Precisely 25 years ago, a car that was to change the automobile engineering world went on display for the first time: on March 3, 1980 the first Audi quattro was shown to the public at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland. Before long, the many competition successes achieved by this model established a heritage of success that has remained undimmed by time. The birth of the first quattro is a tale of initial driving tests in the snow and of a brilliant piece of technical thinking – the use of a hollow shaft in the gearbox to transmit the drive to the front and rear axles. With the concept refined by the addition of a centre differential between the axles, later to use the Torsen principle, the first quattro went on sale in late 1980. This coupe model with its sharp-edged styling became an immediate best seller: with its permanent all-wheel drive and 200-bhp, five-cylinder turbocharged engine, it was able to offer sporty high performance in a fascinating, revolutionary form.
Between 1982 and 1984 the quattro gained four world rally championship titles, and the exploits of its now legendary drivers have remained unforgotten to this day. Following these successes on loose-surfaced sand and gravel tracks, the manufacturer’s competition department concentrated on circuit racing, and here too the supremacy of the quattro permanent all-wheel-drive principle was patently obvious as the Audi quattro drivers collected all the most prestigious trophies in the USA and in Europe.
As the years wore on, the ‘original quattro’ grew into an entire family of roadgoing all-wheel-drive models, and today this technology represents one of the brand’s most substantial foundations. In the 25 years up to the end of 2004, Audi built 1,815,396 quattro vehicles, and the current model programme includes 74 versions with all-wheel drive. Thanks to thorough technical updating, the reputation of the quattro all-wheel driveline is today stronger and more active then ever before. ‘quattro’ stands not just for traction, but also for emotive appeal, safe driving and dynamism. The quattro models in the Audi range are both a driving force for the brand and an integral element of its innovative technology.
Permanently on course for success
Four rings, seven letters, 25 years: Audi’s quattro technology is now celebrating a noteworthy anniversary. A quarter of a century ago, on March 3, 1980, the ‘original quattro’ was the centre of attention at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland. This was the birth of a legend which clocked up innumerable motor-sport victories and a demonstration of still unsurpassed supremacy on the road.
Michèle Mouton, Stig Blomqvist, Hannu Mikkola and of course Walter Röhrl – these were the drivers that wrote a new chapter in rallying history during the 1980s and brought the Audi quattro four world championship titles. Before long, the cars with permanent all-wheel drive were enjoying equal success in circuit racing, including an overall win in the 1988 American TransAm series – and a truly triumphant year in 1996, when the A4 quattro Super Touring competition car gained the winner’s title in all seven national touring car championships for which it was entered.
The quattro technological principle not only established itself impressively in motor sport, but in roadgoing cars as well, where quattro has come to mean not only permanent traction but also exceptional dynamism and fast, safe travel. The quattro technological principle has become a major element in the Audi brand’s success with all the market significance that this implies. In 2004, for instance, Audi built 209,469 quattro vehicles, and since 1980 more than 1,800,000 cars with this permanent all-wheel driveline have left the assembly lines – streets ahead of any other manufacturer of all-wheel-drive models.
The quattro technical principle
A car that distributes the power from its engine to all four wheels is capable of withstanding higher lateral locating forces than one with only the rear or front wheels driven. Its traction and cornering power are both superior to these more conventional drivelines. Audi clearly grasped this basic principle of physics with greater clarity and determination than its competitors – it was this awareness that inspired the initial quattro driveline concept.
The development order for the all-wheel-drive project, bearing the internal company code 262, was issued in the spring of 1977. The basic stimulus came from three young Audi engineers: Jörg Bensinger was manager of the experimental running-gear department, Walter Treser was project leader and Dr. Ferdinand Piëch the chief technical executive. A modified Audi 80 with slightly lengthened wheelbase was used as a prototype, powered by the lengthwise installed five-cylinder turbocharged engine that was later to power the Audi 200 model. This transmitted its power to the all-wheel-drive system used on the VW Iltis military off-road vehicle, which Audi had developed. The driven rear axle was a second McPherson front axle turned through 180 degrees.
In January 1978, when tried out on the steep ‘Turracher Höhe’ mountain pass in the Styrian region of Austria, this prototype vehicle with the licence plate IN – NC 92 convincingly demonstrated its capabilities in the traction area, but on sharp, hard-surfaced corners there were evidently significant trapped stresses in the driveline. This situation arises because the front wheels follow a slightly larger curve than the rear wheels when the vehicle is cornering, and therefore have to be able to revolve slightly faster. The prototype was unable to cope with this situation, since unlike the Iltis with its driver-engaged drive to the front wheels, its two axles were rigidly connected. The Audi development team, however, held fast to its two main objectives: a permanent all-wheel driveline and the avoidance of a separate centre differential and second propeller shaft – components that were regarded as unavoidable on such vehicles back in the seventies.
It was Franz Tengler, head of the transmission design department, who hit on the brilliantly simple notion of installing a 26.3 cm long drilled-out secondary shaft in the gearbox, so that power could flow in both directions. At the rear end, this shaft drove the spider of the manually lockable inter-axle differential; this device was integrated into the gearbox and transmitted 50 % of the power from the engine to the rear axle, which had its own limited-slip differential. The remaining power flowed along an output shaft inside the hollow shaft to the front-axle differential. For the first time in automobile design history, this hollow-shaft concept permitted an all-wheel drive layout that was light in weight, compact and efficient. This was the decisive breakthrough, since it yielded a system that was not restricted to off-road vehicles with their high ground clearance but was ideal for sporty passenger cars.
For the start of the 1987 model year, another important new feature was added to the quattro concept: the Torsen differential, a self-locking worm and gear unit that took the place of the manual differential lock. As the name (which comes from the term ‘torque sensing’) implies, this device redistributes engine torque steplessly as required for traction purposes, so that in extreme situations the axle with the better traction receives up to 75 % of the available torque. Thanks to the Torsen differential, which develops its locking action only under load, the vehicle’s anti-lock braking system can still take effect when needed. Today, modern technologies such as electronically controlled differential locks in the axles and the ESP stabilisation program complement the action of the Torsen differential.
The ‘original quattro’
“We wanted to create the impression of a car that’s ‘glued to the ground’ – with capability rather than elegance in the foreground. And this formal concept has justified itself as effective, correct and credible.” These were the terms in which Hartmut Warkuss, who was head of design at that time, later described the first quattro. Derived from the Audi 80 Coupé, but with sharp-edged body styling, it was presented to journalists on March 3, 1980 at an indoor ice-skating rink close to the exhibition ground at which the Geneva Motor Show was being held.
