It was 1980 and fast cars were the order of the day. Things were getting competitive and the European car manufacturers were looking for something new to introduce. Back in this era cars were not full of electronics like today. Then in March 1980 a new car was released at the Geneva Motor show. It was ground breaking in its design. It was so advanced technologically it would change the way we look at cars forever, the Audi Quattro was born.
It was a turbocharged four wheel drive tarmac eating machine. Originally it was designed for competitive rally, but after the great success on the dirt Audi introduced it to their road going cars.
Although it was not the first four wheel driven road car (which was the Jensen FF) it was the best. The Quattro was far more advanced than anything the other car manufacturers had even thought about.
Prior to the Quattro Audi was had not been groundbreaking in its designs. However since 1969 when they had the financial backing of Volkswagen they had a much larger research and development budget. Hence the Audi Quattro was born. It was so innovative and practical it led to all the modern four wheel drive cars we see on the road today.
As an idea the Quattro was born approximately 3 years earlier than its release date in 1977. When one of the head engineers noticed how well Volkswagens Iltis military vehicle was handing the extreme weather conditions of Northern Scandinavia. The Iltis had amazing handling, far better than anything they had seen before!
The Quattro’s engine started out by taking the world’s first 5 cylinder engine from the extremely popular Audi 200 (which was capable of approximately 170mph!) The engineers boosted the power output to over 200 bhp at 5500rpm. With that power figure the Quattro had a top speed of around 138mph and the car could easily hit 60mph in around 7 seconds.
The Quattro was not all about pure brute power as you can see from its 200 bhp power figure. It was about finesse, and this was all achievable through the brilliant implementation of the Quattro four wheel drive system. The four wheel drive system gave Audi great benefits through all its World Rally Championship endeavors and to this day Audi is still using the Quattro system in the range of cars they sell.
Audi manufactured 11,452 of the original Quattro’s through the 1980s. If you look hard enough they can still be found, however due to the nature of the cars they are highly collectable. You can easily spend $100,000+ on a prime example. However if you own one of these cars you are not only owning a piece of Audi history you are also owning a piece of automobile and motorsport history. All in all, the original Audi Quattro is a classic car that I would highly recommend to anyone who is interested in classic cars.