Design: @davcrea Imagines Future Electric Le Mans Racer from Audi

There’s no doubt that, amongst Audi enthusiasts, the idea of a return to Le Mans and sportscar racing would be a much-loved decision should Audi Sport ever decide to make it. In that vein, we were fixated when we ran across this rendering by @davcrea on Instagram.

The e-tron racer you see here bears more than a passing resemblance to the PB18 e-tron concept car introduced last summer. Rumors around the industry point toward the PB18 being the replacement at some point for the Audi R8. In effect, it could be Audi’s next exotic.

While Le Mans isn’t moving toward fully electric mobility just yet, they are moving toward a top-level class built around hyper cars. The idea then would be an electric PB18 road car or perhaps one boosted through the use of hydrogen in order to return the brand of the four rings to Le Mans one day. That sounds like a solid plan to us, and @davcrea’s rendering certainly fuels those fantasies.

For the record, Audi was the first manufacturer to win Le Mans with a hybrid. The year was 2012, and the car was an Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by André Lotterer, Macel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer.