GYMKHANA BECOMES ELECTRIKHANA AS KEN BLOCK PILOTS THE $12 000 000 AUDI S1 HOONITRON THROUGH VEGAS.
If you ever wanted to know if the internal combustion engine’s days are numbered, this latest video from Ken Block and the Hoonigan crew hammers that idea home. In the latest of the Gymkhana series of hooning videos Ken pilots the all-electric Audi S1 Hoonitron through the iconic streets of Las Vegas without waking up the thousands of hotel guests because there’s no roaring engine noise - the only downside to the whole video. Even the tyres don’t have that normal screech to them because there’s so much power on tap that when they light up, they go beyond making noise and simply devolve into a cloud of smoke. While this Hoonitron is mad impressive and cost in the region of $12 000 000 to develop, it’s still an indication of where electric vehicles are headed. This S1 has stupid power available, the Newton metres are rated at an unbelievable 6 000 and that helps with it’s lightning quick acceleration and the ability to slay tyres, but even in entry level EVs there’s often enough power on tap for them to out-accelerate sports cars and some supercars. We’ve seen a basic BMW i3 nail a GTi by 3 cars up until 160 km/h resulting in an unhappy hot hatch owner.
The Audi S1 Hoonitron features a pair of electric motors, one on each axle making the superstar car all-wheel drive. Interestingly, the build was not only a showcase of the technologies and systems Audi is working on for the future of motoring, but the engineers managed to get the build to fully comply with the stringent safety standards set in place for competition cars by the FIA. There’s no work on power output yet in terms of Kilowatts or horsepower but in the Hoonigan video that takes a closer look at the electric monster they do mention that there’s 6 000 Nm on tap. That’s madness. We can’t wait to see this car in a Hoonitron vs The World series because we’re sure there are very few cars, if any, that can provide this insane level of performance. “With the S1 Hoonitron we broke entirely new ground at Audi,” says Oliver Hoffmann, Member of the Board for Technical Development at AUDI AG. “Developing a fully electric prototype for the unique requirements of our partner Ken Block was a big and exciting challenge to which the whole team rose with flying colors. It is great to see how ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ is presented in an all-new environment.”
Over and above the mad driving, there are some wicked cameos in this latest hooning production. If you watch closely you’ll spot the original Audi 90 IMSA GTO from back in 1989, the Audi 200 Trans Am from 1988, the Audi Sport quattro S1 Pikes Peak from 1987, the Audi quattro Gruppe B A2 from 1984 and the LeMans winning Audi R8 LMP and Audi R18 e-tron quattro from Le Mans along with Tom Kristensen, the record nine-time winner of LeMans.
Take a look at the YouTube video that shows how the future of motoring is affecting our motoring entertainment and the reliance on ICE engines to be able to have fun at speed in a video that looks set to become the next viral sensation in this ongoing series: Ken Block’s ELECTRIKHANA: High Stakes Playground; Las Vegas, in the Audi S1 HOONITRON | Hoonigan
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