.

Mazda brought Geneva show-goers dazzled by exotic hype back to earth with its Hazumi concept, a thinly disguised preview of how the next Mazda 2 will look.

Described as foreshadowing “Mazda’s next subcompact car”, the Hazumi took the so-called Kodo design themes of recent Mazdas and bundled the low, aggressive nose, upswept rear waistline and heavily sculpted flanks into a smaller but no less attractive package.

Mazda admits style is a strong factor in shifting cars in the cut-throat B-segment, where female buyers predominate and rock-bottom prices are the norm, and if the Mazda 2 closely follows the Hazumi’s design it’s likely to stand out from the crowd.

While Hazumi details such as the monster 18-inch rims, recessed doorhandles, tiny mirrors and central twin-exhaust won’t make it onto the Mazda 2, the sheetmetal is locked in and ready to fire.

But designer Ryo Yanagisawa – the man also responsible for the look of the BT-50 pick-up – said the Hazumi’s more masculine shape than the somewhat cuddly-looking current Mazda 2 could mean its appeal could be skewed more towards male customers than the typical young female sub-compact buyer.

“The market is for all genders or all varieties of customer base,” he said.

“But we are aware that all the forms we created in the theme of ‘soul of motion’ has been popular among male customers, so probably in following that theme we might have created something more appealing to boys.”

Backing this up is the likelihood of a performance version, powered by the same 114kW 2.0-litre petrol engine fitted to the new Mazda 3.

The Hazumi name – which in Japanese means a coiled muscle ready to pounce, presumably like a stalking cat – won’t make it into production, but then neither will much of the ritzy interior with its individual bucket seats, masses of chrome highlights and prominent trapezoidal centre display.

But its new 1.5-litre diesel – the first appearance of Mazda’s smaller SkyActiv oil-burner – definitely will, alongside smaller petrol engines, when the new Mazda 2 hits Australian showrooms late this year to replace its seven-year-old but still strong-selling predecessor.

If the next Mazda 2 follows the Hazumi’s dimensions, it will be substantially larger than its predecessor. At 2585mm, the concept’s wheelbase is 95mm longer than the current car, and it is 170mm longer overall at 4070mm.

The Hazumi follows recent Mazda concepts by being blatantly Japanese in name, and in form is far removed from some of the more conservative small European hatchbacks seen at Geneva. According to Yanagisawa, producing such a concept at the Geneva show – regarded as a bastion of European automotive design – was a deliberate ploy.

“The last thing we want to be seen as doing is following the European trend. So we want to say: this is what we can present from Japan,” he said.

“We are still discussing exactly which features are Japanese characteristics, but ideally I think what we want to say is this is different; this is Japan.”