Opinion: Why Audi needs cooler cars and icons

Can Audi get its mojo back? Once easily the coolest of the German luxury trio, Audi at one time possessed an unassailable combination of ice-cool design, redhot tech, and loads and loads of innovation. Its cars were suave and had real swagger. What made them so attractive was that they were full of solid German engineering and real performance: five-cylinder engines, big turbos, W engines, newage gearboxes (remember Multitronic?), and, of course, Quattro, the four-wheel-drive tech transferred from rally cars to the main street, with which Audi won a huge fan base. And it wasn’t just design and tech. Audi had some iconic cars, too. The TT coupe, the 911-baiting R8, the classdefining Q7, or the crazyfast  RS range. Even the aluminium A2, though not a commercial success, was much admired.

Then there was motorsport. In the 30s, it beat Mercedes and won Grand Prix championships with groundbreaking mid-engine race cars. Its WRC wins with the Quattro system are legendary, and then, who can forget the 13 wins at Le Mans, three powered by diesels! If that isn’t cool, I don’t know what is. Soon after, however, Audi lost its patron saint, one F Piech. And with him went loads of chutzpah and a lot of cool. Not only was he a great engineer but also a master at spreading the costs of exorbitant engineering programmes and capturing the attention (and imagination) of the car-buying public.

But Audi today seems to be well on its way back. It incredibly won this year’s Dakar Rally using a range extender EV—another first—and by 2026, it will be in Formula 1. Audi is also uniquely positioned as the only carmaker to have won Championships in all three major forms of motorsport (before Grand Prix racing became Formula 1)—to say nothing of Touring Cars. The year 2026 will also mark the return of Audi to competitive motorsport powered by a combustion engine.

What Audi also needs going forward is cool cars and icons. Yes, the all electric four-door GT that’s based on the Porsche Taycan is good, but it doesn’t quite have the pull of a mid-engined R8. What Audi needs is a road going version of the RS Q e-tron range extender that won Dakar. Sure, the profile will have to be altered, and those insane front fenders will have to be ‘rationalised’, but can you imagine just how cool it could be? Finally, a really cool electric off-road sporty car.

Then, there’s the other VW-Audi group company trick Audi seems to have missed—a rally replica with a raised suspension. This is something group companies Porsche and Lamborghini have exploited with the 911 Dakar and Huracan Sterrato. Shouldn’t a raised rally-style suspension-equipped car have come from Audi, the real WRC heroes? Picture a raised RS5 or RS6 coupe with a particularly raked ‘fastback’ rear and ‘C’ pillar, like the original Quattro. It would be the real thing and would have infinite appeal for generations.

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