Audi revealed the secrets of the S1 Hoonitron

Ken Block’s first ever Elecrikhana clocked up some serious views - nearly 4.5 millions and still counting. By all means it was the probably most significant show produced by Ken Block and his team, not only it was set in the one and only Las Vegas, but the car that made the most smoke ever was in fact electric.

Now Audi produced a short documentary revealing what was happening behind the scenes, the preparations and what it took to put together a project like that in less than 8 months. The small team of engineers was tasked with creating a car from scratch, one that would work perfectly as a tribute to the classic S1 Quattro and at the same time be a perfect drift machine.

In essence, the S1 Hoonitron is a roll cage on wheels wrapped up in carbon fiber panels. The car has a ridiculously short wheelbase of just 2.4 meters, front and rear McPherson struts have 200 mm of spring travel to be able to deal with jumps. The cabin is narrow and the front and rear tracks are super wide creating a perfect balance and agility with a 52/48 weight distribution.

The car is powered by two motor-generator units (MGU) each weighing only 55 kg with the transmission included. Each MGU has 250 kW of power and 320 Nm of torque - in total 500 kW and 640 Nm. Engineers had to design transmissions with 12:1 gear ratio since the motors spin at 28,000 rpm - that resulted in a mind bending torque 0f about 3,000 Nm per each axle. Those poor tires never stood a chance.

The electricity is supplied by four 14.4 kWh battery packs with a total capacity of 57.6 kWh. These are standard 800V batteries used in Audi vehicles and were split into smaller packs to allow for quick swaps rather than waiting to recharge the bigger battery. Clearly the Hoonigan team and Audi engineers were closely watching Nio’s progress in that department.

Amazing machine, amazing feat of engineering and technology and amazing driving skills. Many people still can’t believe this can be achieved by an electric car, many people argue that all the smoke and noise defeat the idea of the electric car. Maybe so but the fact is the electric car pulled off stunts in Las Vegas that no gas-powered car would be ever able to. Audi S1 Hoonitron and Ken Block dropped the mic on the gasoline powered world.

Enjoy the short documentary:

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