Bugly Audi flaunted themselves with the all-electric version of a shrunken R8, overpraising the supposedly 4,500 Nm-of-torque engine on e-tron (3,319.03 pound-feet!!!!). The figures made many eyes roll, many mouths drool and surprinsingly many more calivers take a pen and paper and start calculating. And it seems they were right: Audi got the sums all wrong! Automobile Magazine staff did their job, too, and when they ran the numbers, they came up with only 252 lb-ft of torque, which made everyone sigh with a kick in their teeth. Audi couldn’t leave things like that, so they have revised and re-released the torque figures again, this time the grunt comes in at 501.5 lb-ft. Which is still impressive, and much more believable. Audi got the new numbers by combining the output of the four individual electric motors. The previous figure of 3000+ lb-ft was derived from being measured at the wheels after being geared down and multiplied.

Should we believe them? Was this just a matter of wrong calculation (unacceptable for Audi, I’d say!) or a PR department so well paid girded that they could make us believe  snails run faster than cheetahs?