SOCKET TO M

THIS IS NORMALLY the grace period; the opening miles of a journey, where you wait for the fluids in the car’s mechanical belly to warm up; wait for the climate control to get the cabin appreciably warmer than the nippy earlymorning air outside; wait for the caffeine of the second coffee to get to work. Then, and only then, when warm-up (literal and figurative) is complete, do you put your foot down.

But I can’t help myself. I climbed into the RS e-Tron GT for the first time only a few moments ago and I’ve just turned out of a junction onto a deserted, arrow-straight stretch. The Audi does have plenty of delicate moving parts, of course, but the fact there’s no engine under the bonnet makes the temptation to bypass mechanical sympathy too great. I take a deep breath and mash the throttle, no, gas, sorry, accelerator to the stop. And the result is… explosive and physically punishing, but curiously undramatic.

It’s fast – definitely fast. What was the horizon is a lot closer than it was a moment ago and my stomach feels a bit weird, like it does after a fairground ride, but there’s a cushioned edge to the e-Tron’s power delivery.