The new five-seater coupé had a compact 2,524 mm wheelbase and an overall length of 4,404 mm. It ran on 6-inch forged alloy wheels supplied by the Fuchs company. Dr. Ferdinand Piëch was well aware of the fact that with this car he was writing a new chapter in automobile engineering. His speech concluded with the words: “Today sees the première of all-wheel drive for the roadgoing passenger car.”
The epoch-making quattro – the name was Walter Treser’s idea – was enthusiastically received: its revolutionary driveline concept and sporty character convinced the journalists immediately. The five-cylinder turbocharged and charge-air intercooled engine, with a displacement of 2,144 cc, developed 147 kW (200 bhp) at the maximum boost pressure of 0.85 bar and reached its maximum torque of 285 Nm at an engine speed of 3,500 rpm. The quattro weighed 1,290 kilograms and could sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.1 seconds and reach a top speed of over 220 km/h. Its permanent traction, firm, sporty suspension settings and functional interior design revealed this new model to be an out-and-out ‘driving machine’.
The quattro took its place at the top of the manufacturer’s programme for that model year – not only in terms of its high performance, but also of its selling price: 49,900 German marks. Despite this considerable sum, sales figures rocketed when the first cars reached the showrooms in November 1980. In the first two full years of the car’s production cycle, almost 2,000 left the N 2 individual assembly building in Ingolstadt. The first 400 were needed as evidence that the Group 4 world rally championship regulations had been complied with.
The ‘original quattro’, as its fans now call it, remained in production until 1991; during this period 11,452 cars were built. In the first few production years the interior became steadily more sophisticated in its materials, but there were also a few minor technical changes, for example digital displays and speech-output warnings, the anti-lock braking system and running-gear modifications. An update was carried out in the autumn of 1987, and bestowed the Torsen centre differential and a slightly larger five-cylinder engine on the quattro: the new power unit retained the original power output of 147 kW (200 bhp), but developed greater low-speed torque. In 1989 the power output was raised to 162 kW (220bhp) by installing a new four-valve cylinder head; the top speed increased to 230 km/h.
A special model in the quattro programme appeared in 1984, and still enjoys a legendary reputation: this was the Sport quattro with the wheelbase reduced to a mere 2,204 mm and a newly developed four-valve turbocharged engine with an aluminium cylinder block; this had a power output of 225 kW (306 bhp). Although nominally a roadgoing car, extensive use of Kevlar and other weight-saving materials confirmed that this special model was also a serious rally contender. 224 of this ‘short version’, as it was known, were built, and enabled Audi to homologate its rally entries in Group B. The purchase price, too, was high enough to ensure more than a modicum of exclusivity: 203,850 German marks.
The quattros in rallying
Group B, with its less strict technical specifications, probably ushered in the most innovative era in rallying: a high-tech arms race, so to speak, in which the participating teams outdid each other in their efforts to speed up development work. Even during the 1981 season, the first in which Audi participated, the quattro began to hint at its later superiority. The Finnish Hannu Mikkola won two events and came third in the drivers’ rankings, despite the teething troubles suffered by the car initially. In San Remo, the Frenchwoman Michèle Mouton became the first woman ever to win a world championship rally.
In 1982 the Ingolstadt-based motor team did justice to the technological lead claimed in the manufacturer’s slogan “Vorsprung durch Technik”. Mikkola, Mouton and their Swedish colleague Stig Blomqvist scored seven outright wins in eleven rallies, and finished the season with the manufacturers’ title and the runners-up title for Mouton in the drivers’ championship. In 1984, the long-awaited double success was achieved: Blomqvist took the driver’s title almost unchallenged, with wins in five rallies. The season had already begun with a sensational 1-2-3 victory in Monte Carlo, with Walter Röhrl, a newcomer to the team, leading his Scandinavian colleagues across the finishing line after a breathtaking duel.
During the season, however, the initially unrivalled quattro began to encounter new and vigorous competitors, for example the Peugeot 205 T 16, the first pure competition car concept with mid-engine to be seen in rallying. The temptation for Audi to pursue a similar approach was great, and a prototype was in fact built. The idea was none the less rejected because it was felt that the rally cars should not be too dissimilar to those sold to the public.
Instead of this, the Sport quattro, a 331 kW (450 bhp) front-engined car, made its debut at the end of 1984. The wheelbase was shortened dramatically, by no fewer than 32 cm, in an attempt to make the car even lighter and more agile.
The Sport quattro, as it happened, was fated not to enjoy any great successes, even in its final evolution stage, the S 1. Its technical features nonetheless earned a place in rallying history if only because of their extreme character. The officially quoted power output of the five-cylinder aluminium-block engine was 350 kW (476 bhp), but with the recirculating air system that kept the turbocharger turning over at a high speed, the true figure was probably in excess of 500 bhp at 8,000 rpm. With a moderately high final drive ratio, the S 1 (which weighed only 1,090 kilograms) could accelerate from a standstill to 100 km/h in 3.1 seconds. Some of the cars were equipped with a power-shift gearbox – a forerunner of today’s DSG technology. The car had a lattice-tube structure clad with sheet steel and plastic panels. For the sake of better weight distribution, the radiator, fan and alternator were banished to the rear of the car. Vast wings and spoilers had the task of increasing downthrust on fast sections of the route; the brakes had a water spray cooling system.
In the spring of 1986 came the end for the Group B cars with their boundary-pushing technology. Audi decided not to enter for any further events in the series. Following serious accidents, the international organising body FISA resolved to change the rules and permit only near-series Group A cars to take part. As it happened, the S 1 was able to celebrate one final triumph: in 1987 Walter Röhrl took this car with its 441 kW (600 bhp) engine up the Pikes Peak run in Colorado, USA, with its 156 bends and maximum altitude of 4,301 metres.
This victory was emulated in the following two years by Michèle Mouton and Bobby Unser, giving Audi a hat-trick in this imposing American hillclimb event, the “Race to the Clouds”. The best Audi time of 10 minutes 47.85 seconds remained unequalled for many years afterwards.
