Iron Man gets an Audi R8 e-tron

Don't talk to Tony Stark about horsepower, that's so yesterday. Instead, talk to the man about, erm, torque. He loves it. He literally can't get enough. Because today, we learn that for the upcoming Iron Man 3 movie, Tony Stark will drive an Audi R8 e-tron.

Of course, Tony Stark isn't real - he's a fictional Marvel comics character played most superbly by Robert Downey Junior, silly - but the R8 e-tron is very much real, and very much full of torque: 3,614lb ft of the stuff. That's...a lot. It comes courtesy of four electric motors, one mounted on each wheel, producing around 900lb ft of torque and around 80bhp each.

So you get some 320bhp and a truckload of oomph, all packaged up in a car weighing in at around 1700kg - the same as a Porsche 918 Spyder - allowing Monsieur Stark and his Big Brain the capacity to accelerate from 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds and on to a top speed limited to 124mph (to protect the battery charge).

Still, it's two tenths of a second slower than the V8 R8, but of course, doesn't emit anything while driving. And who's to say Tony Stark, billionaire industrialist and leader of The Avengers and still not an actual real human, won't tinker with the output? Well, partly because in this recently released trailer, below, we see the R8 e-tron meets a rather watery demise. Don't filmmakers realise electricity and water aren't the most convivial of bedfellows?

Don't think Stark will lose any sleep, mind. Because if the last two Iron Man movies are anything to go by, he'll have quite a bit of exotic machinery which will help ease the pain. We've already seen him drive an R8 and R8 Spyder, and snapshots of his car collections include the Saleen S7, Rolls-Royce Phantom, a seriously cool old Cadillac and Mercury coupe, a Shelby Cobra, and of course, a Ford Model B roadster that gave him the inspiration for his suit colour (he's still not real, btw).

Whatever the outcome of the R8 e-tron in the film, the production version is coming your way soon. And it's pretty quick, as just last year Audi took it to one of James May's least favourite holiday destinations (the Nürburgring) and recorded a lap time of 8m 09.099s, setting a new world record for a (deep breath) ‘production vehicle with an electric drive system'.

Sounds promising. The trailer for Iron Man 3 is below, as is the video of Audi's R8 e-tron ‘Ring footage. Reckon Stark should call up Batman and ask for a ‘Tumbler' instead?