Three decades of Audi Quattro
Quattro helped Audi claim the Pike’s Peak hill-climb crown. Aiding that effort, turbocharging helped the car make power as the air dramatically thinned during ascent. Credit: Wheelbase Media
Almost the very first thing Audi did while developing its Quattro permanent all-wheel drive system 31 years ago was to enter the 1981 World Rally Championship, which it went on to dominate for years.
Audi then went road- and circuit racing with Quattro-equipped cars, and cleaned house in those gladiatorial arenas as well.
Quattro's many subsequent motorsport successes since have shaped the image of the Audi brand in a more enduring fashion than any advertising campaign costing millions of dollars ever could.
Quattro drive has become a defining feature for the German manufacturer, not only in racing but also in its road cars, making them among the most sure-footed and fun-to-drive automobiles offered.
New technologies, from the classic manually locking center differential to the latest evolutionary stage - the crown gear center differential - have been introduced to the mechanical system over the past three decades. Today, every vehicle that Audi builds offers Quattro, either as optional or standard equipment, depending on the model.
To date, Audi has built more than 3.7 million cars equipped with Quattro; for 2011 its global model lineup includes more than 120 AWD applications.
Michael Dick, a member of Audi's board of management overseeing technical development, said a new "superposition" differential employs electronically controlled "torque vectoring" to achieve optimum traction and balance. It sends 85 percent of torque to the rear wheels under normal conditions, but can instantly direct up to 70 percent to the front axle while varying the amount of power applied to each wheel based on how much grip it has.
Engineers aren't finished with perfecting the Quattro system yet, Dick says. "Numerous ideas" for the future include the electric Quattro, a hybrid concept in which the front axle is powered by a combustion engine and an electric motor while the rear axle is entirely electrically powered.
To mark Quattro's first 30 years, Audi devised the "Fascination of Quattro" event and hosted auto writers from around the globe in Canadian ski country to demonstrate the capabilities of the system as applied to a broad cross-section of its vehicles.
The system functions almost invisibly. On a pair of snow-covered courses, we drove the cars as quickly as possible with the electronic torque vectoring engaged then with it disabled, in a practical demonstration of how effectively it works.
Maintaining pace without the system activated was a great deal more work; the writers were all arms and elbows, thrashing about often in vain attempts to maintain control.
The cars exhibited more balance, grace and outright pace with the system engaged than any of the group could achieve without it.
But the most telling story of what the system is capable of doing came from sitting in the passenger seats of a pair of Group B rally cars, each one historic in its own rite. Audi had also brought along two of its most successful rally cars for live, seat-of-the-pants demonstrations.
Former German rally champion Harald Demuth offered those who dared a demo ride through a logging road cut specifically for the event, while six-time Canadian and four-time North American rally champ Frank Sprongl drove his own fire breathing, eardrum-splitting 500-plus horsepower Group B Audi A2 rally car on a snow-packed closed course.
At the wheel of the Group B Sport Quattro S1 frequently driven to victory by rally legend Walter Rohl, Demuth quickly disavowed those writers who took up his offer of any notions they might have had about being exceptional drivers.
Sprongl, too, easily demonstrated his own brand of driving greatness.
The car accelerates unbelievably hard and Sprongl throws it into the fast-approaching corners sideways then accelerates out, lining up for the next turn as the scenery blurs past and the car throws up a high wall of snow behind it.
He dances lightly on the brakes but seems to be always accelerating; he turns the wheel in what instinct says is the wrong direction before correcting its angle as the car hurtles into the next corner, sideways again but completely under control.
Much as his very name seems to do, Sprongl is dancing with physics and clearly enjoying the rhythm of this high-speed rumba through the woods.
At the end of the demo he looks over, smiles and says that without Quattro drive, the ride would have been slower and not nearly as much fun.
