This Dakar Rig From Audi Runs on Electricity and We Drove It
Cars
Speaker 1: You guys, sometimes dreams do come true. Audi invited me out here to Sain to drive the Audi RSQ. E-tron. Now this is the vehicle that actually ran in the dead car rally. If you know me, you know, I am super into the offroad stuff. I can't move it. Get to drive a Dak car vehicle. It's gonna be so great. I got a PROCO driver in there. We're gonna have a good time.
Speaker 1: [00:00:30] The RSQ e-tron is a curious vehicle vehicle originally built to run the notorious Decker rally. The e-tron is actually a hybrid. There's a 52 kilowat hour battery charged on the go by a gas powered, two liter in line four cylinder, turbocharged engine, two motor generator units drive the front and the rear wheels. And there are six cooling systems to keep it all from overheating. [00:01:00] By having that gas engine charge the battery, the vehicle can use electricity for propulsion without stopping for a recharge and driving. It y'all is a whole other story. I expected massive amounts of region, but the team essentially turned it off for my testing session. Honestly, it makes it a bit easier as I'm used to mechanical brakes in my own race cart, the steering is super light and I can re wrench it into a turn. I've got deck har navigator, Emil beca is sitting right seat for me and he gives me some pointers to get this massive 4,000 plus [00:01:30] pound all-wheel drive monster to rotate at speed.
Speaker 1: Pretty soon though, I'm drifting around. Countersteering like a boss and feeling like the queen of everything. The coolest part about the e-tron is the instant torque of those motors. I mean, all the thrust I want is right there. As soon as I ask for it, just right under my right foot, it makes it super easy to accelerate out of the corner. However, it is over seven and a half feet wide and the BF Goodrich tires are way outboard of the cockpit. It's really tough to know exactly where I'm placing them on the track. [00:02:00] I also find it hard to look where I wanna go thank to this giant a pillar. I mean, I try to move my head around a bit, but I've got next to zero movement in this racing seat. So I guess I should just kind of look vaguely where I wanna go and call it good.
Speaker 1: The rally cross track they've got us on is pretty slow. I'll admit it. I mean, I can get it up to like 55 or 60 miles per hour on the straight, but that's about it. And I don't really get to test the long travel suspension either is Audi won't let us take the e-tron off the jump, boo. [00:02:30] My three laps are over way too fast. And a meal guides me back into the paddock. My heart is full of adrenaline and a bucket list. Item is checked off. What I love so much about electric vehicles is having all of that power just ready right underneath your right foot. And it's there and it's instant. And, and I love a good combustion engine, but like it's just a different motor sports experience. Being able to just have it instantly accessible. You know, of course, like I also love a manual transmission and it would be fun to be able to row [00:03:00] some gears in there, but I mean, we were never, you never, would've been above third gear anyway.
Speaker 1: And the steering on it's really light and it's was very surprising. And what was also surprising is that there wasn't really any region on the throttle. So I expected to lift off the throttle and get a lot more region. I didn't really get that. It's also amazing, like all of the offered vehicles I drive don't have that much travel. So having that amount of travel and being able to like really dive into the corners, I mean on heartbreaking that whole front end, you're just like BR you know, so when you, so being able [00:03:30] to do that and to, and to get the weight transfer onto the nose is pretty good. It was interesting learning like, oh, I can, I can get back on the gas quicker. I can get back quicker, quicker, quicker. So that part was kind of fun, but yeah, just fueling like the major amounts of body roll with the suspension and like having to kind of wait for that to settle before you do your next steering input is pretty, is, is pretty remarkable. And then like you look at it and you're like, I'm gonna deck our vehicle. Like this is a dream, this is a dream. So, uh, I'm just really glad I got this opportunity so [00:04:00] much fun.
