Four rings, four-wheel drive: Celebrating forty years of quattro
Published on: 24/03/2022Intelligent (some would say remarkable) four-wheel drive has been a cornerstone of the Audi brand for 40 years.
Since the original quattro made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in 1980, Audi has produced almost eleven million cars with quattro technology. But that’s not to say the brand has ever rested on its successes. Audi is always looking to innovate – consider the latest development: electric quattro with electric torque vectoring.
It’s been an impressive track record over the last 40 years. By September 30, 2020 Audi had produced 10,947,790 cars with all-wheel drive. Just over 44% of these were equipped with a quattro drive system. In fact, all of our large and particularly powerful vehicles as well as all Audi S and RS models transfer their horsepower to the road through all four wheels.
With the Audi e-tron and the Audi e-tron Sportback, the brand entered not only the age of sustainable electric mobility but also the era of electric all-wheel drive. Electric motors drive the front and rear axles in both. The suspension and drive control units work together closely to regulate the ideal distribution of drive torque between them – continuously, fully variably and within fractions of a second.
At the beginning of 2020, Audi upped the ante with an expansion of those electric all-wheel drive capabilities: electric torque vectoring in the Audi e-tron S and the Audi e-tron S Sportback. It takes just milliseconds to engage extremely high torque, allowing the car to be driven into curves as energetically as a sports car. Audi is the first manufacturer in the premium segment to mass-produce the technology using three electric motors.
Supremacy in motorsports
Not surprisingly, perhaps, Audi quattro has long translated into success on the track – and a few mountains.
Audi first entered the World Rally Championship in 1981, and the quattro drive dominated the event just one season later. In 1982, the team won the manufacturers’ championship, and Finnish driver Hannu Mikkola secured the drivers’ trophy in 1983.
Audi took both titles in 1984, with Stig Blomqvist of Sweden becoming world champion. That year, Audi also fielded its Sport quattro with a short wheelbase for the first time, followed in 1985 by the Sport quattro Audi S1 producing 350 kW (476 PS). In 1987, Walter Röhrl drove a specially modified Audi S1 to victory at the Pikes Peak hill climb in the USA – the perfect finishing touch to some exhilarating years of rallying.
Audi subsequently shifted to racing touring cars. In 1988, Audi won both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships in the US Trans-Am at its first attempt with the Audi 200, before competing with considerable success in the IMSA GTO series the following year.
In 1990/91, Audi entered its mighty V8 quattro in the Deutsche Tourenwagenmeisterschaft (DTM), winning two drivers’ championships. The Audi A4 quattro Supertouring entered seven national championships in 1996 – and won them all. (Two years later, the European ruling bodies banned all-wheel drive almost completely from touring car races.)
An Audi all-wheel drive race car – the Audi R18 e-tron quattro with a hybrid drive – once again took to the track in 2012. A V6-TDI powered the rear wheels, while a flywheel accumulator supplied recuperated energy to two electric motors on the front axle. (The car used a temporary quattro drive system during acceleration.) It boasted a formidable track record, with three overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and two drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles in the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Although it’s less about racing, Audi does still enjoy showing off the capabilities of quattro. In 1986, professional rally driver Harald Demuth drove an Audi 100 CS quattro up the Kaipola ski jump in Finland. In 2005, the brand repeated this event with an Audi S6.
Circuit and rallycross champion Mattias Ekström of Sweden performed a similar feat in 2019. He tackled the steepest uphill section of the infamous Streif ski course at Kitzbühel in a technology demonstrator and predecessor to the Audi e-tron quattro with three electric motors, negotiating gradients of as much as 85%.
If you want to know more about how quattro works in real life, be sure to visit the Audi quattro page.
Sidebar: Motorsports milestones
Millions of quattro drive systems have been produced since 1980 – and many have gone on to shine on the track.
1980s
Four titles in the World Rally Championship from 1982 to 1984; three victories in the Pikes Peak hill climb from 1985 to 1987; then major success in the Trans-Am and IMSA GTO series in the USA
1990s
Drivers’ championships in the DTM in 1990 and 1991; seven titles in the Super Touring category in a single season in 1996
2010s
Three Le Mans victories and four WEC titles for the Audi R18 e-tron quattro
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