Audi e-tron Spyder 2011 Review - International

What we liked?
>> Really, really good looking machine?
>> Size of the package feels right
?>> Conceptually, it works a treat

Not so much
?>> The drive systems aren’t exactly chummy yet
?>> Speedster-style windscreen makes vision difficult?

It probably wouldn’t matter if the e-tron Spyder was full of normal car stuff doing normal car things. It wouldn’t matter, because the e-tron Spyder is stunning in the flesh. A lot of concept cars, born for the bright lights of the motor show circuit, simply don’t work when you take them out of their natural, turntable-spun habitat. The e-tron Spyder is not one of those…

Highlighted by sharply creased, crisp panels that cannot be painted, much less stamped, in normal production processes, the short, sharp Audi concept not only points the way to the company’s sportscar future, but it also tracks one arm of Audi's wider low-emission strategy.

This is a mini-supercar of the future -- complete with a thumping V6 twin-turbo direct-injected diesel engine sitting behind the driver and two electric motors driving the front wheels. Not only is it capable of bursting to 100km/h in 4.4 seconds, but it’s also capable, thanks to its plug-in lithium-ion battery pack, of running for 50km on electric power alone.

Use the engine and motor together an Audi claims an effective fuel consumption average of 2.2L/100km!

Yet these sort of raw stats don't tell you that much. They show you the philosophy, for sure, but they don’t really assist in understanding if Audi is serious about the e-tron Spyder or whether it’s just another design concept… One dressed in 'green' and dreamed up to get us accustomed to a radical new small sportscar or a change of direction for the next TT

That’s why Audi has brought us here, to the heart of convertible country in Southern California to drive the e-tron Spyder’s. Surrounded by two police cruisers, the unregistered prototype has commandeered a section of the iconic Mulholland Drive in the Malibu hills so we can unleash all the technology it has to offer.

And it’s a considerable amount of technology. The Sypder boasts a combination of Audi’s latest 3.0-litre turbodiesel V6 along with two electric motors and a 69-cell Lithium-Ion battery to run them.

If you were aiming for a cost-effective way to build a performance hybrid, you probably wouldn’t start with a diesel engine. But that’s what Audi has done, and it smacks of overkill in an alleged 1440kg midget.

No less than 221kW and 650Nm is its claimed output and unlike most other hybrids the TDI V6 does not serve as a generator to top up the battery or power the motors. All it does is twist the rear wheels as they hang at the edges of the R8-based, double-wishbone rear suspension.

All-wheel-drive is facilitated via two electric motors up front. This means that, when the Spyder is running on pure electric power (which it can do up to 60km/h), the 'all-wheel drive' is, in fact, a front-wheel drive. That sounds simple enough, but the electronic trickery required to balance the outcome when it's all in action and you've called for 'ramming speed' is mind-boggling.

Marcos Marques, Audi’s Hybrid Engineering manager (who also did the core engineering of the TTRS' five-cylinder engine), is the man entrusted to make it all work. The trick, he says, is that the electric motors are sensitive and clever enough to take torque vectoring to an all-new level, adding more punch for as little as a millimetre should the handling situation demand it.

“In slippery conditions, it’s astonishing what we can do now with this technology,” he insisted.

That’s the theory. It doesn’t quite work that way in the concept car, though there are signs that it well might.

For starters, it weighs at least 1650kg, because, according to project leader Uwe Haller, it's been over-engineered in many places.

“It’s heavier, yes, but all prototypes are,” he admitted.

“We tried to do more than is necessary because we don’t have the full calculations for all the engineering to know what we need exactly. This is always the way on the first prototypes.”

Also, the concept car runs Audi’s continuously variable transmission (Multitronic in Audi-speak) rather than the claimed seven-speed double-clutch S tronic gearbox.

“The engine, gearbox and differential unit were just lifted from the front end of the A6 and moved together in one block… So it’s the same layout as in the A6, it’s just at the other end,” he said, sheepishly.

Shifting the mechanicals gifts the e-tron Spyder a 50:50 weight distribution but limitations of the CVT gearbox in the prototype means the diesel engine’s torque peak is limited to 380Nm. In a 'real' Spyder, the total torque output would top 1002Nm -- more than the mighty Q7 V12 TDI.

Driving concept cars is always fraught with danger, largely because they never live up to the visual promise and you never quite know whose agenda has you sitting in it. Is it the designers', trying to force somebody’s hand with good publicity? Is it the engineers, trying to make the designers do something more practical?

Still, who would baulk at this opportunity, especially when from most angles, the e-tron Spyder looks so, well, seamlessly complete. (At least, it does until they reveal the two-door car has six door latches -- two each to hold the front and rear clamshells down… That’s what Haller means by over-engineering it). Indeed, it’s an exquisite piece of exterior design. For example each wheel has 66 individual parts and each wheel arch surround has a crease so sharp you could shave with it. Much to the chagrin of Audi’s paint guys…

One of the first surprises, though, is that when you slide into its seat, the tiny sportscar just feels, well, right.

With a wheelbase a full 220mm shorter than the R8, the Spyder is only just over 4.0m long and 1.1m tall but it is a purposeful 1.81m wide. Yet it doesn’t feel short in the cabin and there’s plenty of adjustment even for tall people. Haller himself probably hit the six foot mark when he was around 16, so he had good reasons for making it comfortable.

The seats, though they are one-piece carbon-fibre shells, are electronically adjustable and very comfortable. The hip-point feels just about right for production, too, and the non-adjustable steering wheel looks menacing with its deep dish.

It might be a relatively simple cabin but that doesn’t mean it’s been left behind in design terms. The passenger, for example, has a very clever ventilation adjustment mechanism that blends seamlessly into the dashboard and can be adjusted with the swipe of a finger.

ON THE ROAD
But now there’s the matter of turning the damned thing on. Except Haller tells me it’s already on, which you can tell because the gearshift lever has lifted up for you to use it! When the car is off, it lays flat to become part of the centre console.

So you just give the lever a little push to move forward and... the Spyder moves forward.

Don’t for a second believe that electric cars are silent -- they are not, especially at low speed. And prototypes like the e-tron are even louder because sound deadening is late on the list of things to do when it comes to making sure everything works

The e-tron Spyder whines and hums as it moves off but it doesn’t feel as urgent as Audi has suggested. That, though, is because it’s running in pure electric mode, with Haller riding shotgun and fiddling with the car’s settings to demonstrate every different running mode.

Still, it’s convincing in areas you don’t expect. Its ride, for example, feels composed but still gives a great feeling of contact with the tarmac. Probably should, riding on Michelin Pilot Sport 245/30 ZR20 front tyres and 265/30 ZR20 rears (complete with the R8’s optional carbon-ceramic brakes) but it feels impressive nonetheless.

It’s grippy, too, even though the double wishbones front end isn’t helped by running the A1’s uninvolving electro-mechanical steering system. It actually tucks in pretty hard and squirts out of corners pretty nicely. Even as a front driver.

Big holes are another story, though, and Haller pleads with me not to even hit the cats-eyes because the carbon body doesn’t like them. They send creaks around the bodyshell and there’s the odd groan of anguish from the suspension, too.

But the e-tron comes to life when he fires up the 'full' setting on the way back up the winding mountain road. Proked into life the V6 biturbo diesel sure doesn’t sound like this inside an A6.

It sounds a lot like a truck largely because it’s uninsulated. Indeed, it’s fearfully loud with no nuance of tone or enjoyment -- and then the turbos kick in with a withering burst of air whistling as the revs build and a steaming shhhussshhhh of air as you come off the throttle.

Its unsophisticated nature is completely at odds with how the car looks but it doesn’t affect how it goes. The diesel, limited though it is, hurls the e-tron forward.

There are no gearshifts to slow progress -- the CVT gearbox settles the engine at peak torque and stays there while the car picks up speed. It’s even more comfortable out of corners this way, even more urgent.

In fact, it feels like a very coherent driveline. So much so that when we go to turn around at the end of the run and the diesel cuts off as we dip under 30km/h Haller has to tell me that he hasn’t flicked the switch but that the electric motors have been running all along.

They just boost up the front end of the car to add more performance and more stability -- seamlessly. A taste of things to come? Could be…

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