The quattros in circuit racing
The Pikes Peak victories whetted the company’s appetite. In 1988 Audi took part for a year in the American TransAm race series. The engine installed in the Audi 200 quattro was the turbocharged five-cylinder unit that previously powered the world rally championship cars, in the meantime developing 375 kW (510 bhp), enough to secure the title for the American driver Hurley Haywood. Audi in fact took the chequered flag eight times, a total which secured the manufacturers’ title as well.
A year later the company switched to the IMSA GTO series, with its less strict rules. Only the silhouette of the Audi 90 quattro was retained: under the GTO’s carbon-fibre skin was a pure racing car. The five-cylinder engine, in its final development stage, produced 529 kW (720 bhp), and the car’s four driven wheels had 14-inch wide rims. With seven wins in 13 races, Hans Joachim Stuck took third place in the championship and the team came second in the manufacturers’ rankings.
In 1990 and 1991 Audi entered its flagship model, the V8 quattro, for the German Touring Car Championship. The 3.6-litre engine of this luxury saloon developed 340 kW (462 bhp). Despite the car’s basic weight of 1,220 kilograms, this was sufficient in conjunction with the car’s all-wheel drive to hold off less powerful but lighter rivals. Stuck took the championship title in the first of these two seasons; in 1991 the young Frank Biela pipped him to the post after a dramatic neck-and-neck finale on the Hockenheim Ring circuit. In 1992, when the season had already started, a dispute arose regarding the legality of the engine’s new crankshaft, whereupon the team withdrew the V8 quattro from the remaining races.
Audi’s most successful season in touring car racing was 1996. The A4 quattro Supertouring, with a power output of 221 kW (300 bhp) from its two-litre, four-cylinder engine, was entered for seven national championships – in Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Belgium, South Africa and Australia – and won them all! In the German Super Touring Car series the winning driver was Emanuele Pirro; in Great Britain the victor was Frank Biela.
Series-production quattros
The ‘original quattro’ of 1980 did not remain alone for long. Starting in 1982, Audi introduced five further all-wheel-drive variants to its production programme: the Audi Coupé, the Audi 80/90 and the Audi 100/200. The last-mentioned model, the aerodynamic world champion of the 1980s, was like its predecessor also available as an Avant. Conceived as a front-wheel-drive car as was customary at Audi, all these models could be easily converted to permanent all-wheel drive without undue effort and expense. They reflected the manufacturer’s fundamental policy decision to offer a quattro variant in every model line. In the light of Audi’s motor-sport successes it is not surprising that they all sold extremely well.
A new leading model in the quattro range appeared in 1988: the V8, with an initial output of 185 kW (250 bhp), later also available with a 206 kW (280 bhp) engine. This car was only sold with permanent all-wheel drive, and at first only automatic transmission was available, so that two differential locks were fitted – an electronically controlled, hydraulically operated multi-disc lock in the inter-axle differential and a self-locking Torsen differential in the rear axle. When the successor to this model, the A8, was introduced in 1994, Audi offered front-wheel drive as an alternative, and this option is still available for the current A8 model generation, though only 7 % of the car’s purchasers take it up.
From 1990 on, the S models with quattro driveline did much to enhance the dynamic image gained by Audi as a result of its motor-sport successes. The leading contender in this respect was the S 2 Coupé, the designated inheritor of the mantle of the original quattro. Its cultured character proved that sportiness and refinement could be harmonised in an ideal way – an approach that was continued a year later with the S4 based on the Audi 100 model line.
Audi’s first RS model also impressed its fans. The RS2 Avant amazed the trade with its performance. This five-cylinder turbo model entered the market in 1994 and was built for a good year. Its engine delivered 262 kW (315 bhp). 2,881 customers opted for this sports car, which was based on the Audi 80 Avant. The RS2 has long since become a sought-after classic with a loyal fan club.
In 2000, Audi pursued this approach a stage further with the ultimate RS 4 and RS 6 models. Their powerful V8 engines put these two cars in the high-performance sports car category, but with luxurious equipment and trim and of course the no-compromise high quality typical of the Audi brand. In addition, the TDI diesel engines, with their vigorous pulling power, have been offered more and more frequently in conjunction with the quattro driveline – again a most harmonious combination.
The most successful Audi models in terms of sales volume are the A4 and the A6, and this is also true of their quattro variants. If the preceding model versions are included, 37,572 Audi A4 cars with permanent all-wheel drive had been built by the end of 2004. The figure for the Audi A6 is 601,204, the proportion with the quattro driveline having risen recently to 42 % in the case of the saloon.
Since 1999 the compact A3, the TT Coupé and the TT Roadster have also been available with the quattro driveline option. Since they have a transverse engine, these models use an electronically controlled Haldex clutch as a centre differential instead of the Torsen unit. 58 % of all the TT Coupés and 42 % of all the TT Roadsters sold in 2004 were fitted with permanent all-wheel drive.
The allroad quattro enjoys a special status: with its variable ground clearance thanks to air suspension, this Avant has established itself as a dynamic all-rounder which is equally at home on the motorway as it is in highly challenging terrain. Around 90,000 of this model have been built to date.
From 1980 until the end of 2004, Audi had built 1,815,396 cars with permanent all-wheel drive. If this is related to a total production – excluding the A 2 model line – of 12,030,207 units, the all-wheel-drive variants account for 15.1 % during the period.
In recent years, the proportion of quattro-equipped cars was regularly higher than one quarter of the total, and indeed reached 26.7 % in 2004. Audi is the leading international manufacturer of passenger cars with permanent all-wheel drive in the premium segment of the market. The current model programme lists 74 model variants with the quattro driveline.
The quattro’s emotive appeal
A tyre track in the snow: an elderly Eskimo respectfully points it out to his grandson as “quattro”. The monsoon season in India: only the German ambassador in his Audi A4 quattro makes it along the flooded, muddy roads to the Maharajah’s gala dinner. The ski jump that the Audi 100 quattro climbs by its own efforts – in the past 25 years, Audi has commissioned a whole series of unforgettable TV commercials aimed at maintaining public awareness of the quattro mystique and the emotive appeal associated with it.
The idea behind the ski jump spot took shape in 1986 at the BBDO advertising agency in Düsseldorf, Germany. When tested on a glacier in the Tyrol, an Audi 100 quattro proved capable of climbing a 39-degree gradient. The ski jump that was eventually found in Kaipola, Finland, had a slope angle of 37.5 degrees – or to put it another way, a gradient of 80 percent – a scarcely less difficult challenge. A crane lifted the car onto the ski jump’s take-off platform, where it was carefully secured in three different ways: by a concealed steel cable, a forward-mounted braking system and a safety net under the take-off platform. In the event, professional rally driver Harald Demuth, who had driven the quattro during his active career, had no need of any of these safety devices. He drove the Audi effortlessly up the 78-metre long ski jump, despite having only a very restricted view of the proceedings, since the nose of the Audi was of course pointed steeply upwards towards the sky.
