ZOSicK
March 30th, 2004, 09:21 PM
http://www.caranddriver.com/assets/image/332004111439.jpg
udi's Le Mans Quattro does more than celebrate the company's domination of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race between 2000 and 2002. In fact, it marks the beginning of a new design language for the corporation. See that grille? It's bigger and deeper than Audi grilles of yore, and according to Martin Ertl, Audi's head of design management, it signals the direction in which Audi design will go.
It was probably inevitable. Mercedes and BMW grilles went from tall and thin to short and squat. Audi's grille was always wide but short. So there was nowhere else to go. Otherwise, it seems to us, the contours of the Le Mans Quattro carry the suggestion of where Audi has recently been. The fastback rear deck is somewhat evocative of the TT coupe, although it's certainly larger and more muscular. And the front wheel arches advertise a familiar Audi design cue with their beveled appearance.
But it's a good-looking car if you can get used to the multi-LED headlights that stud the front end like the compound eyes of a 602-horsepower insect. On the car's flanks, the silver metal panel that extends from the door's rear shut-line to the side air-intake scoop is designed to emphasize the existence of an aluminum space frame under the sculpted carbon-fiber shell.
Initially, the designers responsible for the car's exterior?Frank Lamberty and Julian Hoenig?intended that metal panel to go all the way beyond the car's silhouette, where its upper edges would project like twin fins. But the idea was considered too fanciful, and it was dropped.
We think it's a good thing. That panel now fits like a jigsaw-puzzle piece, simultaneously accentuating the C-pillar and shortening what would have been a very long greenhouse. That design theme of metal projecting through a composite skin is in evidence elsewhere, too. You see the skeleton of the alloy space frame as spines in the engine compartment and as ribs inside the car. Even on the car's dashboard, there are elements that thrust through the surrounding high-tech-weave cabin cladding and jut provocatively into the occupants' view.
In line with this aggressive design is a return to the driver-oriented cockpit. All the controls and instruments are focused on the driver, and a high center tunnel further separates the occupants. It fits with the race-car atmosphere the designers were trying to create; yet Martin Ertl insists the Le Mans Quattro had to be the kind of car that would function in all the situations of modern life. That is, it would need to be able to blast its way through a mountain pass and then arrive at the country club for a reception to dignify its owner.
http://www.caranddriver.com/assets/image/332004112236.jpg
To that end the interior design is possibly the most groundbreaking aspect of the car. The cabin and the seats are covered in expensive-looking synthetic materials that recall the jigsaw effect of the side body panel, forming symmetrical shapes and patterns that tuck and butt up to one another with seamless perfection. In contrast, the high-tech instrument panel is almost mundane.
There's an analog tach on the left and a panel on the right that morphs (Ertl's word) from a digital representation of an analog clock to one of many readouts. Among them is a bird's-eye view of the Le Mans circuit (or any other that can be downloaded into the system), giving advance warning of which way the next curve goes. Ertl says the system could even provide advice as to what speed the driver could use for corner entries when properly programmed.
Audi's MMI (Multi Media Interface) uses that right-side display, too, for its usual plethora of settings and selections. The system's mouse ball has been integrated very adroitly, looking more high-tech than we've seen in other Audis. The flat-bottom steering wheel looks every bit like a race-car piece, especially with its buttons and gearshift paddles; and the sensation of moving one's hand from a woven surface to a cool metal section is a tactile reminder, again, of that concept of a metal skeleton under a plastic cover. It kind of brings Arnold's Terminator to mind.
Which is appropriate, given the exotic metal components under the elegant carbon-fiber skin. Sitting amidships under a hydraulically operated engine cover (it's shrouded beneath yet another plastic cover, where it can be seen through the backlight) is a direct-injected twin-turbocharged and intercooled version of the Lamborghini Gallardo V-10. The 5.0-liter, 40-valve, 90-degree engine is said to develop 602 horsepower in this incarnation, with a fairly impressive torque delivery of 553 pound-feet between 1750 rpm and 5800 rpm.
