Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Hot News: Audi is Preparing for Diesel-Electric Supercar

The boss of the high-performance Audi quattro gmbh division, Franciscus Van Meel, has broken his silence on bthe subject of a new supercar to sit above the Audi R8 in the range.

At the end of November, we brought you the news that Audi’s new boss of technical development, Wolfgang Durheimer, is plotting an ultra high-performance diesel-electric supercar, to help transfer his company's Le Mans winning race technology to the road. But this is the first time the man who will be responsible for building it has added his thoughts.

"If we make this car it will be the absolute best supercar, and completely different in concept to the R8," Van Meel told us. "It will be very Vorsprung Durch Technik, very innovative." When we asked him whether it will be better than the forthcoming McLaren P1 he simply replied, "yes."

It's not the first time Audi has dipped its toe in the water of high-performance diesel cars that have been inspired by the race track. The Audi R8 TDI Le Mans Concept (pictured) previewed a V12 TDI-powered version of the R8, inspired by the R10 race car, although the idea was axed back in 2009.

This new diesel hybrid will be in a different performance bracket entirely, though, with enough fire power to take on the petrol-powered Porsche 918, Ferrari Enzo successor and McLaren P1.

Details on the powertrain are yet to be finalised, but expect a combined power output in the region of 700bhp and at least 1,000Nm of torque. That would mean 0-62mph in around 3.0 seconds and a top speed of more than 200mph. For more details click here.

Thanks to: Auto Express

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