Time-Warp: 40 Years of Audi Quattro in Photos

49,900 German marks was the base price of the original Audi quattro at its market launch in 1980. Porsche offered the 911 SC for the same price.

23 races were won by quattro drivers Michèle Mouton, Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist and Walter Röhrl in the Rally World Championship with Audi in the five years from 1981 to 1985. As a result, Audi was able to celebrate the superiority of the quattro principle in rallying.

12 engineers assisted project manager Walter Treser in the development of the first Audi with permanent quattro drive from February 1977.

The winter of 1976/77 is when the idea of developing the quattro technology came about at Audi. A series of test drives in Scandinavia, in which a VW Iltis also took part, brought it about. On the snow-covered roads, the military all-terrain vehicle developed at Audi impressively demonstrated the potential of its all-wheel drive.

10 minutes and 47.85 seconds was the time with which Röhrl triumphed with the Audi Sport quattro S1 at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb (USA) in 1987. In the fastest part of the 20-kilometer course (12.4 mi) with an altitude of 1435 meters (4,708 ft), an average incline of seven percent and 156 bends, he was measured traveling at a speed of 196 km/h (121.8 mph).

6 minutes and 29 seconds was the lead that Walter Röhrl held over the runner-up at the Rallye Sanremo in 1985 with the Sport quattro S1. In the last race of the season, the British RAC Rally, Röhrl used a dual-clutch transmission that was actuated pneumatically. A precursor of today’s S tronic, it was a real first at the time. Today’s electronic possibilities are what make the efficiency and functionality of our modern dual-clutch transmission and the active integration in the overall tuning of the car possible.

11,452 units of the original quattro were made between 1980 and 1991. Originally, only 400 were planned.

Nearly 11 million cars have been built by the brand with the four rings with quattro drive since 1980 (as at: September 30, 2020).

1981 was the year Audi officially entered the rallying scene for the first time with the quattro. Finishing around 21 minutes ahead of the competing cars, Franz Wittmann won the Jänner Rallye in Austria, which was part of the European Rally Championship. The local hero triumphed in all 31 special trials. Prior to that, in November 1980, a quattro had been used at the Algarve Rallye in Portugal as an unclassified but timed course car with tremendous success.

3.1 seconds is how long it takes the Sport quattro S1 with the medium manual transmission ratio to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62.1 mph). The rally car that Audi used for the first time in 1985 produced 350 kW (476 PS) with its five-cylinder turbo engine and weighed only 1,090 kilograms (2403.0 lb).

80 percent was the incline of the ski jump in Kaipola, Finland, where Audi filmed a legendary commercial in 1986. Professional rally driver Harald Demuth mastered the snow-covered 47-meter (154.2-ft) ascent in the Audi 100 CS quattro.

In 1988, the Audi 200 competed in the TransAm Series in America. Here too, the Four Rings topped the manufacturer’s and driver’s rankings at the first attempt. The quattro principle proved its superiority on the race circuit as well.

Around 720 PS (530 kW) is what the five-liter turbo in the Audi 90 quattro produced, which competed in the IMSA GTO series in 1989 – the 2.2-liter four-valve powerplant summoned no less than 329 PS from every liter (0.04 cu ft) of displacement. The drivers, Hurley Haywood and Hans-Joachim Stuck, won almost every second race in the North American series. Audi exploited the technical rules of the IMSA series to the full: A tubular trellis frame supported a greatly widened plastic body, while the tires were up to 360 millimeters (14.2 in) wide.

1994 saw Audi launch the RS 2 Avant on the market, the first ever RS model. Its quattro drive incorporated an electromechanically activated locking differential at the rear axle.

In 2007 the Audi R8 high-performance sports car (((Audi R8: combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 13.6–13.0 (18.1–17.3 US mpg); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 311–297 (500.5–478.0 g/mi) ))) launched on the market in its first generation. Its quattro drive was tailor-made: A cardan shaft ran from the transmission in the rear to an unregulated viscous coupling on the front axle. In its current generation, the R8 uses a controlled multi-plate clutch here.

