A rendering of an Audi RS8 has appeared up on the Audi-centric website Fourtitude.com. Wait, an RS8? Simmer down—while we’ve not heard of any plans for Audi to add an RS version of its A8 sedan, we’re running the speculative photo because, well, an RS8 would be rad-tacular. If it were to happen, of course. (For more photos head on over to Fourtitude’s site.)

Currently, Audi’s biggest four-door comes in regular A8 grade—available with a diesel V-6, a supercharged V-6, and a twin-turbo V-8—and high-performance S8 guise, which gets a hotter version of the A8's twin-turbo V-8. There has never been an S8-topping RS8, but given that Audi’s been applying the RS treatment to machines like the Q3 recently, anything is possible. The best part of this fantasy? In order to top the S8, the RS8 would need to pack significantly more than that A8's 520 horsepower. Yes.

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MARC URBANO, JOHN LAMM, AND THE MANUFACTURER

What It Is: Audi's upcoming, race-bred hypercar, based directly on the R18 e-tron Quattro Le Mans racer that took victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year. Audi intends to use the new car, known internally as Scorpion, as a rolling showcase of the technologies the brand has developed throughout its racing endeavors. A design has yet to be finalized, but there are several proposals on the table, including a retro take on the future of racing as well as something that would closely resemble the R18. This rendering is our best interpretation of where the ongoing development of the car is at presently, following along the R18-inspired design that we understand to be favored within Audi.

Production of Scorpion likely will be limited to 333 units, as were the R8 GT and the A1 Quattro. That relatively low limited production run will save the company from the embarrassment of being unable to peddle all of its "limited" models, as has happened to Porsche with its Carrera GT and to Mercedes-Benz’s SLR McLaren.

Why It Matters: Scorpion will give Audi an instant presence in the ultra-high-performance segment, and its diesel-hybrid powertrain will sufficiently set it apart from the competition. It also serves as a morale booster for Audi's racing team and engineers, as well as the design department. On top of that, Scorpion will serve as a halo for diesel technology as a whole—something we’re sure Audi wouldn’t mind considering the number of TDIs that have been added to its lineup recently. The R8 V-12 TDI concept—had it been built—would’ve served a similar purpose, but probably came too early. Now, it would seem, the time is right.

Platform: Scorpion will be based on the architecture of the R18 race car. The centerpiece of the racer is a carbon-fiber monocoque, which has been reinforced using aluminum honeycomb. Audi will use as much of the structure as possible, but it’s likely that the monocoque will need to be modified for street use. Suspension and other chassis components will be made from aluminum to help save weight. The hypercar will receive advanced aerodynamics, which should assist in keeping the machine stable and tactile at speeds exceeding 200 mph.

Powertrains: This car's engine will be taken directly from the R18 e-tron Quattro and will be paired with a front-mounted hybrid module that’s yet to be specified. (Speculation of an upgraded version of Audi's more pedestrian 3.0-liter V-6 TDI residing underhood is inaccurate.) "It wouldn't make sense to use anything but the R18's racing engine in the Scorpion," a source at Audi tells us.

The R18’s 24-valve, 3.7-liter diesel is a V-6 situated at 120 degrees, and is fed by a single turbocharger. In race trim, this engine produces “more than” 500 horsepower and “more than” 625 lb-ft of torque, but its intakes are restricted. Output should be elevated for production to, say, 600 horsepower, plus the electric motor. When it’s all said and done, Scorpion should be capable of churning out more than 700 horsepower. The diesel will drive the rear wheels, while the fronts will be driven by the electric motor. We expect to see a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, but that’s not finalized and there are other unknown (outside of the project, anyway) options on the table.

Competition: Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1, Porsche 918.

Estimated Arrival and Price: Scorpion remains roughly three years away from production, so don’t expect to plunk down a deposit until some time in 2016 or maybe even 2017. As far as how large of a deposit it’ll take to hold one, Audi has the sticker prices of McLaren’s P1 and Ferrari’s LaFerrari in its sights, so don’t expect anything less than a cool million.

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Here we are at the 24 Hours of LeMons’s first visit to Monticello Motor Club, where 120 or so teams and their alleged race cars ran the gauntlet of our grueling inspection regimen. We saw a lot of old friends today, some of whom had upgraded to cars that fit the LeMons Way of Life™ so perfectly that we didn’t even notice the usual swarms of BMW E30 3-series cars that always infest races in the LeMons Eastern Region.