:bigok:
udi's Le Mans Quattro does more than celebrate the company's domination of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race between 2000 and 2002. In fact, it marks the beginning of a new design language for the corporation. See that grille? It's bigger and deeper than Audi grilles of yore, and according to Martin Ertl, Audi's head of design management, it signals the direction in which Audi design will go.
It was probably inevitable. Mercedes and BMW grilles went from tall and thin to short and squat. Audi's grille was always wide but short. So there was nowhere else to go. Otherwise, it seems to us, the contours of the Le Mans Quattro carry the suggestion of where Audi has recently been. The fastback rear deck is somewhat evocative of the TT coupe, although it's certainly larger and more muscular. And the front wheel arches advertise a familiar Audi design cue with their beveled appearance.
But it's a good-looking car if you can get used to the multi-LED headlights that stud the front end like the compound eyes of a 602-horsepower insect. On the car's flanks, the silver metal panel that extends from the door's rear shut-line to the side air-intake scoop is designed to emphasize the existence of an aluminum space frame under the sculpted carbon-fiber shell.
Initially, the designers responsible for the car's exterior?Frank Lamberty and Julian Hoenig?intended that metal panel to go all the way beyond the car's silhouette, where its upper edges would project like twin fins. But the idea was considered too fanciful, and it was dropped.
We think it's a good thing. That panel now fits like a jigsaw-puzzle piece, simultaneously accentuating the C-pillar and shortening what would have been a very long greenhouse. That design theme of metal projecting through a composite skin is in evidence elsewhere, too. You see the skeleton of the alloy space frame as spines in the engine compartment and as ribs inside the car. Even on the car's dashboard, there are elements that thrust through the surrounding high-tech-weave cabin cladding and jut provocatively into the occupants' view.
In line with this aggressive design is a return to the driver-oriented cockpit. All the controls and instruments are focused on the driver, and a high center tunnel further separates the occupants. It fits with the race-car atmosphere the designers were trying to create; yet Martin Ertl insists the Le Mans Quattro had to be the kind of car that would function in all the situations of modern life. That is, it would need to be able to blast its way through a mountain pass and then arrive at the country club for a reception to dignify its owner.
http://www.caranddriver.com/assets/image/332004112236.jpg
To that end the interior design is possibly the most groundbreaking aspect of the car. The cabin and the seats are covered in expensive-looking synthetic materials that recall the jigsaw effect of the side body panel, forming symmetrical shapes and patterns that tuck and butt up to one another with seamless perfection. In contrast, the high-tech instrument panel is almost mundane.
There's an analog tach on the left and a panel on the right that morphs (Ertl's word) from a digital representation of an analog clock to one of many readouts. Among them is a bird's-eye view of the Le Mans circuit (or any other that can be downloaded into the system), giving advance warning of which way the next curve goes. Ertl says the system could even provide advice as to what speed the driver could use for corner entries when properly programmed.
Audi's MMI (Multi Media Interface) uses that right-side display, too, for its usual plethora of settings and selections. The system's mouse ball has been integrated very adroitly, looking more high-tech than we've seen in other Audis. The flat-bottom steering wheel looks every bit like a race-car piece, especially with its buttons and gearshift paddles; and the sensation of moving one's hand from a woven surface to a cool metal section is a tactile reminder, again, of that concept of a metal skeleton under a plastic cover. It kind of brings Arnold's Terminator to mind.
Which is appropriate, given the exotic metal components under the elegant carbon-fiber skin. Sitting amidships under a hydraulically operated engine cover (it's shrouded beneath yet another plastic cover, where it can be seen through the backlight) is a direct-injected twin-turbocharged and intercooled version of the Lamborghini Gallardo V-10. The 5.0-liter, 40-valve, 90-degree engine is said to develop 602 horsepower in this incarnation, with a fairly impressive torque delivery of 553 pound-feet between 1750 rpm and 5800 rpm.
:bigok: