The new Audi R18 E-Tron being tested this week at Sebring International Raceway is arguably the most advanced race car ever built.  I would hazard to say it is more advanced than then Sebastian Vettel’s World Championship winning RB9.  Yes, I said it! More advanced then the most successful F1 car ever built.  (I am starting to like where LMP1 is going, but more on that later.)

What I find interesting is that the technology on the Audi is very applicable to the cars we drive now.  It’s a hybrid system designed to win races, but I have never been a fan of hybrids, always a proponent for good-old-fashioned internal combustion engines.  More cubic inches, bigger turbo’s, faster rev’s; any trick to get more power (Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, enter stage right). Then the Prius comes along and  “hyper mile-ing” becomes an obsession.

The goal is to win but with a set amount of fuel.  The rules for 2014 put a higher importance on fuel economy than it has in the past and Audi has responded with what is essentially a whole new car.  Like the previous R18 E-Tron, it still has the V6 turbo diesel powering the rear wheels and a Williams Hybrid Power Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), just like the one used in F1, at the front.  This gives the car 4 wheel drive at points during the race.  New to the car is an electric turbocharger utilizing a heat-to-energy recovery unit (I am guessing on the exhaust) for power.  This helps reduce turbo lag and allows the motor to run more freely.

This is a truly impressive vehicle.  With competition from Toyota and now Porsche, the race is on!