3 times in a row, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro won the Le Mans 24-hour race between 2012 and 2014. A V6 TDI drove the rear wheels, while a flywheel accumulator supplied recuperated energy to two electric motors on the front axle. As a result, the race car was able to utilize this temporary quattro drive system during acceleration.

486,000 euros was the price a fan paid for the an Audi Sport quattro at an auction in London in 2016. Only 214 units of this super-quattro with 306 PS (225 kW) were built. At its launch in 1984, it cost 195,000 German marks.

2019 saw circuit and rallycross champion Mattias Ekström drive up part of the snow-covered “Streif” ski racing course at Kitzbühel. In an Audi e-tron quattro (((Audi e-tron quattro: combined electric power consumption in kWh/100 km: 26.6–22.4 (WLTP); 24.3–21.0 (NEDC); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0 (0 g/mi) ))) with three electric motors, he overcame an incline of up to 85 percent.

From 110 kW (150 PS) in the Q2 35 TDI quattro S tronic (((Audi Q2 35 TDI quattro S tronic: combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 4.8–4.6 (49.0–51.1 US mpg); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 128–122 (206.0–196.3 g/mi) ))) right through to 456 kW (620 PS) in the R8 V10 performance quattro supercar (((Audi R8 V10 performance quattro: combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 13.1 (18.1 US mpg); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 299–297 (481.2–478 g/mi) ))), Audi provides its customers with the benefits of permanent all-wheel drive throughout the entire model range.

92.2 percent of all cars that Audi delivered to customers in Canada in 2019 had a quattro drive. As a result, the country in North America has the highest proportion of all-wheel drive cars in the world.

More than 80 percent of the roughly 20 models that Audi will present in 2020 will be launched on the market with at least one quattro variant.

32 S, RS and R models currently offered by Audi on the market. All of them have quattro drive as standard.

40 millimeters (1.6 in) is how much wider each of the wheel arches are on the Audi RS 6 Avant (((combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 11.7–11.5 (20.1–20.5 US mpg); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 268–263 (431.3–423.3 g/mi) ))) with its pronounced quattro blisters compared with the A6 Avant. The designers are thereby emphasizing the strong quattro character.

30 milliseconds is how long it takes for the Audi e-tron (((Audi e-tron: combined electric power consumption in kWh/100 km: 26.6–22.4 (WLTP); 24.3–21.0 (NEDC); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0 (0 g/mi) ))) and e-tron Sportback (((Audi e-tron Sportback: combined electric power consumption in kWh/100 km: 26.3–21.6 (WLTP); 23.9–20.6 (NEDC); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0 (0 g/mi) ))) to shift torque from the rear axle to the front axle. It takes three times as long for a human to blink. No mechanical clutch is engaged with the electric all-wheel drive; instead, electricity is simply distributed – and with lightning speed, too.

3 electric motors supply propulsive power in the new Audi e-tron S (((Audi e-tron S: combined electric power consumption in kWh/100 km: 28.4–26.8 (WLTP); 28.2 (NEDC); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0 (0 g/mi) ))) and Audi e-tron S Sportback (((Audi e-tron S Sportback: combined electric power consumption in kWh/100 km: 28.1–26.4 (WLTP); 27.6–27.5 (NEDC); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0 (0 g/mi) ))) – a world first in volume production. The two electric motors on the rear axle enable electric torque vectoring, the need-based distribution of propulsive power to individual wheels on the left and right.

Up to 973 Nm (717.6 lb-ft) of torque is produced by the three electric motors in the Audi e-tron S (((Audi e-tron S: combined electric power consumption in kWh/100 km: 28.4–26.8 (WLTP); 28.2 (NEDC); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0 (0 g/mi)) and Audi e-tron S Sportback (((Audi e-tron S Sportback: combined electric power consumption in kWh/100 km: 28.1–26.4 (WLTP); 27.6–27.5 (NEDC); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0 (0 g/mi) ))). The two fully electric SUV models achieve a power output of 370 kW (507 PS) in boost mode.