Marc Lichte (Head of Audi Design), Audi Sport has been around for 40 years and thrills fans with its RS models. Which car particularly fascinates you?
“I am a big fan of our RS models. The TT RS has always been one of my favourites because, like the basic production TT model, it was the first to put the ideas of the Bauhaus school of art on the road. Although the principle of ‘less is more’ applies to the language of design, this is not the case when it comes to the emotions and joy of driving that the car evokes, provided not least by its five-cylinder engine. Working on the current Audi RS 6 Avant with my team was also an unforgettable experience.
The success of Audi Sport comes from racing: sportiness, technology and emotional design. Where does your passion for performance cars come from?
‘How closely cars are linked to passion is something I learnt early on from my father. In the 1970s he used to compete in uphill races at weekends. Before the race there was a very special excitement in the house, as if at any moment the green light would go off at the starting line. Since then, sports cars have been a great emotion for me, it’s as if they were moulded adrenalin’.
Is it true that the Audi Sport Quattro triggered your desire to become a car designer for Audi?
‘Yes, it is true. In 1983, the Audi Quattro stood out from the crowd at the Frankfurt International Motor Show like no other car. It was totally different from anything I had seen up to that time. The car had an incredible character, with its wide body and its blisters. The idea of expressing automotive sportiness in that way, of using styling to make technology visible to everyone and therefore immediately accessible to everyone inspired me so much that, while I was still at the motor show stand, I decided I would like to become a designer and work at Audi. That was exactly forty years ago. It was a double success for me that the styling elements of that icon – the expressive C-pillar, the distinctive air intakes, simply the whole progressiveness of that Audi – have accompanied me in my work to this day.
Let’s talk about the future: what design would customers like for your sports cars of the future?
“We will build cars mainly using two platforms: the PPE (Premium Platform Electric) platform for electric vehicles and the PPC (Premium Platform Combustion) platform for vehicles with conventional powertrains. Based on this, we have carefully considered how to continue developing our RS models in the future. How can we transfer the RS genes to the electric era and still generate as much enthusiasm? Customers will continue to want RS models to offer performance, albeit always combined with functionality. This is the kind of feedback we get from them. A beautiful form requires functionality, otherwise everything is in vain. In any case, the wide track width has been and will continue to be by far the most important feature for our customers: the muscular look will continue to clearly distinguish the RS models from their respective base models, and in the future this will increase even further.
