In September last year, Audi announced a collaboration with Ken Block – the renowned rally and stunt driver whose extreme driving videos have been viewed by millions. With the development of the Audi S1 e-tron quattro hoonitron by Audi for Block, the next phase in the collaboration came to fruition and the countdown is now on until Block and his team finalise their video featuring the Hoonitron – Elektrikhana. 

In the intervening months, Block has spent time behind the wheel of the RS Q e-tron after its triumphant return from Dakar, and currently calls an Audi RS e-tron GT his daily driver. So, as part of his ongoing series of drives to familiarise himself with the all-electric RS, Ken decided to out it through its paces around one of the most famous race tracks in the world – Laguna Seca.

But, because nothing Ken Block does with a car is ever quite what you’d expect, he also decided to set a world record while he was at it, looking to post the fastest time around the track in a series production electric vehicle with a storage pod still mounted to roof and full of snowboards and gear from a recent trip to the mountains. And why not?

With Neil Cole riding shotgun and taking care of the timing duties, Block set off to see what the RS e-tron GT would do around the famous track – home to the notorious Corkscrew – a blind left-hander that drops dramatically away before swinging around to the right. This is the most significant section of the track which features multiple elevation changes around its 3.6 kilometres.

Although the name Laguna Seca is Spanish for ‘dry lagoon’ on the day Ken and the RS e-tron GT kit the track it was not so dry, with water on the track in places making it hard to get a clean run out of some corners.

On the first of four runs, the RS e-tron GT clocked a 1 minute 45 seconds, improving to 1 minute 44 on the second and third runs before improving again to 1 minute 43 seconds on the fourth and final run – this time with the traction control turned off.

Although outside the 1:27.62 time set by a McLaren Senna or the 1:05.78 all-time record in a Ferrari F2003-GA Formula 1 car, it is – as far as we know – the fastest time around the track in a standard production EV model fitted with a fully loaded roof pod.