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The website WorldCarFans is reporting that Audi plans an 'R4 e-tron Roadster' for this month's Paris Auto Show. According to the WCF story, the car may be a roadster version of the coupe (above) shown last January in Detroit.

So What Do We Think?
WCF is consistent at running a lot of news but isn't always right. In the past they've even run CGIs we've created and called them authentic so we're not entirely confident about their sources. We're even less so when they list that source only as a 'recent report' and leave it unnamed. Further, this is the first we've heard of this and have surfed all the usual magazine sites that would usually break such a story.

There's another inconsistency in this story. WCF refers to the January show car as the R4 e-tron concept. Up until now we've only heard this concept referred to as 'e-tron' or 'Detroit e-tron'. Audi has renamed concepts in the past such as MetroProject changing to A1 Project, but again, this is the first we've heard of this.

Still, there may be some truth here. About all that is officially confirmed for Paris is the A7 but journalists are in Italy this week and have access to plenty of senior Audi executives. If such a rumor were to break, this is a likely week for that to happen. Further evaluating a mid-engine design intended for the under evaluation mid-engine transverse architecture would make sense and it is likely that Audi will show some sort of concept at Paris.

Up until now we've not heard an inkling of what or if there will be a concept. Still, timing and configuration seem to sound plausible but we'll wait to hear it from one of our usual press sources or from one of our own internal sources before weighing in any further.

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[cyberpmg]

Audi is well known for showing new models as thinly disguised prototypes. We've seen prototypes that gave us the design for the current model TT, R8, Q7, and previous generation A8. The e-tron concept shown in Detroit was a design style that does not match any of the models out on the market today. It has a heavy design queues from the R8, but in a much smaller package. I don't foresee the R8 shrinking down in size. Rather, this could be an entirely new model that would fit somewhere between the TT and the R8.

I wouldn't mind seeing this as a real model (e-tron or not). Maybe there will be a drop top version of the Detroit prototype. If so, then that leads me to think a car with that design may be something offered in the near future. Maybe this could be like days of old where the technology was shared between Audi and Porsche to give Porsche a new entry level model and Audi a serious sports car without hitting the exotic or supercar levels.

 

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I don't doubt they're considering an R4/TT replacement or whatever it will be called as VAG considers the mid-engine transverse layout architecture. This would be the BlueSport TDI basis, the one that would likely spawn a Porsche 914/356 below boxster and a VW and is the set that underpinned the Detroit e-tron. This is geared for a smaller car and the footprint of Detroit e-tron was about Audi A1 size.

There's another set, a longitudinal set, that's been rumored that could eventually underpin Boxster/Cayman and that would likely be the R5.