Legend of LeMons Dave Morrow broke the monotony of a string of E30s by bringing this brown AMC Gremlin. Now, what’s the only thing that could make a Gremlin even better?

Yes, a supercharged GM 3800 V6 and T-5 manual transmission! We can’t find a single weak point in this extremely rational plan for racing success.

Just when we were thinking there’d be no way to top the supercharged Gremlin, this car rolled up. You’re looking at a brown AMC Hornet, a type of car that has an illustrious LeMons history. We were expecting to see a boring 304-cubic-inch V8 under the hood, or maybe even a somewhat wilder 343.

Nope, Rally Baby Racing (you may remember them as the perpetrators of the first and still only Mercedes-Benz R107 in LeMons) went ahead and added a cheap Chinese turbocharger to the AMC 258 six under the Hornet’s hood. Note the blow-through setup using an ammo box to surround the stock 2-barrel Carter carburetor. This setup should be both powerful and reliable on the race track.

At that point we figured, OK, we’ll have to create a special trophy for the winner of the Blown Kenoshawagen matchup. Then we realized that we were seeing more BMW 2002s than usual. Way more 2002s.

We saw a dead-stock 2002tii with Kugelfischer fuel-injection. We saw a 2002 with super-cheaty suspension and M43 swap. We saw everything between those extremes; in all, we saw six 2002s. You can get rusty examples of these cars for cheap, so we believed the budget stories of some of the 2002 teams and scoffed at some others. Perhaps we need a trophy for the best-performing 2002… but it will all depend on how compelling the AMC battle turns out to be.

Of course, we’d rather see bigger and more luxurious vintage BMWs. For example, this E3 2800 that showed up. It’s rusty, it’s painfully stock, and we put it in Class C with the forced-induction AMCs.

The Twin-turbo taxi was back, this time with a 24? monitor to enable the driver to be confused by even more information from the Megasquirt fuel-injection system.

Incomprehensible and disturbing team costumes abounded.

The Volvo 262C Bertone team has upgraded to a Bert One concept (get it?) and spent the day confusing everybody at the track.

The Turbo Chevette is back!

Three Pedal Mafia brought their Sea Sprite, their Sharkmobile Honda Wagovan, and their V6-powered Triumph TR7, wrapping up the whole package with a nicely executed Jaws theme.

And, of course, we had one Peugeot 405 Mi16 towing another through the inspection. Check in Saturday night to see how the first day’s race session works out!

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The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive boasts a 120-mile range and 738 horsepower, but don’t believe for a minute that you can enjoy both at the same time. When pushed to its full potential, the electric SLS won’t make it two laps around the 12.9-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife. This great conundrum—manage the battery range or exercise the car’s muscle—makes the great power of the SLS ED sort of, well, a limp proposition.

But who are we kidding? Those that can afford the $500,000-plus electric SLS will have people to worry about range anxiety for them. When deliveries begin later this year, the Electric Drive will be a very quick, very fun novelty toy—batteries included—for fewer than 200 well-heeled Europeans. (There currently are no plans for U.S. sales.) For Mercedes-Benz and AMG, the electric gullwing is a research test bed exploring the future of electric propulsion and high-performance vehicles.

Quick to Discharge, Slow to Charge

The 60-kWh lithium-ion battery pack and the software that manages it were developed by the Formula 1 experts at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains. The 1208-pound pack contains 864 South Korean battery cells encased in a carbon-fiber box that acts as a structural element when bolted to the SLS’s aluminum space frame. HPP’s experience with F1’s Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) was key to extracting big power from the battery, but the engineers didn’t make any strides when it comes to recharging the puck. Unless your garage is wired up like a public charging space, a full charge takes 20 hours—and that’s with 220 volts.

With four electric motors making 185 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque each, the total output of the electrified gullwing tops even that of the SLS AMG Black Series. Yet asking for all 738 lb-ft lacks the expected drama. The Electric Drive is undeniably quick off the line—we estimate 60 mph arrives in 3.7 seconds—but you won’t hear a chirp from the tires. That’s because torque is routed through fixed-ratio gearboxes that cover the entire speed spread, from creeping up to a stoplight to hitting the governor at 155 mph. To add some theater to the otherwise silent electric-car experience, AMG pipes a sci-fi soundtrack through the SLS’s eleven stereo speakers. “Idling” creates a whirring warble, like a UFO landing in a Warner Brothers cartoon, and there are similarly fantastical sounds for start up, acceleration, cruising, and braking.

Because the four-wheel-drive electric SLS has driveshafts where the gas-powered car’s front springs and dampers reside, AMG engineers redesigned the front suspension. The control arms have been replaced by a multilink setup and the coil-overs are mounted horizontally and actuated by pushrods. Other chassis changes include an electrically driven hydraulic steering pump (rather than a belt-driven unit) and standard carbon-ceramic brakes. Shift paddles behind the wheel adjust how aggressively the regenerative braking cuts in when you lift off the accelerator.

Hey, Everybody, Watch This!

The electric SLS’s primary party trick is a function of the four electric motors that power it. With each motor dedicated to driving a single wheel, the Electric Drive’s computers have precise control over the forces that make a car change directions. Accelerating and braking each motor independently of the others turns this 4700-pound brute into a ballerina. The level of torque vectoring—what AMG calls “Torque Dynamics”—can be set to one of three modes. In Comfort, the SLS Electric Drive can’t hide its 900-pound surplus over the gas model. The electric car is reluctant to change directions and the steering is sluggish. With the body always a step behind the wheels, the SLS feels more like an S-class than a half-million-dollar sports car.

Switching to the most aggressive setting, Sport Plus, affects a transformation unlike any adaptive suspension or torque-vectoring differential we’ve ever experienced. Turn-in is defined by Lotus-like immediacy. The body moves perfectly in sync with the wheels and the driver’s intentions. The steering is prescient, and yet the four-corner torque control means you also influence your heading with the right pedal. If you underestimate a corner, simply squeeze on the throttle to tighten your line—not to induce oversteer but to increase the yaw moment. The outside wheels accelerate, the inside wheels slow, and the Gullwing tucks in, darting for the inside. This four-wheel torque vectoring redefines the expression “steering with the throttle.” And while it’s unlike any car we’ve ever driven, this is the kind of electric car we can easily get behind.

Something to Look Forward to

The hyper-exclusive, ultra-expensive SLS AMG Electric Drive is an anomaly in the world of battery-powered cars. It’s too radical to serve as basic transportation and its range-limited battery keeps it from being a real track toy. Instead, its purpose is to serve as a development bench and proving ground for using smaller multiple motors rather than a single large motor. If the idea of dedicating a motor to an individual wheel becomes common practice, we’re looking forward to a future of hybrids and electrics.

VEHICLE TYPE: front- and rear-motor, 4-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe

ESTIMATED BASE PRICE $550,000

ENGINE TYPE: four AC permanent synchronous electric motors, 185 hp, 185 lb-ft; combined power rating, 740 hp, 738 lb-ft; 60-kWh lithium-ion battery pack

TRANSMISSION: 1-speed direct drive

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 105.5 in
Length: 182.6 in
Width: 76.3 in Height: 49.7 in
Curb weight (C/D est): 4700 lb

PERFORMANCE (C/D EST):
Zero to 60 mph: 3.7 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.5 sec
Top speed: 155 mph

FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST):
EPA combined driving: 85 MPGe

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As BMW enters its 15th season as the official car of MotoGP, it’s gifting the series’ safety-car fleet a brand-spanking-new M6 Gran Coupe. As the latest M car to hit consumers, the M6 Gran Coupe is a natural fit for safety-car duty. Besides, the burliest Gran Coupe looks unbelievably cool even before BMW adds a light bar, so there’s that.

The M6 Gran Coupe safety car gets the typical complement of doo-dads relevant to making it both highly visible and, er, safer. There’s a unique front fascia adapted to accomodate a pair of LED driving light arrays, black wheels, black grilles and fender vents, an Akrapovic exhaust system, Recaro racing seats, and of course, a roof-mounted light bar. The mostly white M6 Gran Coupe gets further amped up with an M-signature blue, purple, and red stripe job. Serving alongside the Gran Coupe is an M6 coupe introduced for last season and an M5; there’s also an M3 coupe for the safety officer, two M550d xDrive Touring (wagon!) medical cars, and two S1000RR HP4 safety bikes.

The new M6 Gran Coupe safety car with the whole MotoGP support gang.

The M6 Gran Coupe safety car made its debut at last weekend’s MotoGP season opener in Qatar. But if you’re determined to see this particular fleet of M-badged safety vehicles in the metal, the next stop on this season’s MotoGP calendar is the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, later this month.

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