This commercial bathed the Audi advertising concept in a warm and approving light from which it still benefits today. The overall strategy was, and still is, concentrated with no frills on the actual products – an approach typical of the Audi brand.
Product credibility is communicated beyond any doubt, the more so since the quattro models’ motor sport successes have shaped the Audi brand image more strongly than advertising campaigns costing millions could ever have done.
Principles of brevity and implication in understated form prevail in Audi’s advertising and are typical of the way the cars are presented. The quattro variants differ very little from their counterparts with front-wheel drive – they are not exotic members of the model programme but an integral element in the driving force behind this high-tech brand. quattro thus stands not only for ‘traction’ but for more – emotion, driving safety and dynamism, accompanied by technical competence and a dynamic outlook on life.
The exclusive character of this specific Audi lifestyle is the governing factor behind quattro GmbH, which began trading in 1983. Since 1996, which saw the debut of the S6 plus, this Audi subsidiary company has operated as a vehicle manufacturer; last year it equipped more than 7,000 cars in accordance with the purchasers’ individual wishes. quattro GmbH has a staff of 300 and its own development and production facilities.
Another tool at Audi’s disposal when it comes to maintaining the fascination of the quattro is the creation of spectacular concept cars. In the autumn of 1991, the company presented two mid-engined sports cars with permanent all-wheel drive in quick succession at the international motor shows in Frankfurt and Tokyo. These were the quattro Spyder and the Avus quattro – the latter unforgettable for many reasons, one of them being its gleaming polished aluminium body.
The concept cars that attracted much attention four years later in Tokyo were closer to motoring reality. The TT quattro was not far from production readiness in Coupé and Roadster form. Then came the 2003 ‘show cars’, also with permanent all-wheel drive: the large Pikes Peak, the elegant Nuvolari Coupé and the Le Mans quattro supersports model.
Audi quattro – the early years
The Beginnings
Ferdinand Piëch, responsible on Audi’s Board of Management since August 1975 for Technical Development, had given himself the objective to upgrade the position of the Audi brand in the market through the introduction of innovative technology. Far-sighted, bold, competent, and with a team of dedicated specialists able to turn his visions into reality, Piëch was aiming for success.
In February 1977 he was contacted by his chassis engineer Jörg Bensinger who, following winter driving tests in Finland with the 75-bhp Iltis offroader, was deeply impressed by the superior traction and convincing handling of this long-legged offroad vehicle. The other test cars and prototypes on the trip, all of them more powerful midrange saloons, had been left trailing in Bensinger’s dust. His Iltis led the pack effortlessly; overtaking it was out of the question.
Bensinger was immediately thrilled by the idea of implementing a comparable drive concept featuring a far higher standard of motoring comfort in the midrange segment. After all, it was Audi’s strategic target to join the topmost brands in the market.
Together with Walter Treser, at the time Audi’s Director of Pre-Development, Bensinger advised Piëch to start appropriate tests with the Audi 80.
Unlike the chassis engineer, however, Audi’s Board of Management was looking at a much more sophisticated and, indeed, ambitious solution: the idea was to build a high-power sports coupé with permanent all-wheel drive and the ability to leave the competition behind under all conditions both in motorsport and on the road.
Piëch was fully aware of the potential offered by four-wheel drive. After all, his grandfather Ferdinand Porsche had already examined this technology in detail, even building four-wheel-drive vehicles such as a towing vehicle for the Austrian Army, the famous Lohner electric car with four motors on the wheel hubs, and, as his final development along these lines, a Cisitalia racing car.
This clearly set the starting point for a challenging and even delicate project. “Delicate” because Bensinger and his team had not even received an official development brief. Using their existing budget and components, and under substantial time pressure, they were obliged to quickly compile new data and information, and to make clear-cut, meaningful recommendations.
The new development was based on the Iltis’s drive concept, the original idea being to introduce the new drive technology in a homologation model first intended to prove its merits in rally racing.
Soon, however, the hand-picked members of the development group operating under maximum secrecy realised that the objective they had been given would not remain their only challenge in giving Audi’s advertising slogan of “Vorsprung durch Technik” or a new meaning and new qualities.
The Iltis’s components were implanted into a red two-door Audi 80 and the test car referred to within the company as the “A1″ (standing for “All-Wheel-Drive 1″) was ready to go. The position of the engine and gearbox remained basically unchanged, with Hans Nedvidek, the man who had already built gearboxes for Grand Prix legends such as Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio, taking care of power transmission to the rear axle. He connected the propeller shaft to the driveshaft of the gearbox, as on the Iltis, initially leaving out a centre differential and therefore again taking the same approach as on the Iltis offroader.
The live rear axle, in turn, was replaced at the back of the car by a second front axle featuring the same differential housing as on the Iltis (but leaned down accordingly) and fitted the other way round. This was all to begin with.
A 160 bhp turbocharged engine planned later for the Audi 200 served in the first phase of testing to provide the right kind of performance.
In September 1977 Project A1 received the official green light from Audi’s Board of Management, bearing the usual identification code within the Company: EA 262 – Development Code 262 – and just two months later the concept for series production was ready to go and the trend-setting prototype was cleared for road testing.
Always remaining in good spirits, the Development Team kept all emerging technical challenges and possible drawbacks carefully under control. But these factors alone were not enough to give the concept the final go-ahead required for series production: With Audi being a development and production company within the Volkswagen Group, VW held sole responsibility for Marketing and Sales and VW therefore had to examine and, ultimately, approve all development projects. So this is where the final decision was taken on the market potentials of each new product with all its features. To avoid endangering the ambitious project in the Boardroom at VW’s Group Headquarters, Audi invited decision-makers to tyre tests at Turracher Höhe in January 1978. This was an important place for all German car makers at the time, Turracher Höhe being the steepest road in Europe and most certainly being snowbound at this time of the year. Ideal conditions for the upcoming demonstration of all-wheel drive offering outstanding qualities and abilities in a midrange car.
