AUDI Sport Quattro
Car producer :  |
AUDI |
---|---|
Model: |
Sport Quattro |
Year: |
1984 |
Type: |
Coupe |
The Audi Quattro is a road and rally car, produced by the German automobile manufacturer Audi, part of the Volkswagen Group. It was first shown at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show on 3 March. Production continued through 1991.
The word quattro is derived from the Italian word for "four" to represent the fact that the vehicle delivers power to all four wheels. The name has also been used by Audi to refer to the quattro four-wheel-drive system, or any four-wheel-drive version of an Audi model. The original Quattro model is also commonly referred to as the Ur-Quattro - the "Ur-" (German for "primordial", "original", or "first of its kind") is an augmentative prefix. The idea of such a car came from the Audi engineer Jörg Bensinger.
The Audi Quattro was the first rally car to take advantage of the then-recently changed rules that allowed the use of four-wheel drive in competition racing. It won consecutive competitions for the next two years. To commemorate the success of the original vehicle, all subsequent Audi production automobiles with this four-wheel-drive system were badged with the trademark quattro with a lower case "q" letter.
The Audi Quattro shared many parts and platform with the Coupé version of the Audi 80 (B2). The quattro was internally designated Typ 85, a production code it shared with the quattro versions of the Audi Coupé. Its characteristic flared wheelarches were styled by Martin Smith. The Audi Quattro also had independent front and rear suspension.
The idea for a high-performance four-wheel-drive car was proposed in 1977 by Audi's chassis engineer, Jörg Bensinger, after he found that the Volkswagen Iltis military vehicle could outperform other vehicles when tested in the snow. An Audi 80 variant was developed in co-operation with Walter Treser, Director of Pre-Development.
Audi introduced the original Quattro to European customers in late 1980, featuring Audi's quattro permanent four-wheel drive system, and the first to mate the front-engine, four-wheel-drive layout with a turbocharged engine.
The original engine was the 2,144 cc (2.1 L), longitudinally-mounted inline-5-cylinder 10 valve SOHC, with a turbocharger and intercooler. It generated 147 kW (200 PS; 197 hp) and torque of 285 N⋅m (210 lbf⋅ft) at 3,500 rpm, propelling the Quattro from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 7.1 seconds, and on to a top speed of over 220 km/h (137 mph).
The introduction of Group B competition in 1982 opened the doors to an entirely new and fearsome category of international rally. Previously, manufacturers had been limited to either rear-wheel-drive or front-wheel-drive production cars, but Group B had almost no restrictions; automakers could implement virtually any and all new technologies and materials. Audi took full advantage. Working in secret under the direction of Ferdinand Piech, their assignment was to design a new purpose-built weapon for the 1984 season. What emerged was the ferocious S1 Sport quattro. This brilliant machine took advantage of new regulations that allowed an automaker to build just 200 street-legal examples in order to homologate the design for competition. In September 1983, Audi presents the Audi Sport quattro (B2) at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt am Main. The displacement of the engine was dropped slightly from 2144 cc to 2133 cc with a bore x stroke of 79.3 mm × 86.4 mm (3.1 in × 3.4 in) for the Rally car so that Audi could satisfy the 3-litre rallying class with a 1.4 times multiplication factor.