[Auto] The production EL1 electric sportscar can do two laps of the ‘Ring on one charge

[El Máster Edwin]

Glorious Audi Quattro homage enters series production, and yes, it still costs *loads*

 

This is the EL1, a car you’ll remember as being a) an electric homage to the Audi Quattro, and b) really rather delectable. News has reached Top Gear towers that further deepens its delight.

For its maker – ELegend, which they insist on shoutily capitalising as ELEGEND – has confirmed the S1-inspired bodyshell and its associated electric motivation is able to race around the Nürburgring for two entire laps using just one full charge of the battery.

Which, for its lucky owners, means an unspecified number of minutes of sheer terror trying to remember the bloody place’s corners without having to look at battery charge! Hurrah!

That’s thanks to a new cooling strategy, while other changes over the concept and prototype cars we’ve seen previously include new door handles, exterior mirrors, and – genuinely – doors and a boot hatch that can open… a bit wider. Hey, details matter.

 

Details like modern infotainment, air-conditioning, a rear-view camera and parking sensors. ELegend has also fitted proper hard-shell sports seats and deployed exposed carbon liberally around the cabin.

Otherwise it’s as per the delightful concept we first saw back in 2021 and again in 2022. ELegend says it’s been working with a company called Roding Mobility GmbH to develop its own tech platform, and for this run of 30 cars will use an “existing power setup for the inverter motor-transmission unit”.

It remains a twin-motor car – a single speed motor on the front and rear axles – coupled to diffs front and back, a single-speed gearbox and an 80kWh battery. ELegend quotes 805bhp, able to catapult the carbon monocoque and carbon panelled Quattro-homage from 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds. It’ll also do 0-124mph in 7.5s and top out at 186mph.

 

Normal range – when not hotfooting it around 26-odd miles of scary German racetrack – is quoted at just under 250 miles, while the price is quoted at €890k plus VAT. Which is just over £915k. Yikes.

“With the EL1, we are quoting automotive legends, while at the same time casting an eye forward in terms of design, technology, material quality and craftsmanship, creating a retrofuturistic form for the 21st century that is unlike any other,” said Marcus Holzinger, ELegend boss.

 

There’s more than an eye forward. As previously reported, ELegend already has two more “icons” using the same 805bhp powertrain in the pipeline once this run of 30 EL1s starts in 2024. Delightful.

 

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