But although Dr. Werner P. Schmidt, the Board Member for Sales, and Edgar von Schenk, responsible for Marketing, were certainly impressed, they could not really imagine who on earth would want to buy “400 of these things”. Convinced beyond the slightest doubt of his “baby’s” chances for success in the market, however, Jörg Bensiger spontaneously suggested that he himself would take care of quattro sales, after Professor Ernst Fiala, the VW Group’s Board Member for Development, and Toni Schmücker, VW’s Chairman of the Board, had given the project their go-ahead.
Fiala decided to “hijack” the A1 to Vienna for a weekend, giving it to his wife to try the car out in city traffic – her complaint afterwards being that the car “jumped around quite a lot” when parking and in tight bends. So together with the urgent recommendation to “put a central differential into that thing”, Fiala gave Audi the green light for continuing its development project.
Easily said – but to solve the problem Audi needed the ingenuity of gearbox expert Hans Nedvidek and his ally Franz Tengler. Always good for a new idea, these two skilful engineers fitted the differential of an Audi 80 behind the transmission, driving this centre differential by a hollow transmission shaft and guiding the drivetrain to the front axle differential through this hollow shaft. The next step was to fit a propeller shaft at the rear end of the centre differential, serving to convey the power of the engine to the differential on the rear axle.
So the first configuration ready for standard production was in place. And after a short test on a wet field just outside Audi’s Plant, Chairman of the Board Toni Schmücker approved a budget of DM 3 million for ongoing development of the car’s high-speed all-wheel-drive system.
quattro in Motorsport
quattro is a superior drive system. Very superior. In touring car motorsport, in fact, quattro is so superior that officials had no choice but to consider whether quattro should be burdened by handicaps or even banned! And in this order, this is precisely what major motorsport organisations did – and without undue delay.
After all, they did not want Audi quattro to “do its own thing”, and leave all the others trailing in its wake. Rather, they wanted a genuine “show” keeping fans and television excited. And keeping sponsors interested in the sport. They wanted close races for the lead – door to door, wheel to wheel, with just split-seconds in it. One car or brand dominating the others, however, has no place in the “show”. Especially as battles further down the field are not shown on TV anyway.
The first measure taken against the quattro’s superiority was weight penalties which hindered Audi’s touring cars. Extra weight means more tyre wear, greater forces acting on the brakes, more fuel consumption, and of course slower acceleration. And with a view to maintaining safety for the drivers, officials, and spectators alike, various components on the chassis and suspension had to be reinforced. Clearly, this deprived Audi of the advantage the brand had achieved. At least on the race track and in rallies.
Fast and efficiently operating all-wheel drive is naturally good for all motorists, not just in winter or on wet roads. Precisely this was the point people realised when the Audi quattro demonstrated its first success in motorsport. When held the very first time in 1979, the adventurous rally from Paris to Dakar bore the name Rally Oasis. And just one year later, Freddy Graf Kottulinsky won this endurance test for man and machine in the car category. With maximum output of 130 bhp, his Iltis offroader developed by Audi was certainly under-powered, but nevertheless sprinted smoothly and in superior style across the dunes, over gravel and the roughest tracks, leaving all other four-wheeled vehicles far behind.
Freddy Graf Kottulinsky and the men around Roland Gumpert, who was in charge of the team and crossed the finish line in his Iltis in 9th position, all agreed that this drive system was also perfectly suited for asphalt roads, for the most splendid boulevards, and for the race track alike.
The first challenge, however, was to present Audi’s revolutionary, high-speed all-wheel-drive system in truly spectacular style. And what could have been a better venue to do this than the World Rally Championship?
After barely 30 minutes test-driving the car, the Finnish rally star Hannu Mikkola was convinced: “I have just experienced a convincing view of the future. quattro will change the rally scene once and for all.”
Hannu therefore promptly signed a one-year contract, making his Audi debut in 1981 and joining forces with his co-pilot of many years, Arne Hertz. Together with Michèle Mouton and Fabrizia Pons, Audi’s new rally team was all set and for the 1981 season.
The Monte Carlo Rally, by tradition the first race each year for the World Rally Championship, gave the expectant Audi team both good and bad news: Michèle Mouton only covered a few hundred metres before pulling out. The problem was water that had got into the fuel – a handicap not even the quattro’s five-cylinder was able to handle.
The good news was the outstanding result achieved by Mikkola/Hertz in the very first stage of the race, leaving behind the competition by almost six minutes. Literally stunned by this kind of superiority, Audi’s competitors simply could not believe the supreme performance of the new No 1 in rally racing.
Despite this wonderful start, Hannu Mikkola was not able to convert this lead into overall victory. After hitting obstacles at the side of the road quite severely a number of times, he lost his lead and the status quo was reinstated – but only in terms of the result, not in terms of the quattro’s actual supremacy. Because only a bit later, German rally master Walter Röhrl, definitely no pessimist, made a clear statement on Audi’s new car in front of the television camera: “What we are seeing here is the introduction of innovative technology clearly superior to everything we have experienced so far. I believe that I will also lose to the Audi quattro, they’re simply that much better”
In the very first year, seen and announced as a year of testing for future plans and activities, Mikkola/Hertz won the national rallies in both Sweden and Great Britain.
The real sensation of the season, however, came from the female team Michèle Mouton and Fabrizia Pons: Driving like wildfire, the two ladies left all their male competitors far behind in the San Remo Rally, becoming the first ladies’ team to bring home a World Championship race in genuine style. The other drivers didn’t stand a chance, the fans went crazy, and the media waxed lyrical.
Had this remained the only victory for the two speed queens, people might have put it down to coincidence. But mastered by the tender hands of an outstanding female driver, the Rally quattros left the men behind three more times – in Sweden, Greece, and Brazil, all in 1982. And Mikkola/Hertz left the competition trailing no less than four times – enough to secure Audi their first World Championship.
After winning the national rallies in Sweden, Portugal, Argentina, and Finland, Hannu Mikkola and Arne Hertz brought home the 1983 World Championship and, one year later, the Swedish quattro team Stig Blomqvist and Björn Cederberg clinched a double victory, bringing home the driver’s title and, as a result, scoring the manufacturer’s title for Audi, with Mikkola/Hertz finishing second.
In 1985, Audi’s advantage had been reduced. The competition had gone all-out to challenge Audi’s production-based concept by introducing design features and technologies developed and conceived for motorsport alone. In the course of the 1984 season, Audi, in turn, had launched the first evolution model of the Rally quattro, the short Sport quattro promising even better performance.
