Audi is going to unveil its Sport Quattro LaserLight car at the Consumer Electronic Show, which will take place in Las Vegas this month. The concept sports car has been described as the ‘legitimate successor’ to the original 306bhp Audi Sport Quattro which made its debut in 1983. Among a host of futuristic technologies, it features a plug-in hybrid system along with a combination of matrix LED and laser light technologies for headlights.
Member of Technical Development for Audi,Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg said in a statement, “The new show car demonstrates technical ‘Vorsprung’ on many levels. On board this car we have e-tron technology; laser headlights that leave all previous systems in the dark with its higher performance as well as new display and operating systems with cutting-edge electronic performance. We are showing the future of Audi here.”
Audi has demonstrated a combination of its Matrix LED and laser light technologies with this car similar to the one used in the 2014 R18 e-tron Quattro, Audi’s LMP1 racer. The headlamp assembly features two low-profile trapezoidal elements; the outer one uses matrix LEDs, while the inner one emits laser light. Audi claims that the laser high-beam light has approximately twice the lighting range and three times the luminosity of LED high beam lights.
The front of the car features a hexagonal single-frame grille. Emphasis has been put on making the car light. Inside, the car has high-resolution TFT display with Tegra 30 processor made by Nvidia. Audi says that the new user interface has a menu structure whose layout is similar to that of a smartphone which points at the possible use of Google’s Android-based software, as we reported yesterday.
The car is propelled by a four-litre V8 TFSI with biturbo which produces 560bhp and 700Nm of torque. Assisting this engine is a plug-in hybrid system which raises the output to 700bhp and 800Nm of torque. Power is sent to the quattro drivetrain via an eight-speed tiptronic gearbox. With great power, comes great acceleration and this car hits 0 to 100 kmph in 3.7 seconds, going on to top whack of 305 kmph. Even with such impressive performance figures, the Sport Quattro concept will be good enough for a 40 kmpl mileage. This is made possible by the hybrid system and the cylinder on demand (COD) system, which deactivates four cylinders under part load and a start-stop. The electric powertrain in itself is capable of driving 50 km on a full charge.
Audi’s attempts at going futuristic should be an interesting development to watch since most of the car manufacturers are headed towards making their products as autonomous and alluring as possible.
