Audi Quattro
Born: 1980 Died:1990
Arguably one of Audi's most important cars in its time, because it established the brand as a serious contender on the rally scene, the Quattro also brought the company's quattro AWD system onto a production car for the first time. With a 2.1-litre turbocharged 5-cylinder engine - originally developed for the top-of-the-range Audi 200, but with power pumped up from 170hp to 200hp -- it was always going to be perceived as significant, but the Audi Quattro might never have happened if there hadn't been a change to the rules of motor racing to allow AWD. Audi, Renault and Lancia were key pushers for this change.
The possibility of using an AWD system - part-developed by Audi parent Volkswagen in the mid-1970s - in a high performance car, was explored by a group of Audi engineers using an Audi 80 saloon as a test-bed. One of the group was one Ferdinand Piech, who was later to become VW's chairman. Convincing management that the system would provide a superior car, they got a "go" for the Quattro.
Part of their argument was because their system avoided being as heavy as conventional AWD setups by using a hollow output shaft driving a centre differential, from which drive for the front wheels was sent through the hollow shaft. The other advantage was that the new "quattro" system was amazingly compact.
The car, which was previewed at Geneva, had a tough aggressive styling which appealed immediately to those who saw it. When it went on the road for testing though, it proved to have a split personality. Its high-gear performance was quite lethargic, slower in fact than a Polo up to 60mph. But from 60-100mph, it was a roadburner, faster in that range than a Porsche 911. For the first two years of the Audi Quattro's life, only LHD versions were built, but then demand from the rally-mad UK prompted a decision to offer RHD cars.
There was no waiting around for success. After a slight hiccup in 1981, when a pair of works cars both failed to finish the Monte Carlo Rally, the Quattro soon began to make a big impact and for two years on the rally scene it was unbeatable. In 1982 it won the manufacturer's championship, and in Britain an Audi Sport UK car won the British championship piloted by Mikkola Hannu Mikkola and Arne Hertz.
A Group B Sport Quattro was a shorter version developed to deal with new competition from Lancia under the new B rally rules. It also got an alloy engine block, with 450hp output. The combination of light weight and raw power, along with the advantages of the AWD, made it an awesomely competitive machine. A limited road version was detuned to 304hp.
The Quattro wasn't a cheap car to produce, as all were hand-built at Audi's plant in Germany, and though its quickly-earned motorsport reputation put it on the wish-list of many motorists, output only averaged a little over 1,000 a year throughout its life. A three-year sales push beginning in 1983 only resulted in 664 cars being sold. A revised version was presented in 1984, with wider wheels and stiffer suspension. It also "talked" to the driver, a la Austin Metro, and this feature was widely derided by the car's fans.
In 1988 the road car got a new engine, a 2.2-litre with a Bosch engine management system and a variable compression ratio. It still had the 200hp output, but more important was the significant reduction of the turbo-lag which had been an annoying feature of the Quattro to date. Finally, in 1990 that "original" Quattro was fitted with the 20-valve head which had helped make the rally cars so potent. This upped the power to 220hp and provided peak torque at less than 2000rpm.