Then, in late July 1985 on the occasion of the Argentine rally, another evolution model of the Sport quattro boasting a huge front spoiler and an equally impressive rear wing, made its appearance on the track: the quattro S1. This was the kind of car only a small number of particularly talented drivers were able to handle: maximum output was 450 turbocharged horsepower, a brute force which even the very best could only master with difficulty.
Asked by reporters about the S1′s infernal acceleration, Hannu Mikkola had a clear answer: “Just image you’re waiting patiently at the red traffic lights for green. When the lights turn to yellow, you rev up to 8500 rpm and on green you let go of the clutch. The sudden surge of power is so brutal that you think you’ve been hit from behind by a five-tonne truck – it’s simply staggering!”
Staggering or not, the quattros increasingly fell behind the young generation of special, purpose-built cars designed and developed exclusively for rally racing.
The end of this most spectacular of all rally eras was marked by a tragic accident in the Portuguese Rally: on one of the special stages, local driver Joaquim Santos swerved hard to avoid a pedestrian, lost control of his Ford, and ran right into the crowd of spectators, killing a woman and two children and injuring another 30 onlookers.
This accident marked the end of Group B cars, the 1987 season once again being dedicated to production-based Group A cars: Driving an Audi 200 quattro, the all-Bavarian team Röhrl/Geistdörfer put up a remarkable show, exerting a lot of pressure on the competition with their agile four-wheel-drive models, even though they were “only” driving a modified grand touring saloon. And in the Kenya Safari Rally, Audi’s team finally bowed out from international rally racing in genuine style: two Audi 200 quattros entered, two finished; Röhrl/Geistdörfer came first, followed by Mikkola/Hertz.
Now the time had come to once again activate the S1: Pikes Peak in Colorado is 4,301 metres high. American racing drivers had been tearing up the 20-kilometre gravel track from down in the valley until just below the peak ever since 1916. And nobody had ever been faster than 11 minutes. This barrier was broken in 1987, Walter Röhrl setting a new benchmark in 10:47.85 minutes in the 600-bhp quattro S1 prepared especially for this mountain race.
Thrilled by the media response to this record achievement, Audi’s management decided to aim for new horizons in motorsport. The TransAm Series offered the right setting for demonstrating the superiority of quattro drive, Audi thus entering this racing scene on the other side of the Atlantic in 1988. Three Audi 200 quattros were prepared and modified for the TransAm Series in accordance with current regulations, engine output of 530 bhp being matched against vehicle weight of 1100 kg. Hurley Haywood, the local Audi Dealer in Jacksonville, Florida, entered the Series 14 times and brought home the title in truly supreme style, assisted in some races by his German colleagues Hans-Joachim Stuck and Walter Röhrl.
Scoring seven wins in an appropriately prepared Audi 90 quattro, Stuck finished third in 1989 in the US IMSA/GTO Series.
While this made the tall young man from Bavaria the most successful driver in this fiercely contested championship, he missed out on the title all the same, since Audi’s Racing Team had not been able to participate in the first two long-distance races in the Series.
The following season saw Hans-Joachim Stuck back performing in front of his fans in Germany, driving an Audi V8 quattro in the German Touring Car Championship and winning the title convincingly for both Audi and himself.
Entering four V8 quattros and with additional drivers Frank Biela, Frank Jelinski, and Hubert Haupt at the wheel, Audi subsequently set out to defend the title. And this attempt proved successful for the first time in the history of the German Motor Racing Championship, despite the significant extra weight the quattros had to carry on account of their superiority. Frank Biela, the shooting star of the season, thus brought home the German Touring Car Championship in 1991.
In the following year Audi’s race-proven quattros ran into hard times in the DTM German Touring Masters. The difficulty they experienced was not on the track, however, but rather at the conference table when the OMS Motorsport Authority claimed that the new crankshaft in Audi’s eight-cylinder was not in line with regulations, although two preceding tests had confirmed that the crankshaft was perfectly legal. As a result, Audi pulled out of national racing and concentrated on racing series outside of Germany.
Racing the Audi A4 Supertouring, the Company once again achieved a unique story of success in 1996, winning not only the prestigious D1 ADAC Super Touring Car Cup, but also, with the help of the respective importers, six national championships – in Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, South Africa, and Australia.
Once again, the sports authorities responded, burdening racing cars with four-wheel drive by additional weight of up to 95 kg in order to prevent further victories of this kind. And just one year later the FIA Motorsport Authority put an end to quattro technology in motor racing once and for all. Meaning that from now on Audi quattro has been able to show its merits “only” in road traffic – but all year round!
Technology
Applying the brakes to all four wheels on a car is old hat in automotive technology. Applying the power of the engine to both axles, on the other hand, was for many years not regarded as the ultimate wisdom and therefore remained a technical concept reserved to offroaders and trucks for quite some time. In other words, this technology was reserved to vehicles required to do their job under extreme driving conditions.
This is quite surprising, considering that the advantages of all-wheel drive are at least as significant for the driver of a passenger car. The only thing needed to really start a significant development, therefore, was a kind of “wow” experience. And precisely this experience became reality on a winter drive through icy Finland, pitching the upcoming 170 bhp Audi 200 with front-wheel drive against all its less powerful models in the range and the Iltis, a 75 bhp, long-legged offroader. Because despite its inferior power, the Iltis was easily able in bends to make up for its lower speed on straights, quickly catching up with the other cars and, indeed, usually leaving them behind on winding, serpentine roads and tracks.
So it did not take long for everybody to realise that only permanent all-wheel drive was able to get superior power and performance on to the road without problems under all conceivable driving conditions. And reaching engine output of 170 bhp, the upcoming Audi 200 was approaching the limits of conventional front-wheel drive. Indeed, engineers back then believed that 200 bhp was the absolute limit for the car’s joints and steering. And this was not enough to challenge the two leaders in the luxury segment.
The decision was therefore taken at a very early point in time in developing the Audi quattro: four-wheel drive it had to be, but permanent four-wheel drive. The option to feed power to one of the car’s axles on demand was quickly rejected for several reasons, in particular because a variable system offers benefits only on rough terrain and on snowbound surfaces.
On a dry road, by contrast, variable four-wheel drive usually means disadvantages: Due to the absence of an intermediate differential, the entire chassis and suspension would be subject to unpleasant tension in bends and when manoeuvring. And this, in practice, would mean excessive tyre wear as well as extra fuel consumption, with all drive components constantly remaining in operation in this case, even when only one axle is actually conveying engine power.
