What's the news?
Audi is turning its digital creation for the Gran Turismo computer game series into a reality - this is the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo (VGT), made metal, rubber and various electric bits.
Originally developed exclusively for virtual racing on the legendary PlayStation 4 title, Audi has decided to build the e-tron VGT for real and it will be used as a race taxi in this season's Formula E championship, starting with the race in Rome on April 14.
The project came about as, like many manufacturers who have been associated with Gran Turismo down the years, Audi was invited by the game's developers to come up with a 'Vision Gran Turismo' car for the 15th anniversary of the racing-sim series. It submitted the e-tron VGT for the game but now, 11 months on, a real version has been built.
The real e-tron VGT will allow select customers and guests of the German brand to experience Formula E's city circuits as passengers in the Audi, with either Swiss DTM ace Rahel Frey or Italian Le Mans-winner Dindo Capello at the wheel.
This is a first for any Vision Gran Turismo car, because - while other manufacturers have turned their digital visions into full-scale models - Audi is the first to deploy its creation as a fully functional vehicle.
"This is what we are particularly proud of," said Audi's chief designer, Marc Lichte. "Although the design of a virtual vehicle allows much greater freedom and the creation of concepts which are only hard to implement in reality, we did not want to put a purely fictitious concept on wheels. Our aim was a fully functional car. The Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo shows that electric mobility at Audi is very emotive. This car incorporates numerous elements of our new design language, such as the inverted single-frame [grille] in the vehicle's colour that will be typical for our new e-tron models."
Audi's dramatic e-tron VGT once again harks back to the 90 quattro IMSA racer of 1989 - it's this historic motorsport vehicle which informed the box-arched look of the current production RS 4 and RS 5 models - and for the Formula E race taxi, the Audi e-tron VGT has quattro all-wheel drive with variable power distribution.
And, talking of power, there's a lot of it. Three 200kW electric motors, two driving the rear axle and the third one powering the front wheels, mean there's a total of 815hp to play with. The e-tron VGT weighs in at a relatively trim (for an electric car of this magnitude) 1,450kg, with a perfect 50:50 weight distribution. All of the above, says Audi, means the e-tron VGT can whizz soundlessly from 0-100km/h in less than 2.5 seconds.
Anything else?
"E-Mobility is rapidly gaining importance," said Peter Mertens, member of the board of management for Technical Development, Audi AG. "That is why in 2017 Audi was the first German manufacturer to enter Formula E with a factory-backed commitment. In our development laboratory motorsport, we are continuously expanding our expertise in e-mobility and gathering valuable experience also in extremely demanding conditions. With the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo race taxi, we are turning electric mobility into a tangible experience for our customers and guests as part of the Formula E races - in the middle of the world's metropolises."