An updated Audi Sport quattro concept will be unveiled at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, suggesting the hybrid sports car is another step closer to becoming a production reality.
Barring its new dual laser headlight system, Plasma Red paint finish and mildly revised wheels, the CES Audi Sport quattro matches the bright yellow concept first seen at last year’s Frankfurt motor show and remains powered by a 515kW/880Nm 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8-based hybrid system.
Combining the car maker’s matrix LED and laser light technologies, the outer and inner trapezoidal elements visible within the headlight clusters generate low beam LED and high-beam laser light respectively.
Audi says not only do laser diodes measure a few microns in diameter – “significantly” smaller than LED diodes – high-beam laser light will illuminate approximately twice the distance (nearly 500 metres) of LED high beam lights and at three times the luminosity.
The system will also be used on the 2014 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (pictured bottom) set to compete in the LMP1 category of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) – alongside Mark Webber and the Porsche 919 hybrid – highlighted by the Le Mans 24 Hour in June.
Inspired by the Sport quattro of 1983, the re-imagined version incorporates four-wheel drive and an eight-speed ‘tiptronic’ automatic transmission to claim a 3.7-second 0-100km/h, 305km/h top speed, 2.5L/100km fuel consumption and 59g/km CO2 emissions.
With a production variant already tipped for around 2016, the latest concept evolution bolsters reports from December that Audi is currently evaluating the model for production along with the 400kW/1000Nm 5.0-litre V10 twin-turbo-diesel Audi Nanuk quattro concept also seen at Frankfurt.