A further drawback is that the chassis and suspension cannot be aligned and configured in the same way and with the same standard for both conceivable drive variants, the car’s handling and driving behaviour changing every time four-wheel drive is activated or deactivated.
With front-wheel drive looking back at a tradition of more than 70 years with Audi, the Company’s engineers obviously had some essential points in mind right from the start. Compared with standard drive – that is the engine at the front, the drive wheels at the rear – front-wheel drive offers a number of fundamental benefits acknowledged by the car industry worldwide and honoured by customers the world over for many years. Indeed, back in the early ’80s the German Motor Vehicle Registration Office in the city of Flensburg for the first time registered more cars with front-wheel drive than with standard drive.
Enhancing the driving safety of the front-wheel drive system and conveying this extra safety to the even more powerful cars with additional qualities was therefore the essential development automatically leading to permanent all-wheel drive.
At the same time the existing configuration of Audi’s models with the engine fitted lengthwise offered ideal conditions for all-wheel-drive technology, avoiding the need for an additional transfer box. The only modification required was to upgrade the manual gearbox by adding an additional differential and providing a driveshaft leading to the rear axle. In practice, this meant fewer components, leading to lower weight and lower frictional losses.
The use of three differentials provided precisely the perfection Audi sought to achieve from the start with its fast-running all-wheel drive allowing dynamic motoring in bends and preventing the chassis tension typically occurring in an offroader: precisely the right qualities are ensured by the front axle differential, an intermediate differential with locking action integrated in the transmission, and the rear axle differential likewise featuring a differential lock. The intermediate differential plays the main role in the quattro concept by ensuring the right kind of motoring comfort and smoothness expected of an upmarket saloon.
Audi’s transmission engineer Franz Tengler, a member of Hans Nedvidek’s technical team, subsequently invented and built the hollow shaft for the flawless interaction of parts within the most compact spaces and at the lowest conceivable weight: the hollow shaft is a 26.5 cm long connecting shaft serving to smoothen the direct flow of power to the rear axle. A heavy converter transmission was therefore no longer required thanks to the particular function of this hollow shaft, and all technical concerns regarding integrated operation of the rear axle soon became null and void. In this very first quattro concept, engine power of 200 bhp was distributed equally to the two axles.
Comparing the various characteristics of driving dynamics, this gives the quattro driver a number of advantages over rear-wheel and front-wheel drive alike: Whenever drive energy is distributed equally to all four wheels, the wheels and the car itself are able to build up more side power keeping the car on track. This also means that the driver can take bends much more quickly and enjoy superior safety reserves in the process. And should the driver ever misjudge the radius of a bend, quattro will provide important help in correcting the position and behaviour of the car, supporting the driver in rectifying his mistake by way of its docile, forgiving reaction.
The next stage of quattro drive reached the customer in autumn 1986: the self-locking Torsen centre differential operates mechanically, splitting up drive power under ideal conditions at a 50:50 ratio to both axles.
Whenever there is a difference in speed between the two axles on account of external conditions, the Torsen differential automatically and with virtually no distortion feeds more power to the axle able to convey higher forces, in the process allowing up to 75 per cent of engine power to go to one axle alone.
Two years later, the quattro system was significantly upgraded once again through the market launch of the Audi V8 featuring Audi’s EDS electronic differential lock. This sophisticated system automatically prevents the wheels from spinning and guides excess power to the wheels for even more traction. Power is conveyed consistently to the wheels as long as the driver keeps his foot on the gas pedal.
This was also the first model to see a combination of quattro drive and an automatic transmission: For the first time, quattro drive came with two integrated locks – an electronically controlled, hydraulically operated multiple-plate lock in the intermediate differential and a self-locking Torsen differential on the rear axle.
In 1994, finally, the Torsen differential was also introduced in the manual gearbox, open differentials controlling the differences in rotation speed with the help of EDS acting on the car’s axles.
An ideal feature on a car featuring its engine fitted crosswise was the introduction of the electronically controlled, hydraulic multiple-plate clutch serving as a longitudinal lock on the Audi A3 and the Audi TT. This system is commonly referred as the Haldex clutch.
In their all-out initiative, Audi’s engineers seek to perfect the incomparable functionality of Audi quattro drive through the use of appropriate differentials and locks, in the process integrating the most sophisticated electronic control systems. And one thing is for sure: the future of this outstanding drive technology which started 25 years ago has only just begun.
Marketing and Markets
Whether the name was Audi NSU, Auto Union AG or, as of 1985, simply AUDI AG, the company remained exclusively a development and production operation until Organisation Units for Marketing (1991) and Sales (1993) were added. Up to that time, Audi’s parent company in Wolfsburg – Volkswagen – was responsible for developing and creating all marketing processes. The fact remains, however, that Audi’s engineers were by no means disinterested in this exciting area of business, which often enough set the benchmark for the success or failure of a new product development.
Without sophisticated market research, but with a good feeling for what the motorist is looking for or what he or she would certainly not want to miss out on in the foreseeable future, the men and women in the TE Division (“TE”standing for Technische Entwicklung or Technical Development) actively, dynamically and successfully started turning a marketing wheel which the professionals in Wolfsburg only had to confirm and endorse in its qualities. And even though the specialists in Ingolstadt were not always happy with the decisions taken in Wolfsburg, they gained increasing recognition in the course of time, especially after Ferdinand Piëch took over the Research and Development Division in Ingolstadt in August 1975.
At the time Piëch, just 38 years old back then, was consistently guided by a clear goal: to escape the limitations of mediocrity, to progress to a supreme position in the industry. In this era of new development, “Vorsprung durch Technik” served both as an advertising slogan and as the Company’s internal guideline: whenever financially feasible, outstanding technical solutions were seen by Audi’s managers and leaders as their obvious choice – also in the case of projects not destined for cars one day to be sold by the Audi brand, such as the Iltis offroader offering driving characteristics and handling so exceptional that it subsequently initiated the development of Audi’s high-speed four-wheel-drive concept. Indeed, it was the superior traction of the Iltis offroader, as well as the safety reserves consistently maintained under all driving conditions, which ultimately paved the way for Audi’s successful strategy leading the company all the way to the top.
But while the Iltis was certainly a fine achievement, it never became a best seller. It was, however, good enough to make history in later Audi models. Starting this process was difficult for the very reason that there was no other car which could have set the standard for the Audi Quattro.
