LOOK carefully. There’s one half on this automobile you in all probability see on the roads every single day.
You may know somebody who has one, otherwise you may even have one your self.
Hand over? It’s the windscreen from an Audi A4.
In each different manner, Audi’s unimaginable Dakar racer is like nothing you’ve seen earlier than.
It’s received 6,000 components — double the quantity of a median automobile — and simply that ONE factor is off the shelf.
What makes it transfer is a mix of three System E motors and a DTM (German touring automobile) engine.
The reality is, a pure-electric automobile wouldn’t minimize it on Dakar but.
The marathon levels are too lengthy. Plus, gentle desert sand devours vary. Plus, you would wish a extremely lengthy charging cable stretching throughout Saudi Arabia.
So Audi dreamed up this Frankenstein moon buggy as an alternative.
I feel I understand how it really works. The two-litre petrol engine acts as a generator, together with an electrical motor, to cost a 52kWh battery, which then feeds two different electrical motors, one on every axle, to drive the wheels.
You’ll blink first
So it’s electrical all-wheel drive. All that has the potential to make 680hp however to abide to Dakar guidelines it’s been restricted to 392hp. Bah.
Truly, occupied with it, that’s in all probability sufficient if you’re browsing up a dune the scale of a tower block and you'll’t see the drop on the opposite aspect. Now, forgive me if this subsequent bit reads like an inventory — however there’s a lot cool stuff to share.
The Audi RS Q e-tron has one ahead gear. Seemples. Simply press and go. You’ll blink first.
The tyres are 37 INCHES. They’re big. And heavy. The suspension journey is hilarious.
The triple-layer underbody safety is 54mm thick.
The physique is carbon fibre-reinforced plastic and Kevlar. The roll cage is aerospace metal. The sprint has extra screens and buttons than Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter. Traces and features of software program code run just about all the things on this automobile, together with the digital centre differential. It distributes torque to every axle in milliseconds. In complete, there’s one thing like 4km of cables. All working as one.
Vitality can be recuperated throughout braking. Even if you tug the hydraulic handbrake to do skids. Wonderful.
However better of all, it has quantity plates. So it’s road-legal. You may do the Friday massive store in a single.
At present is day 9 of the legendary two-week Dakar Rally and you might ask: How are Audi doing? Er, they’re not successful. Toyota are, with a Hilux, though British staff Prodrive are operating them shut.
Play to win
Audi are right here to study first trip with such an experimental automobile. However rally god Carlos Sainz did rating an early stage win.
Group boss Sven Quandt in contrast Audi’s Dakar debut to the primary moon touchdown.
He stated: “Again then, the engineers didn’t actually know what was coming.
“It’s related with us. If we end the primary Dakar occasion, that’s already a hit.”
I’ll give him that.
However everyone knows, Audi play to win. As we’ve seen in WRC, Le Mans, System E and extra.
Bosses have already dedicated to Dakar in 2023 and 2024. Tick that field then it’s F1 in 2026. So we maintain listening to.
Till then, it’s official: Audi A4 drivers have the good windscreen on this planet.
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