Photo: Audi
Audi has presented the cockpit of its 2022 Dakar Rally contender, the RS Q e-tron rally car. The competition-only vehicle was designed with Formula E technology and a DTM-sourced TFSI engine, and it comes with a handbrake lever that recovers energy when it is pulled.
As you may know, rally cars use hydraulic handbrakes to quickly lock up their rear wheels. Both in rallying and drifting, locking up the rear wheels is meant to induce a slide and force the vehicle to rotate in a direction.
In the case of Audi's 2022 Dakar Rally machine, pulling the handbrake lever, which works with both a hydraulic brake with a recuperation system and brake-by-wire technology, will lock the rear wheels and bring a boost of energy in the battery that powers the two motor-generator units.
Pressing the conventional brake pedal also recovers energy, and it works with the brake-by-wire setup that links the two systems (the energy recovering one and the hydraulic braking system).
For the first time, we get a glimpse of what the interior of an electrified rally car is like, and complicated does not paint the whole picture. Even though drivers do not have to change gears anymore, they still have plenty of things to do behind the wheel of the RS Q e-tron.
The driver has no less than three separate screens in front of his eyes, and there is also an extra screen in the center of the dashboard that is meant to be shared by the driver and the co-driver. The latter will get at least another screen to watch, so that they may provide navigation instructions for the driver.
The steering wheel comes with eight buttons, which control things from the horn to data entries in the software. In the latter case, the driver can store an anomaly with a time stamp in the vehicle's memory. Other functions, such as a speed limiter (even motorsport has speed limits), can be activated from the steering wheel buttons.
Moreover, the driver and co-driver have 24 buttons under the central screen of the Audi RS Q e-tron, which are freely assignable but have predefined areas on them. Each key has touch-sensitive reactions with a pressure point, and the menu has multiple pages available for programming.
That leads to a multitude of functions that can be activated quickly, but also further complicates life onboard the vehicle that could drive at speeds of up to 112 mph (200 km/h) in rough terrain.
Edouard Boulanger, Stephane Peterhansel's co-driver, explained that he only uses half of his energy on navigation, while the rest is meant for operating the car.
He did state that he loves the new challenge, which could add to the difficulty of the Dakar Rally for all competing crews. Regardless, it should be interesting to watch, so be sure to tune in between January 2, 2022, and January 14th, 2022 to see the 44th edition.
In the case of Audi's 2022 Dakar Rally machine, pulling the handbrake lever, which works with both a hydraulic brake with a recuperation system and brake-by-wire technology, will lock the rear wheels and bring a boost of energy in the battery that powers the two motor-generator units.
Pressing the conventional brake pedal also recovers energy, and it works with the brake-by-wire setup that links the two systems (the energy recovering one and the hydraulic braking system).
For the first time, we get a glimpse of what the interior of an electrified rally car is like, and complicated does not paint the whole picture. Even though drivers do not have to change gears anymore, they still have plenty of things to do behind the wheel of the RS Q e-tron.
The driver has no less than three separate screens in front of his eyes, and there is also an extra screen in the center of the dashboard that is meant to be shared by the driver and the co-driver. The latter will get at least another screen to watch, so that they may provide navigation instructions for the driver.
The steering wheel comes with eight buttons, which control things from the horn to data entries in the software. In the latter case, the driver can store an anomaly with a time stamp in the vehicle's memory. Other functions, such as a speed limiter (even motorsport has speed limits), can be activated from the steering wheel buttons.
Moreover, the driver and co-driver have 24 buttons under the central screen of the Audi RS Q e-tron, which are freely assignable but have predefined areas on them. Each key has touch-sensitive reactions with a pressure point, and the menu has multiple pages available for programming.
That leads to a multitude of functions that can be activated quickly, but also further complicates life onboard the vehicle that could drive at speeds of up to 112 mph (200 km/h) in rough terrain.
Edouard Boulanger, Stephane Peterhansel's co-driver, explained that he only uses half of his energy on navigation, while the rest is meant for operating the car.
He did state that he loves the new challenge, which could add to the difficulty of the Dakar Rally for all competing crews. Regardless, it should be interesting to watch, so be sure to tune in between January 2, 2022, and January 14th, 2022 to see the 44th edition.
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