DAMNED TOURING

Can a new wave of grand tourers live up to the name in the electric era? Richard Lane charges across Europe in an Audi E-tron GT to explore the breed's engine-less potential

Anyone who has pelted across Europe in a motor vehicle knows the strange euphoria that can bubble up inside you. Contributing factors include: exquisite song selection, sustained high speeds, unending mileage to devour (that is, not purposely hitting an empty autobahn for fun), hours of solitude, nocturnal activity, and four seasons in a day. But the one ingredient you simply must have is a car that feels like it has your back: an unflagging companion in which to make what we all like to call 'good progress'.

Your trusty old diesel Passat is therefore no impediment to euphoria. Mainly, though, it's the long-legged, lion-hearted GTs that really do the business in this sense. A sylph-like Aston on its third tank of the day; the grime-encrusted M5 holding 140mph as if it were nothing; a 911 growling up to passport control at Calais having only that morning taken apart a set of Alpine switchbacks like some reincarnated 909 Bergspyder, but with cupholders, heated seats and non-carcinogenic brake discs. All glorious. Evocative company like this tends to leave us petrolheads in awe of The Car and its unique intersection of form-function. It's that most nebulous thing: soul.

Which brings us to our steed for this particular European blast, to Verona (an unrelated job). Some 75 metres beneath the English Channel, it is currently twitching on its air springs as our Eurotunnel carriage trundles along. It has a generous wheelbase, wide tracks and a quite delicious rake to the way its muscular haunches taper into a chiselled snout. Down here in the dim light, it is predatory and alien, and outwardly has the hallmarks of a euphoria-generating GT car.

Underscoring matters is a powertrain outputting 523bhp, which is a match for the 200mph Aston Martin Vanquish S of 2004 one of the most brutally desirable grand tourers ever to turn a wheel.