2014 Audi R18 e-tron: Audi’s Infamous Diesel-Hybrid Tested!

MotorTrend

On this episode of Ignition

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00:00 With this R18 e-tron, Audi took first and second place at the 2014 running of Le Mans,

00:09 and this particular R18 is the one that crossed the finish line first.

00:14 Not only a hybrid, but an all-wheel drive one at that.

00:17 But before Randy can get behind the wheel of this Le Mans-winning R18 e-tron, he has

00:22 to warm up in an R8 racing car.

00:48 Well on the day as a whole, I can't help but feel honored and grateful and gosh, I even

00:55 want to say blessed.

00:58 Because what an opportunity.

01:00 The R8 Ultra, which is a cool GT-type race car, I've never driven one before, and I can

01:04 compare it so closely to a lot of the GT cars I've raced over my career.

01:16 I slipped in behind the wheel, and it felt reasonably familiar.

01:22 Fired the car up, it's a big V10, it has its own unique exhaust note, and a good one, kind

01:28 of a smooth, sharp sound.

01:31 And it's a paddle shifter, which is very common on today's race cars.

01:36 It kind of has gone quickly from H-pattern shifters to sequential shifters to electronic

01:41 paddles right on the wheel.

01:43 Right side up, left side down.

01:57 Turning in for the corner, it has that mid-engine feel.

02:00 Low polar moment.

02:03 Real easy to bring the nose down in, real easy to bring the nose down into the corner.

02:08 Corner's tight enough that the nose comes in, and in the middle, we get some understeer.

02:13 Now I was told by Marcus Winklehawk, who won at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring in this very

02:20 car, still carrying the same dirt from that race, which I think is cool.

02:25 He said, "Just brake longer into the corner and leave weight on the nose."

02:29 And I'm like, "Wait a minute, that sounds like me talking."

02:31 That's good advice.

02:33 The R8 inspired confidence right away.

02:38 It's really stable and strong, which just took a lot of pedal pressure.

02:43 It's an ABS car, and I don't think I ever even inspired the ABS.

02:47 I wasn't pushing hard enough.

02:49 But on the other hand, it's a short run, and I want to take good care of these fine machines.

02:53 This one's actually going in the museum next to the R18.

03:06 This R18 is destined for the Audi Museum after Randy drives it, making it all the more special,

03:18 but stressful, as it's valued at $30 million.

03:34 I feel grateful, frankly.

03:37 I feel amazed.

03:38 The R18 is an extremely complex and high-technology race car, just won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

03:46 And one of my great concerns was just being able to push all the buttons and do the right

03:50 things to simply drive the car.

04:12 [00:01:00] [silence]

04:33 Just the act of driving the car takes a lot of knowledge of how all the controls work.

04:44 And for the most part, I got that right.

04:47 I'm proud about that.

04:49 Most impressive about the drive was the torque.

04:52 The amount of power that the R18 puts down through all four wheels between its regenerative

05:00 electrical power coming from a super-fast spinning flywheel and the incredibly powerful

05:09 diesel V6 built for efficiency and speed.

05:14 The handling got better and better the faster we went.

05:18 I enjoyed experiencing the feeling of downforce in the faster corners here on the Mizuno Circuit.

05:27 Just a better car with the downforce, and that's not unusual because the springs have

05:32 to be so stiff.

05:37 Audi switched back to a closed cockpit design with the R18, its first since 1999.

05:44 The open cockpit helps speed up driver changes during pit stops, but new regulations limiting

05:49 the number of mechanics that can work on the car during a stop has negated that benefit.

05:54 More importantly, tightened powertrain regulations make aerodynamic efficiency all the more important,

06:00 and closed cockpit designs have a strong aerodynamic advantage over open cockpits.

06:06 The driver sits in a one-piece carbon fiber monocoque as if leaning back in a recliner.

06:12 The steering wheel hosts 23 buttons on its face and a digital screen with lap times,

06:17 tire pressures, and so on.

06:19 Unfortunately, air conditioning is required.

06:46 Well I came here in awe of the Audi R18.

06:51 The latest in a long line, going back 15 years of Audi racing prototypes, and so I expected

06:59 heavenly perfection.

07:02 And what I got was reality.

07:03 It was a real car that does some things incredibly well, does other things in kind of a frustrating

07:11 fashion, and mostly I came away with just a feeling of gratitude that I'm just such

07:19 a fortunate person to be one of the very, very few people to ever get behind the wheel

07:25 of an R18 or of any Audi factory prototype car and take it around a racetrack as fast

07:31 as I dare it go.

07:59 [00:01:33] [Silence]

08:13 [00:01:50]

08:21 [00:02:00]

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