Sharp as a knife, full of race derived touches and inspired by track superstars. This is the latest eye-popping concept from Audi. Fourteen of the company's apprentices at the Audi plant in Neckarsulm were given an RS3 Sportback as a basis and six months to create a concept. The result is this: the Audi GT50 Concept, unveiled to cheers from the rest of the factory’s 3,200 other employees. And looking at these images, we’d have joined them. Because wow.
Idea is that the GT50 celebrates the 50th anniversary of Audi’s famous five-cylinder engine, with an actual 394 bhp 2.5-litre turbocharged five-cylinder fossil-fuelled engine from the RS3 nestling somewhere under that sharp front end. Because Audi, unlike many other manufacturers, build working concepts. Which means that this remarkable machine actually runs, and possibly more than quite fast. Not that they’re offering test drives. Yet, anyway.
Photo Credit: Rendering based on original Audi design ooooiykyk
Neckarsulm’s apprentices have concept form. Innocent rear-engined NSU Prinz became the deceptively quietly named EP4, a blindingly fast electric monster with rear wings that would please any aficionado of the modded car scene. RS6 GTO was a tribute to Audi’s revolutionary Quattro four-wheel drive power train. Last year’s tasty A2 E-Tron was a subtle electric version of Audi’s pioneering aluminium A2, now something of a cult.
Photo Credit: Rendering based on original Audi design ooooiykyk
Photo Credit: Audi
Subtlety has no part in the GT50. Inspiration is the most radical - and hugely successful - of racing Audis, those that ran in the American IMSA series of the 1980s. Indeed the GT50’s roof is from an Audi 90, which was the basis for the wide, low IMSA machines. Surfacing is smooth and aerodynamic, free of any detailing, just like the IMSA Audis. Those huge white concave wheels are a tribute to the track Audis, too.
Photo Credit: Rendering based on original Audi design ooooiykyk
X-shaped headlights are very much a 2025 touch, and you’ll certainly know what’s behind you, not that you’ll have much time, given the obvious power of the GT50. Bespoke X-shaped rear lighting? But of course. Interior is stripped out, racing style. Minimalism is once more to the fore, very much an Audi trademark. This isn’t though an Audi designed to waft you around in discreet comfort. Those bulging wheel arches and no-compromise rear diffuser see to that.
Photo Credit: Rendering based on original Audi design ooooiykyk
Photo Credit: Audi
These Audi special projects are never for sale. They are generally on show at the small museum that Audi have at their factory in Neckarsulm, which we think is worth a visit for anyone who’s an Audi fan. There’s even a decent restaurant. All that said, the RS6 GTO concept did spawn the limited production RS6 Avant GT, a superfast, V8-powered estate that instantly sold out its 660 examples. So there may be hope that a production version of the GT50 Concept will reach your local Audi dealer’s forecourt. In the meantime for those super-fast allotment runs, the occasional RS6 Avant GT does come up for sale. Expect to pay in excess of £200,000, and we’ll see you for lunch in Neckarsulm.
Next up: Check out this electric Audi off-road concept car.
