The audisport RS Q e-tron Dakar racer combines electric motors from Formula E with a detuned DTM petrol engine in one extraordinary package. JethroBovingdon puts it through its paces...
It must be some time in the late ’80s. ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ is ringing out of a cathode-ray TV pushed into the corner of the living room at my parents’ house. I’m pretty much mesmerised as cars float over the desert floor, motorbikes elegantly glide from one ascent to the next and, as the music reaches its zenith, a huge racing truck flies from atop a colossal dune in slow motion, sand cascading from the treads of its tyres.
Maybe that was better. On a freezing morning, high up in the hills of Sardinia, my world and the world of the Dakar have collided. And it doesn’t sound enticing. At all. And that’s despite the dusty, narrow, bumpy rally stage and the team of engineers and mechanics buzzing around the outrageously proportionedthat I will be driving very, very soon. This should be the dream. And it is. Until a serious-looking man from Germany begins his driver briefing.
So what’s going on here? The clue is in the name – e‑tron. Can you imagine the ingenuity, the effort and the engineering mastery required to complete the Dakar with an EV? What a story! This is why Audi has brought us to Sardinia and is happy to let one of its extremely precious, spectacularly tough and simply huge RS Q e‑trons out to play in a giant sand pit.
Inside, once you’ve threaded yourself through the complex roll-cage, there’s a strange mix of modern race car and elevated, almost SUV-style driving position. A kind of GT3-spec, if you like. The seats, the sense of claustrophobia, the bracing and various control panels are pure race car.
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