At the 2014 Hours of Le Mans earlier this year, the brand new Audi R18 e-tron Quattro walked away with victory in the leading LMP1 class. Now that the 2014 World Endurance Championship has wrapped up, Evo Magazine’s Richard Meaden was recently given the incredible opportunity to take the Le Mans winning R18 e-tron for a few hot laps on the Misano World Circuit.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24cySS8UoeA#t=30[/youtube]
At the centre of the 2014 Audi R18 e-Tron Quattro is found a new V6 TDI diesel engine sending power to the rear wheels. The new R18 e-Tron Quattro then utilises two hybrid systems. One of those systems dubbed Energy Recovery System Heat (ERS-H) stores energy converted from heat while the second system is a more traditional KERS system which Audi calls ERS-K. This system stores energy created under braking and the power from these two hybrids is then stored in an improved flywheel energy storage system.
While the car may look identical to last year’s model, the 2014 Audi R18 e-Tron Quattro is actually 100 mm narrower and 20 mm higher. When you combine these increased dimensions with a larger cockpit, the result is slightly less downforce when compared to the previous R18 e-Tron Quattro.
