The 2024 Dakar Rally is one stage away from the top, and Carlos Sainz is within the lead. If the 61-year previous driver wins, Audi will exit on prime in a lot of vital methods. This is the final day out at Dakar for the carmaker, which mentioned it will be pulling out of the rally after 2024. But Team Audi Sport driver Carlos Sainz may ship the primary Dakar Rally victory for a automobile with an electrical drivetrain all because of the tech on the RS Q e-tron, together with a built-in jack that lets Audi drivers carry out fast tire swaps and different repairs.
There are two jacks built-in into the RS Q e-tron’s facet panels, one on both sides. The jacks aren’t revolutionary, nor are they uncommon in these sorts of rally levels, however their genius lies of their simplicity. Watch an Audi Dakar engineer present how the jacks work, courtesy of a Red Bull Rally video:
The Audi’s jacks mix metallic tubes and a round pad in what seems to be a system just like a normal hydraulic jack you may need in your storage. But the e-tron’s jacks appear to be constructed into the automobile, presumably in one of the best load-bearing place for such a tool.
The jacks are lowered and raised by means of controls which are positioned on each the skin of the automobile close to the door opening, or within the Audi’s cabin within the middle console. This might be for the sake of redundancy in case one set of controls fail to decrease and lift the legs of the jacks. And these legs have to be fairly lengthy as a way to present sufficient clearance to vary out the 37-inch BF Goodrich tires of the RS Q e-tron.
The jacks are simply considered one of many options the Audi has onboard to traverse the levels of one of many hardest rallies on this planet. The very important bits are, in fact, the two.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that fees the e-tron’s battery to energy two electrical motors driving over every axle. The RS Q e-tron will dash from 0-60 miles per hour in 4.5 seconds, however what good is that pace when the automobile is beached on flat tires?
Punctures are among the many commonest obstacles that Dakar drivers face. In reality, tire punctures and hydraulic jack failure is what could have value Sébastien Loeb his victory over Sainz in 2024, in keeping with Dirtfish, which proves a trusty jack (or two) is significant at Dakar.
In one a part of the video, it seems to be like a driver or mechanic may absolutely match below the automobile when raised by the jacks. Of course, it’d appear to be a precarious state of affairs to be below the Dakar machine for prolonged intervals of time, as within the case of driver Mattias Ekström, who suffered a significant mechanical breakdown in his RS Q e-tron’s suspension that value him valuable time earlier this week. But I belief Audi engineers wouldn’t endanger their drivers with crappy jacks.
Ekström nonetheless managed to avoid wasting the day at a later stage, sacrificing his Audi’s tires in order that Carlos Sainz may cost forward for the win, as Top Gear reviews. Sainz himself says that the Dakar will not be over but, however victory is shut for him and Audi.
Source: jalopnik.com