The Audi Sport Quattro

>ÖRSCHE :AYENNE "URBO S 20-HP SUV IN DUBAI VUDI QUATTRO (ORLD^CHEAPEST RALLYSTAR The Classics You Wa An Audi Most Krauty Audi's turbo Quattro coupe made the idea of an all- wheel-drive car seem less stupid • By Michael Lamm f you happen to find an original Audi Quattro made the original Quattro one of the most stähle, safest coupe parked somewhere, pull out your road cars ever conceived. In setting the engineering checkbook and buy the damned thing, because Standard for AWD passenger vehicles, Audi convinced you're about to get yourself a true, race-bred the world that AWD was the way to go, not only in racing winner—a still-modern car with a place in but also in the rain, on ice, and through snow. automotive history few can touch. And what happened to Audi, thanks to the Quattro, The "Ur Quattro," German for "Original Quattro," is was simply this: The Company survived. Thirty-odd still hugely populär and in demand overseas. Yet on years ago, Audi had yet to grab its share of "German this side of the muddy pond, you'll find just a precision"glory. Back then, Audi built ratbag cars that handful of these 4x4s left, partly because Audi feil apart and couldn't pull the hat off a hobo. brought only about 662 of them into the U.S. and The man in Charge at Audi, Ferdinand Piech, knew stopped importing them after 1985. something had to be done quickly to make his Company Audi's full-time all-wheel-drive (AWD) System competitive with the other German automakers. So Piech changed everyone's thinking about handling limits. It decided to go rallying on the highest possible level. mph nay HOOS In Europe, rallying was (and still is) as populär as German military, did duty as the 80's chase car. Even soccer, bad haircuts, and lice. Winning a rally brings when Audi test mules got stuck in snowbanks, the Iltis prestige, notoriety, and, ultimately, sales. Piech's plan made it through or pulled them out. So Piech, Treser, was simple: Go rallying, win, and establish Audi's Bensinger, and Nedvidek looked at one another, glanced fame and fortune. over at the VW Iltis, and said, "Why not all-wheel drive?" Piech was a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. His Well, one reason not to take this route was because The uncle, Ferry Porsche, had run Porsche from the the British Jensen FF (for Ferguson Formula) coupe had Company's humblest beginnings, and Piech joined Uncle offered AWD from 1966 through December 1971 and Audi Sport Ferry in the family business in 1963. At Porsche, Piech espoused the same proposition as the Quattro.The Quattro worked on the 911, the 910, and the4.5-liter, 12-cylinder, Jensen FF sold poorly, and production ended after FF In 1983, after winning the WRC Le Mans-winning 917, which ultimately captured the number 387. So as self-evident as a road-going AWD Drivers Championship but losing the World Championship of Makes and the Endurance passenger car seems today, it was an iffy idea in the Manufacturers trophy to Lancia, Audi decided to add a new and different World Championship. 1970s, particularly with long gas lines and anti- rally car for the 1984 season: the Audi In the early 1970s, Porsche AG was allied with Audi, performance sentiments everywhere. Sport Quattro. The idea was to NSU, and Volkswagen. In homologate the Sport Quattro in the 1972, when Ferry retired and FIA's Group B, the most powerful and the Porsche Company began fastest rallying category. cutting family ties, Piech Audi's Chief Performance engineer, Fritz Indra, began planning the Sport Quattro moved over to Audi as by chopping 12.6 inches out of the Group manager of technical A Quattro coupe's wheelbase. This made engineering. He brought the Sport Quattro the same overall length with him an appreciation of as a Honda CRX. Weight dropped to 2200 pounds, thanks partly to the shorter racing and the skills to win. wheelbase but also to body panels made Piech initially oversaw development of the relatively And yet all-wheel drive did seem like the only way to from fiberglass and Kevlar. boring Audi 80 and 100 passenger cars, and when those put Audi in the winner's circle.Thus, in 1977, Dr. Piech The engine was based on Audi's cars failed to set the market ablaze, Piech was looking and his colleagues decided to take a gamble and base an production 2>liter inline five, but it was around for a spark. AWD race car on the lowly Audi 80 coupe. The rally racer now topped off with twin cams and four valves per cylinder. The KKK K27 In 1977 Audi's chief chassis engineer, Jorg Bensinger, would, however, borrow the turbocharged