When it comes to birthday presents, they don’t come much cooler than the Audi RS e-tron GT ice race edition.
Available in a limited run of 99 cars for Europe, it’s a unique celebration of the first 40 years of Audi Sport’s history. After all, the Audi RS e-tron GT shares many of the same bold design cues as the pioneering Audi Sport quattro from the 1980s: a high-performance special that revolutionised road driving and World Rally competition – particularly on slippery winter roads – with its pioneering quattro all-wheel-drive.
Crucially, though, the Audi RS e-tron GT ice race edition also offers a taste of what’s to come for performance Audi models of the future: certainly through its potent all-electric powertrain, but also when it comes to Audi exclusive customisation.
Learn more about the Audi RS e-tron GT
Racing on ice (electrified)
The concept for the Audi RS e-tron GT ice race edition was inspired by the GP Ice Race: a winter celebration of all things automotive that has been resurrected by Ferdi Porsche in the heart of the Austrian Alps.
First held in 1952 on the frozen lake of Zell Am See, the event was originally based around the Scandinavian sport (yes, it’s a sport!) of skijoring – essentially, skiers being pulled along by horses (in days gone by) and (more recently) by horsepower. Gradually, the event became more focused on competitive multi-car ice racing, until it came to an unexpected end in the wake of the 1974 oil crisis.
“At one point, my dad had a car that he competed with, using spiked bicycle tires to get around the track,” Ferdi recalls. “I’m talking centimetres-long spikes instead of the smaller spiked tyres we use today. I never really knew the event existed, though, as it had been gone for so long. People forgot about it. It just disappeared.
“When we talked about bringing the GP Ice Race back, it was a fun idea: how we can bring young people back to motorsport? There’s a whole new generation of enthusiasts. Everyone was super excited, but no-one was sure it was still do-able. When we opened the doors in 2019, it was overwhelming: 10,000 people showed up. And the mix was exactly what we wanted: old cars and heritage, but also new cars for the next generation.
