Three years ago, German startup E-Legend announced a “modern rendition” of the legendary Audi Sport Quattro coming to the market. Dubbed the EL1, it packs 816 electric PS (805 hp / 600 kW) and is coming in a production run capped at just 30 units. The model will celebrate its live debut at the Monterey Car Week opening on August 16, CarBuzz reports.
The choice of location is not coincidental. E-Legend emphasizes that about a half of the potential buyers of the EL1 are residents of the United States. As such, they would be interested in seeing the vehicle “in metal”, rather than in some photos somewhere.
The production hasn’t started yet, but it will be launched before the end of the year, E-Legend claims. There is no word on how many examples have already been sold, but with the project being three years old now, chances are good that all 30 planned production units already have owners. That is, if the prohibitive starting price of U.S. $970,000 isn’t too much for Quattro lovers.
The layout of the EL1 and its 800V power architecture are certainly a nod to the modern-day Audis and Porsches. E-Legend avoids saying where it sourced the components, but it looks like these two German brands had provided many internals for the project. As for the body design, it looks fairly modern with the occasional reference to the classic Sport Quattro here and there.
At first, the company had planned to deliver the vehicle with three electric motors – one at the front and two at the back. As the development progressed, it axed one of the rear motors but kept the total power output the same. As a result, the supercar hits 100 km/h (62 mph) in 2.8 seconds and proceeds to 200 km/h (124 mph) in 7.5 seconds. The last time its traction battery was mentioned, E-Legend said it had 80 kilowatt-hours of capacity.