All posts in “Audi Race Cars”

Ken Block’s Audi S1 Hoonitron

I am sure we all remember the legendary Audi Sport Quattro S1 we’ve seen attacking the Pikes Peak Hill Climb event, also known as the ‘Race to the Clouds’ as the finish line is so high up on the mountain it is usually above the cloud deck, and it is that very special car that inspired the looks of the latest development from Audi, the S1 e-tron specifically created for drift artist Ken Block … so this car is called the Hoonitron.

This is a one-off creation from Audi that will be featured in the upcoming video Ken Block is producing over the next few months, and being basically an S1 e-tron, we are looking at an all-electric car, powered by two electric motors, the Quattro name reveals it already, this is an all-wheel-drive car with oodles of power sitting on a lightweight carbon fiber chassis.

The Audi S1 Hoonitron is built to full FIA safety standards while the designers still managed to translate the raw design style of the classic Sport Quattro into the present day for the exterior styling of this 21st century S1 Hoonitron, note that development of this one-off was conducted at Neckarsulm by Audi Sport themselves, keep in mind the impressive Audi RS e-tron GT is built at that location too.

“Audi gave me the opportunity to test it for a few days in Germany,” says Ken Block. “I’m familiar with a wide variety of cars using internal combustion engines and transmissions, but there were a lot of new things for me to learn here. Spinning into a doughnut at 150 km/h directly from a standstill – just using my right foot – is an all-new experience for me. Our work was focused on getting the car and I used to each other. My thanks go to the whole Audi Sport squad for their outstanding teamwork.”

The futuristic design with a clear inspiration from the classic Sport Quattro was created by Audi Design in Ingolstadt, Marc Lichte, Audi’s chief designer, and his team commented: “When we first heard about this project, the whole team was thrilled immediately: we had the opportunity to develop a car that combines an icon of our brand with the future, the challenges were tremendous: “It was about creating a modern, all-electric interpretation of the S1 Pikes Peak. The timeline was extremely tight: while our design process normally takes one to one-and-a-half years, we only had four weeks from the first drawing to the final design. We were constantly in touch with Ken Block and his team and engaged in intensive exchanges.”

Back in the day, it was Audi that motived Ken Block to get into rallying in the first place, so having the brand you admire from the start create a bespoke car just for you is simply magic, so Block and his team will be creating a new episode in his Gymkhana series, this time using the S1 Hoonitron … therefore the working title for his latest video currently is ‘Elektrikhana’.

Ken Block: “The S1 Hoonitron combines a lot of what Audi was already famous for in the nineteen-eighties, for instance, the car’s spectacular aerodynamics have now been translated into a totally modern form. I think it’s cool that the Audi designers have been inspired by their own past and uniquely transferred the car’s technologies and appearance into the present.”

I for one am looking forward to checking out Elektrikhana when it’s published online, I’m sure it will be as least as impressive as Block’s previous work …

December 17, 2021 / Comments Off on Ken Block’s Audi S1 Hoonitron
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Audi RS Q e-tron preparation for Dakar

In January 2022 the next edition of the famous Dakar Rally will start, and over the years we’ve seen some really spectacular cars, bikes, and trucks competing in this grueling desert race, but the 2022 edition will see a rather special entry at the starting grid, the Audi Sport RS Q e-tron … yes, you are reading that correctly, a hybrid rally car.

You can only do so much testing in Germany or Spain, so to get some more ‘real time’ data Audi Sport took their RS Q e-tron together with the three driver crews to Morocco, none other than previous Dakar record winner Stéphane Peterhansel, Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström would be taking this highly complex prototype into the desert where temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (or 104°F) were measured during these hard test sessions.

“We expect much lower temperatures at the Dakar Rally,” says Andreas Roos. “Nevertheless, we deliberately went to Morocco to test our concept under the most extreme conditions. Components such as the MGU, for example, were basically not developed for use in such high ambient temperatures, but the drivetrain and other components were also pushed to their limits or even beyond by the heat. The insights we gained in Morocco are invaluable, but they also show us that we still have a lot to do before the Dakar Rally and there is not much time left.”

To make sure this Audi RS Q e-tron has any chance at finishing the Dakar rally, they developed a bespoke high-voltage battery, where the main focus is on managing the temperature while being able to pull the maximum amount of power from this power cell for sustained periods of time, in a hot and dusty environment like the Dakar desert.

Power in the Audi RS Q e-tron comes from two Formula E electric motors, found in the FE07, one on each axle, while a turbocharged 2-Liter four-cylinder engine taken from the 2020 DTM RS5 race car will charge the 50 kWh battery as a generator … total power output is said to be 671 hp before regulations might come in to restrict that number.

In January we will be seeing three RS Q e-tron start the Dakar Rally, over the two weeks following the departure there will be daily stages, some nearly 500 miles, that will really put the new Audi electric powertrain to the test, and the Dakar Rally is only the first stop for Audi Sport, as they have left Formula E and the DTM now to focus entirely on Le Mans next.

September 28, 2021 / Comments Off on Audi RS Q e-tron preparation for Dakar
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