Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo first drive review
- Awesome acceleration.
- Excellent handling.
- Well built for a prototype vehicle.
- Speed limited to 225km/h.
- Brake pedal lacks feel.
- It won't make production.
I’m not sure if there is a general term used to describe a phenomenon where the virtual world sets a particular agenda for the real world but at Audi it is known as the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo.
The new pure electric coupe started life as a computer-generated design (pictured, below) – just one of 20 or so created by Audi’s in-house design team over the past two years, according to exterior design boss, Andreas Mindt.
The original idea was to use the bullish looking race car as a purely virtual entity to boost Audi’s presence within the latest version of Gran Turismo – the iconic video simulation game for the Sony Playstation 4.
In a move that took it out of the computer-based simulated community and into the realms of reality, however, Audi bosses liked it so much they decided to build the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo. Not as a static model like so many virtual Gran Turismo creations down through the years, mind you. Instead, it has been brought to life as a proper rolling prototype conceived to be used as a so-called race taxi at selected Formula E events as part of a marketing campaign surrounding the company’s new e-tron electric car sub-brand.
When I see the new coupe up close for the first time it is standing at the end of a row of garages at Audi’s Neuberg test track facility on the outskirts of Ingolstadt accompanied by a team from Audi Motorsport.
Low and wide and with a generous front splitter set just a couple of centimetres above the bitumen as well as a giant rear wing up back, it immediately looks like it means business. Its carbon-fibre body, edgier in design than any existing Audi production model and with a flamboyant undercut to the lower part of flanks, is highly contemporary design despite combined with a throwback livery modelled closely on that that adorned the company’s earlier 90 quattro IMSA GTO. Size wise, it’s around A6 dimensions, albeit a lot lower than Audi’s mid-range saloon has ever been.
Former DTM (Deutsche Touring Masters) race driver Rahel Frey is also here. Along with Le Mans winner Dindo Capello, she has been chosen by Audi to drive the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo at Formula E events. Today, however, the diminutive 32-year-old Swiss race driver, has been asked switch seats with me. Encouragingly, she’s smiling when she hands me a helmet.
The basis for the real world e-tron Vision Gran Turismo is a tubular frame chassis to which Audi’s motorsport division has combined various elements from its 2018 RS5 DTM race car, including a double wishbone suspension as well an electric steering and brake system.
Drawing on technology used by the three upcoming Audi e-tron production models, its powertrain consists of three electric motors - one sited up front providing drive to the front wheels and two at the rear driving the individual rear wheels – each developing the same 200kW.
The electric motors are based on the production units set to be unveiled in the upcoming production version of the e-tron quattro SUV later this year, according to Audi. With a combined 600kW, they provide the 1450kg coupe with a sharpish weight-to-power ratio of 1.8kg per kW. No official torque figure for the new Audi has been revealed, though officials from Audi’s pre-production workshop have revealed the trio of electric motors deliver more than 1000Nm.
As a point of reference, the most powerful second-generation Audi R8 runs a naturally-aspirated 5.2-litre V10 delivering 449kW and 560Nm of torque.
With a specially developed quattro four-wheel drive system providing variable drive distribution between the front and rear axles as well as the individual rear wheels, the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo is claimed to accelerate from 0 to 62mph in hypercar crushing 2.5sec and reach a top speed limited to 225km/h.
Before driving it, though, there’s the challenge of clambering aboard. Inside, the new left-hand drive Audi resembles a modern-day DTM race car. With the steering wheel dismounted, it is a leg first entry over the wide sill. You sit well back in the cockpit in an oddly reclined position, snugly contained within a carbon shell seat with a six-point harness and a comprehensive roll cage.
With the tiny steering wheel attached and the dainty carbon fibre driver’s door closed, there’s a rather idiosyncratic starting procedure to perform before we can get underway; the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo requires a nudge of the brakes, then the press of a button placed within the drive selection controls down on the floor to the left of the driver’s seat to prime the electrics before you select the drive button. A whir of electrics indicates it is ready to go.
As we negotiate a slip road and head out onto Audi’s oval-style test track, there’s whine from the rear electric motors but nothing immediately intimidating. The electric propelled race car has a sensitive throttle and gorgeously direct steering. It’s an easy car to drive smoothly. Although it’s a one-off, it feels remarkably well engineered.
I’ve been lucky enough to drive a number of electric powered sports cars, including the Mercedes-Benz’s SLS Electric Drive. But in keeping with its competition breeding, the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo feels more urgent than any of them. This is brought into clear focus after a number of exploratory laps when I receive the all-clear from Frey and plant the throttle in earnest.
Honestly, it’s mad. The new Audi doesn’t so much as gather speed like a conventional combustion engine car might but pile it on all at once in a seamless and instantaneous surge that leaves me gobsmacked for superlatives.
The vast amount of torque and four-wheel drive traction provides truly explosive acceleration. Before I have time to collect my thoughts, we’ve already charged through 100... 200km/h. And then we’re hard on the speed limiter at 225km/h.
Thankfully, though, the back straight of the Audi test track is more than a kilometre in length, so I get some time to appreciate the outright ferocity of it all. Glancing down momentarily at the instrument display, I see a range of different readouts all flicking over with different figures. Even now, I don’t know what they were indicating. But it looked impressive all the same.
Even more savage than its acceleration is the braking ability of the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo. The brakes themselves have been borrowed directly from the Audi RS5 DTM race car, but with electric actuation. The sheer performance of the carbon discs and the race grade calipers combines with the purchase of those big slicks and the massive great wing hung out back to generate incredible stopping power.
The downforce under braking is far removed from that of any existing Audi road car and there’s no ABS to rely on, so getting the braking right from high speeds is probably the trickiest thing about driving the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo. Well, that and in my case a lack of vision over the fairly high set dashboard.
You have the hit the pedal with proper force, then gradually back out as the downforce fades. There’s not much feel in the pedal itself, and its travel is quite short. At first I’m a little hesitant to give it a blast of my left foot, fearful of a tail led exit into the scenery. But with some urging from Frey I feel like I at least managed to scratch of the surface of their full potential.
The new Audi delivers so much confidence from the steering and outright front-end grip that you can carry big speeds through corners. A low centre gravity helps. As does Audi’s claim that the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo boasts a perfect 50:50 front-to-rear weight distribution. It takes a lot of provocation to unsettle either the front or rear end, though it is surprisingly easy to gather it up again.
After two more laps I begin to feel more comfortable, choosing later braking points at the end of the straights and pouring in the power earlier on the exit to the corners than on my initial exploratory laps. All in all, it really is quite an enthralling car to drive up to a certain level, though I suspect it would take more skill than I can bring to really discover its true potential.
But as quickly as my outing started, so it ends. Frey comes over the intercom to advise me that there’s an exit road halfway down the back straight. “Pull into it and then take a left,” she says. On reflection, it’s probably a good thing. Convincing yourself that you’re on top of things after such a short space of time in a car with such huge performance potential and with an aero package that only really comes into its own at very high speeds can be a dangerous practice.
If this new Audi has taught me anything, it’s just how engaging a dedicated electric powered race car can be. The one-off prototype, while still very much in the infancy of development, is absorbing to drive. Tooling back to the garage, I couldn’t help but think how epic it would be to spend a day or two getting to learn more about its complex powertrain and the car in general with a 100 more laps or so.
Above all, it was how quickly I found confidence in the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo that really surprised me. It may have been conceived for the virtual world, but all there's no doubt it would make the perfect road going pendant to Audi's new FE05 Formula E racer.
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