Audi S1 Hoonitron Revealed As The World's First EV Gymkhana Car
The Audi Quattro S1 E2 is one of the all-time best race cars to have graced a rally stage in the 1980s. In typical '80s fashion, it looked like an angry toaster with a spoiler and four-wheel drive. According to Jalopnik, the Audi's four-wheel drive system was a total game changer when racing against other cars up the side of Colorado's Pikes Peak during the "Race to the Clouds" in 1984.
Noted team of tire haters Hoonigan and sideways driving expert Ken Block are famous for their series of Gymkhana videos in which Block and other drivers thrash a rally car within inches of its life and perform death-defying stunts. Searching for their newest car, Hoonigan and Block teamed up with Audi to pay tribute to one of the best rally cars ever made for the newest Gymkhana video, which is titled "Electrikhana." Instead of slapping some nostalgic decals on an already existing Audi e-tron, throwing it around a track, and calling it a day, the engineers at Audi made an all-new car.
The future of drifting is electric
Dubbed the Hoonitron, the newest addition to the Gymkhana stable of race cars looks right out of a far-fetched "Forza Horizon" sequel. Ken Block claims in a press release that the Hoonitron will let the Gymkhana team do stunts that simply aren't possible in a car that has a gas engine and conventional transmission setup.
Hoonigan
Block explains, "While I may love the sound of a turbo engine, or the grunt of a V8, we have done that all before. The instant torque and shiftless nature of an electric motor allowed for us to push certain tricks to a whole new realm."
Hoonigan
Audi hasn't released full specs for the Hoonitron, but the company did state that it possesses "6,000 newton-meters (4,425 lb-ft) of torque at the wheels" from its dual motors. The Hoonitron is strictly a one-off vehicle built for Hoonigan and Block so you won't see one at an Audi dealership in the future. But you can check out the newest Gymkhana video premiere, which went live at 6 a.m. PST / 9 a.m. EST, to see the Hoonitron destroy tires in Las Vegas like it's going out of style.