In contrast, an attempt made by the Jensen brothers in Great Britain to achieve success in the mid-60s with the Jensen Interceptor, a stylish and dynamic coupé featuring Ferguson four-wheel drive, proved to be a failure, the project not bringing home the success in sports motoring Jensen had hoped for.
Even back then, a mere dozen four-wheel-drive protagonists at Audi led by Project Manager Walter Treser realised that “the car we are planning to build must hit the road with a ‘big bang’. It must convince the market not through loud slogans, but through its visible success. “And Ferdinand Piëch added to this by emphasising that “we must force the competition to follow in our footsteps, to copy our strategy and concept”. So this is how marketing was once conceived and created by Audi’s engineers working in their private offices.
All this ultimately resulted in the PSC Product Strategy Committee, a group of specialists focusing entirely on facts, figures, and perspectives. For this is the input providing the basis for decisions on how to open and penetrate the market with a new product.
Back in 1979, the good results achieved in demonstrating the new drive system to the top-level Board Members of the VW Group tipped the scales in favour of Audi, which back then stood for “Vorsprung durch Technik” more than any other manufacturer. However, there were still doubts as to the realistic production figure: initially the target specified was 400 units, precisely the number required for homologating the new car for international motorsport. Then this figure was increased to 1,500 and subsequently to 3,500 and even 5,000 units.
With all plans being carefully discussed, rejected, re-activated and re-discussed, the Committee finally agreed on a compromise: production of the 200-horsepower five-seater coupe was to take place outside of the production facilities for Audi’s large-series models.
This was not least because the quality standards expected of a car in the DM 50,000 segment appeared impossible to achieve on a production line where the absolute highlight and the most expensive model was the Audi 100. A car which back then retailed for around DM 25,000.
The unusual design of the new car still represented a minor uncertainty factor at the time: unlike other Gran Turismo cars in this price segment, the muscular four-wheel-drive coupé, through its unusual design, did not exactly appeal to softies with the licence to cruise up and down big boulevards. Indeed, chief Designer Hartmut Warkuss explained the specific design of the car in clear and convincing terms: “In tough competition, whether in sport or on the road, there is no room for indulgence or gimmicks. On the contrary, the message here is tough and rough – it is clear and straightforward, focusing on the technical highlights of such an incomparable driving machine. ”
As a result, Audi’s new brand flagship now came with outstanding technical features, unique design, and the endorsement of top management – but still had no name. And once again Walter Treser proved to be the driving force: although finding a name was actually not his responsibility, he started looking for the right term, leafing through trade magazines in the evening and finally finding a term in an American magazine he found truly appealing: the name was Quattratrac, and the term used in the context of a special transmission for a Jeep was forever ingrained in his memory. After all, the name of the new Audi was intended to express the concept of the car’s all-wheel drive, the term “quattro”, the Italian word for four, being just right in his opinion to describe four drive wheels.
So the name was put to the test together with various other suggestions, after some of the decision-makers had supported the term “Quadro”. The next obstacle was the Product Strategy Committee in Wolfsburg, at the VW Group’s Headquarters. There the responsible division discussed the term for introducing Audi’s all-wheel-drive coupé in a memorable meeting on 12 November 1979, the name still being described at the time as “not decided yet”. But in reality Audi’s team had already prepared the car scheduled to enter the market, the new model proudly bearing the term “Quattro” with a large “Q” on its right-hand rear corner.
The decisive discussion round finally took a close look at the proposal made by the strategists in Wolfsburg. Their suggestion was “Carat”, short for “Coupé-All-Rad-Antrieb-Turbo” (Coupé-All-Wheel-Drive-Turbo). With Treser not being surprised by this suggestion, he countered right away by putting his hand into his pocket and pulling out a bottle of Eau de Cologne bearing the same name marketed by the German cosmetics and deodorant company 4711. Objecting that a trendsetting product such as the new all-wheel-drive coupé should not bear the same name as a perfume used by German housewives, he quickly turned the tables, giving the name “Quattro” its ultimate breakthrough.
When the quattro left all exotic cars far behind at its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1980, just two dozen of these outstanding models had completed final assembly. The first customer cars, in turn, were not scheduled for the market until autumn of the same year. But the quattro nevertheless made its way irresistibly to customers the world over, the initial production volume of 400 units, which Sales had seen as a big challenge, ultimately increasing in time to no less than 11,560 cars sold.
The Ur-quattro as it was called later to clearly identify the first model against many other Audi 80, 90, 100, and 200 quattros, had its own world of advertising the most outstanding and challenging rallies the world over. And indeed, wherever the Ur-quattro appeared on the track, it left a lasting impression: clouds of dust, fountains of gravel, and black stripes on grey asphalt showed clearly that this car was very special indeed.
The successors to the Ur-quattro benefited from this superiority only in part. For reflecting the car’s extravagant technical outfit, they needed the right kind of convincing advertising: “Something far beyond everyday motoring”, to use the words of German rally racer Harald Demuth in describing the task given to the advertising agency requested to develop the right campaign for the Audi quattro.
The result is that legendary ski-jump commercial which countless car buffs and aficionados the world over still remember to this very day – the commercial which hailed the advent of that outstanding Audi quattro advertising.
The ski-jump itself was in Finland near the town of Kaipola. It was 78 metres long, with a gradient of more than 80 per cent. Which, obviously, was no problem for Harald Demuth and the Audi 100 CS carefully secured at the bottom of the ski-jump. This almost incredible example of supreme traction was of course – as required – far beyond the reality of everyday motoring.
Other famous commercials convey the same message: grandpa and grandson Eskimo out hunting – the traces of a bear, the paws of a wolf, and finally the tracks of a tyre in the eternal ice: “Quattro”, says grandpa – and all his grandson does is nod in awe.
Another example is the reception given by an Indian Maharaja which probably will have to be cancelled because heavy monsoon rain has prevented many diplomats from coming to the event. Indeed, the only one who makes it is the German ambassador in his Audi quattro. Although, to be honest, even he has to call in advance, telling the Maharaja that he will be late – because he is picking up his Japanese colleague on the way.
quattro is a powerful brand with a powerful position in the market. Ever since the introduction of this superior drive system, more than 1.8 million people the world over have opted for an Audi with this unique, high-speed all-wheel-drive system.
[source: audi-press.com]
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