Driving the Audi R8 was fun. It made my Iron Man dream come true and also because the R8 is going out of production. But the #xBhpPowerTour 2023 granted me an opportunity to realize another Iron Man dream, well, more like another Tony Stark dream. In Avengers, RDJ drives another fantastic car from Audi. So while the R8 harkens back to the past, this one is an ode to the future, and a pretty stellar future if the experience of driving it is anything to go by. The car in question is the Audi RS e-tron GT.

So, what is it all about then? It is an Audi and it is a saloon complete with four doors and everything. And it is all-electric. But before you start to get all judgemental and everything, get a load of this; it has nearly 640 horsepower and 830 Nm of torque. What does that entail? Well, it means that this nearly 2.2-ton behemoth accelerates to 60 mph from a standstill in just a smidge over 3 seconds. Part of it is down to the Quattro all-wheel drive and part of it is down to the nature of electric vehicles which means tons of torque right from the get-go. 

It is already very impressive on paper but when you get around to doing that in the real world, it is terrifying and exciting at the same time. Being an electric vehicle and being designed the way it is, the RS e-tron GT feels futuristic and stuff but driving it feels that way too. It is like you are in a spaceship and the accelerator is a space-time warp button. I am not exaggerating. The rate at which it turns everything around you to a blur is utter brutality. The acceleration is smack-dab in the realm of superbikes. Again, the way it goes about delivering all that power and torque is unlike anything an ICE vehicle does. 

The top speed may be limited to 250 kays an hour but this thing feels like it can do a whole lot more. Moreover, the journey to 250 km/h is what it is all about which is completed in what I call a conundrum; it feels like an eternity and an instant at the same time. Also, it does not handle like a 2.2-ton car either. Since all the weight of the battery is down low, the centre of gravity is low which means that it inspires a lot of confidence in the corners as well. Plus there’s all the wizardry going on with the torque vectoring which plays its part in keeping everything tidy. So this is a saloon that you can simply throw in a corner and expect wonders while the g-forces shift your organs and warp your face. 

The braking is just as sharp as the acceleration which to me is even more impressive considering the kind of inertia that the brakes have to battle. Finally, the interior is the last straw that blew my mind. All of that savagery; the power, the torque, the handling, and the braking is happening while you sit cocooned in one of the most comfortable and opulent cabins you’ll find in any car. Also, with the 93.4 kWh you get a range of around 400 km on a full charge even if you mix in some spirited driving with city and freeway speeds. That is more than decent for a car of this size and this much power. 

Audi has also put a lot of thought into ensuring that charging the RS e-tron GT is not a hassle. With the regular 240V AC supply, the maximum charging power is 9.6 kW which translates to around 10.5 to 100% from dead. But with the 270 kW DC charger, it can go from 5% to 80% in 22 minutes! Imagine this; 20 minutes of charging gets you a range of over 300 km and that too, in a manner that’ll embarrass a whole lot of ICE cars and maybe even motorcycles. There’s a reason why I said that cars like this paint the picture of a future that is supremely exciting. 

The #xBhpPowerTour 2023 has introduced me to some crazy pieces of automotive engineering but almost all of them were ICE-powered. The Audi RS e-tron GT therefore, was a unique experience for me. But more than the powertrain, it was the engineering finesse that did me in. ICEs have had years and years of development and compared to that, electric vehicle technology is still in its infancy. Despite that, the RS e-tron GT manages to not only hold a candle to some of the best ICE cars but also go toe-to-toe with them. A lot of petrolheads may still think that electric vehicles will never be as good as ICEs but I beg to differ. I am an enthusiast too but I do not reject what is coming my way and based on what has so far… I am nothing if not a little more than excited!