Audi is going to display a dynamic coupe with powerful plug-in hybrid drive technology concept car at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), January 6 to 10, 2014 in Las Vegas, USA. The Audi Sport quattro laserlight concept is reminiscent of the classic Sport quattro of 1983 while pointing towards the future – with the latest of the brand’s technologies in plug-in hybrid drives, user control and display interfaces and lighting technology.
The coupe, a new evolutionary stage of the Sport quattro concept, painted in the colour Plasma Red, combines the power of the historic Sport quattro with emotional elegance. Its body is tautly set over its large wheels. The overhangs are short, and the car’s proportions show an athletic balance. With a wheelbase of 2,784 mm, it is 4,602 mm long. At a width of 1,964 mm, the two-door model is very wide, and it is just 1,386 mm tall, which is exceptionally low.
In the dual headlights, a typical quattro feature, Audi is demonstrating the future of lighting technology by combining MatrixBeam LED and laser light technologies. Two low-profile trapezoidal elements are visible within the headlights – the outer one generates the low beam light using MatrixBeam LEDs and an aperture mask, while the inner element produces laser light for high-beam functionality.
The powerful laser diodes are significantly smaller than LED diodes; they are only a few microns in diameter. Illuminating the road for a distance of nearly 500 metres, the laser high-beam light has approximately twice the lighting range and three times the luminosity of LED high beam lights. In this future technology, Audi is once again demonstrating its leadership role in automotive lighting technology with a system that will also be used on the race track in the 2014 R18 e-tron quattro.
“The new show car demonstrates technical ‘Vorsprung’ on many levels,” says Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg. “On-board this car we have e-tron technology with 700 PS of power and 113mpg fuel economy; 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.”
The angular, swept-back C pillars of the Audi Sport quattro laserlight concept car and the blisters above the wings are other design elements reminiscent of the classic Sport quattro. The broad shoulders of the body were reinterpreted and intensively sculpted to convey even greater dynamism. Throughout the car, sharp contours frame muscular surfaces – the interplay between convex and concave curvatures defines the athletic character of the coupe.
The hexagonal single-frame grille also offers an outlook on future design of the performance-focused production models. The lower section is nearly vertical, while the upper follows the contour of the bonnet; the screen insert is a typical solution from car racing. The low grille emphasises the show car’s width. Two large, vertical blades divide each of the large air inlets; their form is repeated in the creases of the bonnet. The splitter, which is made of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP), is shifted far to the front, as on a race car.
