Audi cars are knocking down one racetrack at a time. Earlier this month, Audi had won its eleventh overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and also its first a diesel hybrid race car.
Yesterday, Audi has set another world record, this time at the famous Nurburgring, for the fastest lap time of an electric-drive production car. Under the talents of racing driver Markus Winkelhock, the production ready Audi R8 e-tron lapped the 12.92-mile Nordschleife circuit in just 8:09.099.
Powered by twin electric motors with an output rated at 280kW each, an unbelievable 4,900 Nm, or 3,614.05 lb.-ft. of torque, gets delivered to the rear wheels from a standing start. 0-to-62 mph (100 km/h) only takes 4.6 seconds and the top speed is rated at 250 km/h (155 mph). Its lithium-ion battery stores 49 kWh of energy for a range of 133.59. Despite the large battery pack, the R8 e-tron only weighs 1,780 kg.
According to Winkelhock, "The torque with which the electric motors propel the car uphill beats everhything 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. In places where I really need traction, the torque vectoring -- the displacement of the torque between the powered wheels -- really [helped] me."
Five seconds slower than the 4.2 liter V8 Audi R8, the Audi R8 e-tron pushes the envelope in all-electric supercardom. While it has gone stealth from the industry radar for quite a while, expect the R8 e-tron's debut this fall at the Paris Auto Show.
-
