With the electric revolution slowly but surely eating up the auto industry, Audi is actually not behind the game.
With its e-tron series, Audi has been dealing with electrification since 2009, however, it was only after 10 years that the carmaker released its very first e-tron EV in 2019.
Since then, the e-tron is present not just on the road, but on the rallying world as well. Mat Watson of CarWow on YouTube had two extreme e-trons – a performance-focused Audi e-tron GT and the Audi RS Q e-tron rally car – engaged in a series of drag and roll races.
The Audi e-Tron In A Drag Race With Its Sibling
Despite the similarities in their names, the RS e-tron GT and the RS Q e-tron are two different EV monsters.
The defining difference is that Audi built the RS e-tron GT for the road, and engineered the RS Q e-tron for rallying.
There are also various differences in how they source their power and their body styles.
Interestingly, the RS e-tron GT is just the Porsche Taycan Turbo S in the Audi clothing, but for its sake, the RS e-tron GT’s two electric motors delivers 637 hp of max output and 612 lb-ft of peak torque.
The four-door luxury coupe weighs around 5,017 lbs and costs around $140,000.
On the other hand, Audi built the RS Q e-tron for the Dakar Rally 2022, where it won four stages and placed 9th overall.
Since the RS Q e-tron is a race car, Dakar Rally regulations restricted many of its capabilities such as max power output allowed (380 hp) and a ceiling for top speed (200 mph).
Despite having several carbon fiber components, the $2.43-million RS Q e-tron weighs around 4,850 lbs.
Battle Of The e-Tron: Other Factors Come Into Play
In the first drag race, RS e-tron GT beat the RS Q e-tron badly, thanks to its power advantage. Then, an Audi engineer lifted the power restriction on the e-tron racer to 671 hp.
Now, both cars have similar potencies, and the winner on the next two races boiled down to the driver’s reaction time.
The fourth race was a close one, with the race car winning just by a nose.
Then, the 30- and 50-mph rolling races followed.
The RS Q e-tron seemed to have the initial advantage, but near the finishes, it somehow didn’t gain momentum and eventually dropped the races.
There’s a reason for this though – the speed limiter doesn’t allow the race car to go beyond 200 mph.
Source: CarWow on YouTube
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