five-cylinder turbocharger took on a bigger intercooler talked to Piech about transforming the front-wheel-drive engine and 5-speed manual transmission from the and, in some instances, had a system that Audi 80 coupe into a rally car. Piech liked the idea, and still-under-development Audi 200 series, along forced compressed air into the exhaust huddled with Audi's director of prototype development, with the 200's Suspension and brakes.The manifold during deceleration to keep WalterTreser, and engine engineer, Hans Nedvidek. turbo revs up. The compressed air caused manual transfer case came from the horrendous popping and banging, which The epiphany came during routine cold-weather VW Iltis, and the powered rear spectators loved. testing in Scandinavia. A Volkswagen Iltis, a Land Michele Mouton used this System at Rover-like 4x4 developed by Audi for VW and the Pikes Peak in 1985. Where other cars would normally lose 50 percent of their horsepower due to thinning air between the 9402-foot start and the Peak's 14,110- foot finish, Mouton's engine lost only six percent. She won the event, breaking the previous record by 13 seconds. To homologate the Sport Quattro under FIA rules, Audi had to build 200 copies. For street use, the Sport Quattro engine developed 306 hp at 6700 rpm, but could make 400-500 hp for racing. Zero to 60 was reputed to take 4.8 seconds. Top speed was around 155 mph. The AWD system's 50/50 torque split plus the Short wheelbase and outrageous power made the Sport Quattro a handful on any course. The Sport Quattro had its peak season in 1985 but was outclassed after that by the fire-breathing Peugeot (yes, Peugeot) 205 T16. 3 mph may 200s ff ff ff f ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff f ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff f ff ff ff ff axle was an Audi MacPherson-strut front axle turned backward, its ring gear reversed to the other side of the pinion and its steering arms fixed as track rods. Problems showed up in January 1978 during tests in the Austrian Alps. The prototype Quattro's front and rear axles were too rigidly interconnected, and because all cars' rear wheels follow a slightly smaller arc through turns than the fronts, the AWD Audi prototype tended to scrub speed and jitter around tight corners. The solution finally came to Franz Tengler, Audi's head of transaxle design, who devised a solid shaft within a Quattro hollow shaft that let power flow in both directions—fore and aft—and this became the key to the Quattro's Chronolo viability.This System didn't need a separate transfer case. Instead, Audi put a compact center differential into the 3/3/1980 Quattro bows at Late 1983 Audi introduces Engine displacement goes to 22 back of the 5-speed transmission, consisting of a cage Geneva auto show. Euro-spec short-wheelbase, Sport Quattro liters. Turbo now watercooled. with spider gears. From there, a solid shaft ran forward, 2.1-liter engine develops 200 hp, race car. Brakes revised, and decklid now and a hollow shaft off the spider cage drove a prop shaft 210 Ib-ftoftorque. 12/1983 Digital instruments, fiberglass instead of steel. 11/1980 Quattros become ABS added. 10/1989 20-valve head from to the rear differential. available at European dealerships. 3/1984 Body lowered 20 mm, Sport Quattro gives 220 hp, 228 Drivers could lock the front and rear diffs manually 3/1981 Mechanical differential rear Suspension altered. Ib-ft of torgue. Suspension and separately, and the built-in center diff added only controls changed to pneumatic. 9/1984 Minor facelift includes members changed from steel to about 165 pounds to the car.Tengler's space-saving Late 1981 Quattro bows in U.S., new grille, bumpers, inferior. aluminum. Rear brakes enlarged. but with only 135 hp. Power goes 12/1984 Audi stops importing Rebodied S2 Coupe Quattro bows solution proved elegant, inexpensive, strong, üghtweight, to 160 in mid 1982, still below Quattro into the U.S. but European enthusiasts force and it also lowered the car's center of gravity. Europe's 200 hp. 9/1987 Torsen center diff fitted, Audi to keep building Ur Quattro. But Audi still wasn't there yet. The Company had the 10/1982 Quad headlamps allows automatic torque splits Earty 1991 Production of Ur wheels, but it didn't have suitable drivers.That changed in changed to dual Cibies. ranging from 25/75 to 75/25. Quattro ends. September 1979 when Hannu Mikkola, a world-class rallyist from Finland, arrived at Audi headquarters in Ingolstadt and test-drove the latest Quattro prototype.

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