Recent news of Audi’s decision to cull all internal combustion engine production has the NZ Autocar office reminiscing about all of the four rings’ most iconic ICE vehicles from its storied past. Towards the top of that list was the Sport Quattro.
Conceived during world rallying’s halcyon Group B era, the Quattro was a car that put Audi on the enthusiast map, giving them motorsport credentials money couldn’t buy and effectively making the ‘Quattro’ name a household one overnight. And now it’s back in production … sort of.
Overnight, a new Quattro homage broke cover. It’s called the E-Legend EL1 — clearly borrowing a majority of its proportions and styling cues from Audi’s former gravel-conquering hero. It’s fully electric. And, according to reports, it’s set for production in 2022.
Not to be confused with the Peugeot e-Legend retro throwback concept from a few years ago, E-Legend is a slightly mysterious new car-maker brand from Germany. Not a heck of a lot is known about the brand and its commitments, other than it pledges on its website to be showcasing the EL1 at the Munich International Motor Show in September.
Assuming it all comes together, the EL1 is nevertheless set to be a fairly interesting beast. The brand claims it will use a tri-motor set-up capable of producing up to 600kW of power. This will be paired with a 90kWh battery pack with the same 800-volt charging tech as the Porsche Taycan with a liquid-cooling system to help with efficiency.
Some reports have speculated that the battery cells may be directly sourced from Porsche, but to date this is unconfirmed. It hasn’t really been confirmed how much of the EL1 is sourced from other manufacturers and how much is built in-house.
Underneath all of this is a carbon fibre monocoque platform with three-way adjustable suspension. It tips the scales at 1680kg — not light by any stretch, but fairly light given its fully electric status
The subsequent performance figures are quite the read. E-Legend says it’ll hit 100km/h in just 2.8 seconds, 200km/h in less than 10 seconds, and will be able to complete two full laps of the Nurburgring Nordschleife in its most serious SportPlus driving mode without performance losses.
The Quattro S1 looks are undeniable. The EL1 gets the same boxed guards, a similar squared-off front facia, slotted bonnet, and silhouette. Things like the camera-based wing-mirrors and wrap-around LED taillight offer a balance of modern touches.
All up, E-Legend says it plans to produce 30 EL1s, with production kicking off next year. Each example will be priced at over €1million ($1.69million). The brand hopes to follow up the model with an EL2 and EL3, with rumours that one of these could be an homage to the Lancia Stratos. Time will tell how much the brand sticks to its word.
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