Audi Sport competes in many racing categories, which include GT2, but it hasn’t participated in the Planet Rally Championship (WRC) for quite a few decades. It is really not scheduling a comeback, either, so a Swedish team is bringing the Quattro identify back to the setting up grid with a custom made-constructed, rally-prepared evolution of the pocket-sized Audi A1 hatchback.
Swedish pilot Mattias Ekström introduced the job on behalf of the EKS JC racing team he recently formed. He begun with an A1, a four-doorway city car formulated mainly for the European market place. Getting ready it for worldwide rallying demanded gutting the interior, introducing a whole roll cage, and setting up sport seats for the front travellers. The pilot faces a three-spoke multi-functionality steering wheel and a display that provides information and facts about the car and its surroundings, although the doorway panels are built with carbon fiber. Clearly, this is a no-expenditures-spared build.
Outside the house, virtually just about every overall body panel was redesigned with racing in head. The front bumper is certain to the rally car, the fenders and the quarter panels are punched out, and the roof gains an air scoop. The white, yellow, pink, grey, and black livery is a tribute to the first Quattro race cars that dominated the rally scene for the duration of the nineteen eighties. We think the A1 wears this seem very well, especially since the three vents earlier mentioned its grille are encouraged by people on the Quattro Coupe.
The hatchback appears as signify as it looks thanks to a turbocharged, one.six-liter four-cylinder engine tuned to build 263 horsepower. It sends electric power to all four wheels via a five-velocity sequential transmission and, of training course, Audi’s time-analyzed Quattro all-wheel-push process. South Africa-based mostly Rally Technic participated in the growth.
Creating a rally car from scratch is a significant endeavor, and the A1 Quattro is not very prepared for its opposition debut. It even now needs to be great-tuned, 1st on snow, then on gravel, and ultimately on tarmac. Emil Bergkvist, a 26-12 months aged Swedish pilot who is a former FIA Junior WRC winner, has been chosen as the car’s growth driver.
When it is really fully dialed in, Ekström’s A1 will be suitable to contend in the WRC2 and WRC3 lessons, which are aid categories in which up-and-coming youthful motorists can gain practical experience prior to moving up to the leading league in WRC. It complies with FIA expectations, so it can be entered in other situations, too. It will start to race in 2021.
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