Introduction

The Audi Quattro is a famous all-wheel drive, 2 door coupe made by the German automaker, Audi. It was in production from 1980 to 1991. It had a wheelbase to 2522 mm, a length of 4404 mm, a width of 1722 mm and a height of 1346 mm. Its curb weight 1290 – 1350 kg and a fuel capacity of 70L.

The car is extremely popular and historical as it acts as both, a road and also a rally car. It is notably the first grand tourer of four-wheel drive since the Jensen FF car of 1966. Amongst all rally cars, the Audi Quattro is known to be one, if not the most, significant throughout history. When the rules were changed so that all-wheel-drive was allowed in competition racing, it was one of the first vehicles to take advantage of the situation. The entry of the Audi Quattro was initially doubted by many racing critics, citing all-wheel-drive vehicles to be too heavy and too complex to be successful. The Audi Quattro however proved them wrong by proving itself to be a success and winning a rally on its first touring. For the next two years, the Audi Quattro won many more competitions to make its mark in rally racing history.

History

The official name of the car was simply “Quattro”. The word “Quattro”, with the lowercase “q”, also refers to the Audi All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) system or any AWD version of any Audi automobile. There has been confusion about the naming of the car. Adding more confusion to the issue is that, within the last decade, Audi has changed retroactively all references to the car model to from the uppercase “Q” to the lowercase “q”. Audi now states that “Quattro” must be written in fully lower case.

The Quattro was originally released in 1980 by Audi. It was the first car to use the standard system of four-wheel drive of Audi Quattro and the first to mate a four wheel drive system to a turbocharged engine.

Engine

The original power plant of the Audi Quattro was originally a 2.1 L SOHC engine with 10 valves which could produce 149kW of power. It was later revised to become a 2.2L 10-valve engine, and eventually into a 2.2 20v DOHC engine with a power of 164kW.

Production

The total road car production for the Audi Quattro is 11,452 vehicles for the period of 1980 to 1991. There were no major changes in the visual design of the vehicle throughout this production period. Only minor changes were introduced. Originally the car had a flat front grill that featured four separate lenses, one for each of the low and high beam units of the car. In the 1983 model, it was replaced with combined units that featured a single lens but housed twin reflectors. In 1985, the model was changed again and included alterations such as a newly remodeled sloping front grill, changes in trims and badges, and headlights.

Interior Features

Internally, the 1983 model switched from an analog instrument cluster to a green digital LCD display which was later changed to orange in 1988. It was again redesigned in 1985 and featured a whole new dash layout, a new steering wheel design and a new center console design.

Audi Sport Quattro

The Audi Quattro is famous as being a career highlight of Michele Mouton

General Introduction

Audi also introduced the Audi Sport Quattro. The Sport Quattro was a program car of Quattro manufactured and enhanced for rallying homologation of Group B during 1984. It was also marketed as a standard production car, though the number of units was limited. It also sports a body shell that’s different from all other Audi Quattros. It has wider wheels and arches, and a windscreen rake that’s much steeper. It also has a definitely wheelbase that is shorter than its counterparts by 320 millimeters. It was in 1985 that the more high-performing Quattro called as Sport Quattro 1 was manufactured for the growing market.

The Audi Quattro is famous as being a career highlight of Michele Mouton, one of the pre-eminent women in rally racing. Sports Car International also named the car as number four on their list of Top Sports Car of the 1980s in 2004. The Quattro drive system is also used in VWs and Skodas but only Audi is licensed to use the name.