Clearly buoyed by its trailblazing first hybrid victory at Le Mans, Audi has claimed another motorsport-related record for 'green' tech, with a new electric-powered lap record at the Nurburgring.
Audi takes the record, Toyota shrugs out of shot
In a carefully choreographed piece of PR, Audi's chosen driver for the record was Markus Winkelhock - one of the team of drivers of the winning R8 LMS Ultra that triumphed at the
Nurburgring 24-hour
earlier in the year. That car, of course, still uses a 'proper' V10 petrol engine and makes a suitably thunderous noise, unlike the E-tron which, for those worried by the eerily quiet R18 E-trons at Le Mans killing the thrill of racing, represents another nail in the coffin of thrillingly noisy sports and racing cars.
Winkelhock steered the R8 E-tron to an 8:09.099-minute lap, before going out again and doing two consecutive flying laps of 8:30.873 and 8:26.096. Impressive stuff. But what about Toyota's record last year?
Based on a Radical, the Toyota-funded development hack managed 7:47.794 and is, clearly, faster than the Audi. So how is the R8 E-tron claiming the record? Well, reading the small print, it seems Audi is claiming the fastest lap for a production electric car, the limited number of R8 E-trons due to leave the Neckarsulm factory later in the year apparently giving it the right to make that claim.
Small number of production E-trons coming soon
Using a 550kg, T-shaped lithium-ion battery back seated in the central transmission tunnel and behind the seats, the E-tron has a range of 'about' 130 miles, weighs 1,780kg in total and will do 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds. Normally restricted to 200km/h (124mph in old money), the limiter was raised to 155mph for the record attempt. An electric motor for each wheel gives new-school Quattro cred, the combined 313hp delivered 70 per cent to the rear wheels as a default but torque vectoring across all four wheels allowing maximum traction whatever the situation. And there's plenty of torque to distribute too, Audi varyingly claiming anything between 442lb ft and 3,319lb ft (the latter at the wheels) depending on how you measure it.
"Of course, the R8 E-tron is a production car, not a racing car with the assistance of aerodynamics," says Winkelhock of the experience. "But with its low centre of gravity and rear-biased weight distribution, it brings with it a lot of sporty qualities. The torque with which the electric motors propel the car uphill beats everything that I know - even if they make hardly any noise in the process, which at the start was really a completely new experience for me."
And so the 'ring lap bragging, rivalry and spin enters the electric age... That commotion in Stuttgart? That'll be AMG charging up the SLS E-Cell, at a guess.