AUDI'S BEST CREATIONS IN A 3-WAY DRAG RACE - FEATURING THE R8 GT, RS E-TRON GT AND KEN BLOCK'S HOONITRON
Carwow has done it again, creating one of those videos that we all needed to see but didn’t know until we’d seen it. The drag race content they produce is always top-notch and features the coolest cars ever, from classics to the latest and greatest hypercars that need a plug point to work. In this latest instalment, the crew has assembled three of the coolest modern Audis and pitted them against each other in a normal quarter-mile drag race, a half-mile drag race, and to give even more viewing pleasure, a braking distance test. With the world moving to electrically charged, battery-powered vehicles, it makes sense that we see a pair of these in the mix. To add a soundtrack to the whole event, and to show off one final hurrah for the outgoing petrol-powered cars, the last of Audi’s R8 models was chucked in. The Audi R8 GT is the last of the R8 models, ever, and as expected it's the best one to date. A total of just 333 units of this car have been touted for production and delivery in 2023 and once that’s done, the R8 badge is no more. It’s the last series-production V10 we’ll see leaving the Ingolstadt factory. Quite sad really. The other series-production car seen in action here is the RS e-tron GT, the company’s flagship electric vehicle. It’s a ridiculously fast car and the only one of the three anyone at SXdrv has driven and that’s probably never going to change because as far as we know there aren’t any of the 333 R8 GT models heading to SA and unless one of us becomes an overnight YouTube sensation or a billion dollar lottery winner, we’ll never even see the last competitor in the metal. The e-tron GT accelerates like something’s hunting it, and the rolling acceleration can give you heart palpitations, and so we reckon it should easily take out the R8 GT. But will it? What we do know is that the 3rd horse in this race will be the fastest of the lot, but by how much?
The petrol-powered R8 GT features a normally aspirated 5.2-litre V10 mated to an 8-speed transmission that feeds 456 kW of power and 565 Nm of torque to the rear wheels only. It’s fast, and when that V10 comes on song it creates a glorious soundtrack. It’s good for a 0-100 km/h sprint in 3.4 seconds and tops out at 320 km/h. It’s the lightest of the lot with a weight of 1 570 kg. The other series-production car represents newer technologies, so it features an 84 kWh battery that brings a pair of electric motors alive with power totalling 475 kW with 840 Nm of torque. As you expect from an EV, there’s a fair bit of weight to it with a figure of a whopping 2 345 kg. It can still lift its skirt and move it with a 3.3 second 0-100 km/h dash, and it tops out at an electronically limited (do we even need to say that anymore on EVs?) 250 km/h. And then there’s the Audi S1 Hoonitron, a purpose-built car that was intended for competition use and high-level shenanigans at the hands of Ken Block. No expense was spared in the car’s creation, and reports are that as much as $12 000 000 dollars went into the car. It’s all-electric featuring a pair of motors, one on each axle. Combined, these motors are rated to produce 500 kW with 640 Nm of torque. It’s not too heavy at 1 620 kg. Interesting fact - the electric motors reach maximum speeds of 28 000 rpm, and so the engineering team defined a gear ratio of around 12:1 when the car is used for drifting and taking losses into account, this results in around 3 000 Nm of torque on each axle, or 6 000 Nm in total. To say it’s fast is an understatement. But even with all those numbers, it’s interesting to see how it fares in this 3-way Carwow drag race, and with a 225 km/h limiter in place… Don't you lust love how the Hoonitron looks like it's CGI, even in a real video?
Take a look at the YouTube video from our favs at Carwow who is coming in hot with an awesome new drag race featuring some of the coolest Audis created in modern times, the last of the amazing ICE-engined cars in the form of the R8 GT, the company's flagship production electric offering in the form of the RS e-tron GT, and lastly the company's most ambitious purpose-built electric competition car - the Audi S1 Hoonitron that was built for the legendary Ken Block: Ken Block Hoonitron v Audi R8 GT v RS e-tron GT: DRAG RACE | carwow
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News Mat Watson Ken Block Hoonitron SXdrv RS Audi RS e-tron GT Audi R8 GT Audi Carwow Drags Drag race