Electric cars have no soul. Electric cars are only for reasonable people? Correct? Incorrect! A tight-knit group from Beilngries in Upper Bavaria has set out to prove the opposite. If the name E-Legend already gives it away, it should not be a thousand and first hypercar with a brute 2,500 hp, which first breaks the sound barrier when shooting straight ahead and then rips the tires to shreds, but a car that gives the driver a grin as soon as he unlocks it Anticipation tacks in the face. “We don’t want to build a simple restomod, but a car that is both a track tool and suitable for everyday use,” explains Marcus Holzinger, one of the founders of ELegend AG.
The name is program. A Stromer yes, but not an ordinary one. So the Elegend El 1 is a modern version of the Audi Sport Quattro S1, the car that the Ingolstadt sports car manufacturer should have put on its wheels long ago. The troop from the neighborhood of the brand with the four rings are not today’s rabbits who just take a few electric motors in the garage and nail them together into an electrocution soapbox. Marcus Holzinger is a trained industrial designer who has already worked for VW and now runs his father’s design studio.
The EL1 shows that Holzinger has mastered his job. With a length of just 4.15 meters, an agility-enhancing wheelbase of 2.44 meters and an output of 600 kW / 816 hp, this electric car is the legitimate successor to the legendary rally all-wheel drive vehicle. So why an Audi Sport Quattro S1. “My father was involved in the design of the Sport Quattro,” says Marcus Holzinger. But a nice cover doesn’t make a fun car. The technology and agility also have to be right. After all, the descendant of the rally icon is to be built by hand 30 times and sold for 890,000 euros plus tax. More legends will follow later. “We want to build a car that ties in with the tradition of Group B rallying, vehicles and hillclimbs. Traction out of corners is important to us, not top speed”; explains Günther Riedl, who is responsible for the technology. In the spirit of the legendary Audi model, this means no torque vectoring or other modern frills, just a classic limited-slip differential on the rear axle.
Riedl is anything but this year’s hare who tries his hand at the dynamic kit, but the head of Roding Automobile, a company that implements projects for car manufacturers. From planning to the prototype. In addition, there is expertise in carbon construction, which is an advantage with the EL1 and all successor models. Because the monocoque consists of the composite material and is provided with an aluminum frame at the front and rear. This makes it easier to realize different structures, i.e. models, without changing the monocoque as the core of the car and without having to constantly build new tools. In the case of carbon, that would not be an entirely trivial task, nor would it be entirely cheap.
We take a close look at the shell of the so-called rolling chassis, which looks like a vehicle from the end-time spectacle Mad Max, before we sit in the passenger seat. The processing is impeccable. The carrier strap is tightened and the driver Mark is ready to go. Fire free. Mark lets the vehicle fly and steps on the gas as soon as the steering wheel is turned. Immediately the tires spin and the smell of burnt rubber fills our nostrils. Nevertheless, the all-wheel drive with the two current-excited synchronous machines, which deliver a maximum of 150 kW / 204 hp at the front and 450 kW / 612 hp at the rear, already does its job quite well. The rear axle is in command and steers eagerly. This is also due to the basic power distribution of 35 (front) to 65 percent (rear).
Even if the fine-tuning is just beginning and the technicians are still fine-tuning the exact power distribution, you can already let the vehicle fly quite a bit. A slight tendency to understeer and a high-spirited rear end when reacting to load changes, which is immediately caught again by countersteering and braking. “I can also let him drift,” says Mark with a smile. “Here we go”. In the next second we’re shooting across Wallachia and our stomach tells us that we shouldn’t have been so bold.
While most of the technical components are purchased from well-known suppliers, the drive control software remains the competence of the team from Beilngries. The battery modules come from LG and have a capacity of 80 kilowatt hours, which, according to the fathers of the fun mobile, should be good for consumption of around 20 kWh/100 kilometers and a WLTP range of more than 400 kilometers. The relatively low weight of 1,790 kilograms for such a Stromer helps here. Sounds promising. We look forward to the first test drive. It will be interesting to see what Walter Röhrl has to say about this car. After all, the two-time world rally champion is not a fan of electromobility. Maybe the new version of his Quattro rocket will change his mind.
