Audi built a special S1 E-Tron Quattro, dubbed the “Hoonitron,” in December for American precision driver Ken Block. And now, the automaker is set to bring the EV to US soil this month during Monterey Car Week. It’ll be juxtaposed with its design inspiration: the 1985 Audi Sport Quattro S1 that rally driver Walter Röhrl set a Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record with in 1987.
Audi’s new performance E-Tron will make a starring appearance in Block’s latest production dubbed Elektrikhana, a play of words between electric and gymkhana, the drifting motorsport with obstacles. Block and his crew produced a series of Gymkhana films where the pro stunt driver maneuvers through impossible-looking courses, like the streets of LA. Previously, Block had built a relationship with Ford Performance and would often test custom Ford vehicles like the Focus RS with a drift stick and a 650-horsepower Fiesta that he plunged through sand in Dubai for the Gymkhana series.
Ken Block had his first electric car drive experience when Ford let him test-drive a preproduction Mustang Mach-E, but the ride-along representatives didn’t let him test the car’s limits. To make up for it, Ford Performance built a high-powered 1,400-horsepower Mustang Mach-E, and Block finally got a taste of the instant torque of an EV. But with the relationship with Ford now over, Block is going to Audi and handed down his famous Ford Mustang “Hoonicorn” to his teenage daughter Lia in December.
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When Block got to test out the S1 Hoonitron, he was still getting used to electric vehicles. “I’m familiar with a wide variety of cars using internal combustion engines and transmissions, but there were a lot of new things for me to learn here. Spinning into a donut at 150 km/h directly from standstill – just using my right foot – is an all-new experience for me,” Block said in December when Audi revealed the car.
The Audi S1 E-Tron Quattro Hoonitron can be seen at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at the Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, from August 17th through August 21st. Ken Block’s Elektrikhana film is currently in production and coming out in the next couple of months.