Hands up everyone who thinks electric cars are boring? Yeah, well you're all wrong and we have the proof. Proof in the shape of the Ken Block Audi S1 Hoonitron.
Block's an Audi driver now
Hang on, doesn't Ken Block usually drive Subarus? Or Fords? Well, he did but like the rest of us, Block has decided that what he wants is a premium machine, and Audi was happy to oblige. Oblige with this, the S1 Hoonitron - 'Hooning' being the colloquial word for throwing a car around in a manner guaranteed to produce motion sickness, and 'Tron' being a 1982 science fiction film starring Jeff Bridges. I mean Audi's name for all its electric models.
Yup, whereas the previous most famous Ken Block 'Hoonigan' was a V8-engined classic Mustang, the Audi S1 Hoonitron is all-battery powered. Audi isn't saying how much power it actually has, but Block has said of driving the car that: "Spinning into a donut at 150 km/h directly from standstill - just using my right foot - is an all-new experience for me." If you're giving a guy like Block an all-new experience, then you're clearly up to something interesting.
Style-wise, the Hoonitron gets the grey-and-red camouflage wrap as essayed by prototypes of the e-Tron GT saloon, while Audi reckons that it: "instantly brings back memories of the legendary Audi Sport quattro S1 with which the four rings used to charge to the summit in the famous Pikes Peak Hill Climb event, aka the Race To The Clouds." We reckon that's about right - it looks almost like a Manga cartoon version of an eighties S1 Quattro.
Carbon-fibre chassis
What can we expect? Four-wheel drive, silly amounts of wheelspin and smoke, and almost no noise we guess. The car has been developed by the weapons-grade lunatics at Audi Sport at the Neckarsulm plant, where the RS e-Tron GT road car was also developed. The design comes from Audi's own central design studio in Ingolstadt. It uses two motors, has quattro four-wheel drive, and a full carbon-fibre chassis built to FIA racing standards.
Needless to say, the S1 Hoonitron will be the star of a new 'Gymkhana' video currently being put together by Block and his team. Well, actually Audi reckons that it will be an 'Elektrikhana' video but that sounds a bit like trying to make 'fetch' happen...
"The S1 Hoonitron combines a lot of what Audi was already famous for in the nineteen-eighties," says Ken Block, whose enthusiasm for Audi's rally cars was sparked at an early age. "For instance, the car's spectacular aerodynamics have now been translated into a totally modern form. I think it's cool that the Audi designers have been inspired by their own past and uniquely transferred the car's technologies and appearance into the present. "Audi gave me the opportunity to test it for a few days in Germany. I'm familiar with a wide variety of cars using internal combustion engines and transmissions, but there were a lot of new things for me to learn here. Our work was focused on getting the car and I used to each other. My thanks go to the whole Audi Sport squad for their outstanding teamwork."
Modern S1 quattro interpretation
Marc Lichte, who leads the Audi design team, said: "When we first heard about this project, the whole team was thrilled immediately: we had the opportunity to develop a car that combines an icon of our brand with the future. It was about creating a modern, all-electric interpretation of the S1 Pikes Peak. The timeline was extremely tight: while our design process normally takes one to one-and-a-half years, we only had four weeks from the first drawing to the final design. We were constantly in touch with Ken Block and his team and engaged in intensive exchanges."
"The collaboration with Audi is a very special partnership for me. The brand and its passion for motorsport motivated me to get into rallying," said Block. "That Audi has now developed this car for me and my team, and has joined us in our next project, has made a dream come true for me. The Hoonitron is writing the next chapter in our history and taking our Gymkhana story into the future."
"Knowing that we're developing a car for a video with Ken Block that millions of people around the world are going to watch has provided our team with additional motivation," said Lichte. "These new inspirations are also immensely important for our daily work. The development of this car will encourage us to approach future projects with an even more open and progressive mindset."
We just hope they let Michele Mouton loose in it too...