Ken Block has teamed up with Audi to make a one of a kind EV for his upcoming gymkhana video, Elektrikhana.
It's an Audi S1 E-tron Quattro Hoonitron, A.K.A., an all-electric drift machine built for Ken Block. The team has finally revealed the car, which was inspired by the Audi Sport Quattro S1 that raced at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in the 1980s.
But this is more of a modern re-imagining than a remake. The car maintains the huge wing, the big box flares, and the rally lights, but the features are interpreted through modern e-tron design language.
“The S1 Hoonitron combines a lot of what Audi was already famous for in the nineteen-eighties,” says Block.
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“I think it’s cool that the Audi designers have been inspired by their own past and uniquely transferred the car’s technologies and appearance into the present.”
The two electric motors that power it give it it's quattro all-wheel-drive namesake. Although details of the power specs haven't been made public yet, Audi has revealed that the S1 e-tron quattro Hoonitron gets a full carbon fiber chassis and has been designed to FIA safety standards.
“Audi gave me the opportunity to test it for a few days in Germany,” says Block. “I’m familiar with a wide variety of cars using internal combustion engines and transmissions, but there were a lot of new things for me to learn here. Spinning into a donut at 150 km/h directly from a standstill—just using my right foot—is an all-new experience for me.”
Audi’s chief designer, Marc Lichte says “when we first heard about this project, the whole team was thrilled immediately.”
“The timeline was extremely tight: while our design process normally takes one to one-and-a-half years, we only had four weeks from the first drawing to the final design. We were constantly in touch with Ken Block and his team and engaged in intensive exchanges.”
We'll soon see the car in action with Ken Block behind the wheel, in his Elektrikhana video.
“That Audi has now developed this car for me and my team, and has joined us in our next project, has made a dream come true for me,” says Block. “The Hoonitron is writing the next chapter in our history and taking our Gymkhana story into the future.”
