It was hard not to have Tony Stark smugness pasted on my face whenever I took the Audi RS E-Tron GT for a drive. It makes you feel ahead of the times, or an electronically superior being.
This obnoxious arrogance is not crafted from the svelte shape of a coupe with four doors, or from its R3.3m sticker price. Rather it comes from what lurks beneath the sheet metal, and something else.
Thankfully I need not regale you with the nitty-gritties of living with it. Brenwin Naidu and Waldo Swiegers have this bit covered between themselves. I’m happy to report about the sensations, like how it’s a real-life Jackson Storm. Don’t know who that is? You there on the left, you are quite correct. He is the main protagonist in Cars 3, the animated Pixar blockbuster. He’s a clean, lean and new kind of mean racing machine who embarrasses the archaic Lightning McQueen on his first day of practice.
As a fully electric and practical sports car, the RS E-Tron GT is an intimidating sheet of computing data. The new language of kW/h hours consumed, or not, is frankly information I’m happy to leave with Audi’s boffin engineers for now. Fortunately the wiz kids have been able to formulate simple and sexy words we primates can understand, like 440kW and 840Nm, which is what it outputs and places it firmly in the exotic power category.
My inner Neanderthal was exhumed with every prod of the electronic throttle pedal, again and again. The brute force pins your skull into its leather-lined headrest and if you can, watch other cars from the rearview camera as they become smaller in a split second.
The GT runs the 0-100km/h sprint in 3.3 seconds (R1,1m for each second) and onto a top speed of 250km/h. Handling, suffice to say, has a pair of electric motors on each axle and both drive two wheels apiece to create an all-wheel drive configuration with the advantages of good traction everywhere.
It's quite lively on take-off and corners but it's the inner-body hits and smashes that mesmerise more. The noiseless performance may be what detractors dislike, and there’s merit to their grumblings, especially if you have had a Porsche GT3 RS rattle your rib cage at 9,000rpm. But the total stealth of an electric performer speaks to an old adage of a Q-car (Quick-car). Now we have a new type of Audi; a double-Q car or Quiet but Quick car.
LONG-TERM UPDATE 6 | The Audi RS E-Tron GT is an electric indulgence
Image: Supplied
It was hard not to have Tony Stark smugness pasted on my face whenever I took the Audi RS E-Tron GT for a drive. It makes you feel ahead of the times, or an electronically superior being.
This obnoxious arrogance is not crafted from the svelte shape of a coupe with four doors, or from its R3.3m sticker price. Rather it comes from what lurks beneath the sheet metal, and something else.
Thankfully I need not regale you with the nitty-gritties of living with it. Brenwin Naidu and Waldo Swiegers have this bit covered between themselves. I’m happy to report about the sensations, like how it’s a real-life Jackson Storm. Don’t know who that is? You there on the left, you are quite correct. He is the main protagonist in Cars 3, the animated Pixar blockbuster. He’s a clean, lean and new kind of mean racing machine who embarrasses the archaic Lightning McQueen on his first day of practice.
As a fully electric and practical sports car, the RS E-Tron GT is an intimidating sheet of computing data. The new language of kW/h hours consumed, or not, is frankly information I’m happy to leave with Audi’s boffin engineers for now. Fortunately the wiz kids have been able to formulate simple and sexy words we primates can understand, like 440kW and 840Nm, which is what it outputs and places it firmly in the exotic power category.
My inner Neanderthal was exhumed with every prod of the electronic throttle pedal, again and again. The brute force pins your skull into its leather-lined headrest and if you can, watch other cars from the rearview camera as they become smaller in a split second.
The GT runs the 0-100km/h sprint in 3.3 seconds (R1,1m for each second) and onto a top speed of 250km/h. Handling, suffice to say, has a pair of electric motors on each axle and both drive two wheels apiece to create an all-wheel drive configuration with the advantages of good traction everywhere.
It's quite lively on take-off and corners but it's the inner-body hits and smashes that mesmerise more. The noiseless performance may be what detractors dislike, and there’s merit to their grumblings, especially if you have had a Porsche GT3 RS rattle your rib cage at 9,000rpm. But the total stealth of an electric performer speaks to an old adage of a Q-car (Quick-car). Now we have a new type of Audi; a double-Q car or Quiet but Quick car.
LONG-TERM UPDATE 5 | Electric Audi RS e-tron jets straight into future
LONG TERM UPDATE 4 | Charging our Audi RS E-Tron has been hassle-free
LONG-TERM UPDATE 3 | The Audi RS e-tron GT creature comforts unpacked
LONG-TERM UPDATE 2 | Our Audi RS E-Tron GT is a feast of technology
LONG-TERM UPDATE 1 | Electric Audi RS E-Tron GT joins our fleet
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