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The Audi Rally quattro

Superiority through permanent all-wheel drive.
The idea of a rally car was every bit as old as the concept for the production car at Audi, originating in 1977. The Audi Motorsport Department was established the following year and entered rally racing with the front-wheel drive Audi 80. The first quattro ran as a course car in the European Champion ship series race in Portugal in 1980. In early 1981, the quattro cars swept over the rally scene like a force of nature. Local driver Franz Wittmann won the Janner Rally in Austria, which was not a World Championship race, in a Rally quattro by more than 20 minutes over the second-place car. The Rally quattro used the same five-cylinder turbo as the production car; the two-valve power unit developed a hearty 230 kW (roughly 310 hp) from 2.1 liters of displacement and 1.6 bar of boost. Lightweight body components limited its weight to around 1,200 kilograms (2,645.55 lb), roughly 100 kilograms (220.46 lb) less than the production car. Depending on the final drive ratio, the Rally quattro accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62.14 mph) in around 5.2 seconds on a dry surface. At its World Championship debut in the Monte Carlo Rally, the quattro again demonstrated its superiority. Ten kilometers into the first stage, Hannu Mikkola passed a Lancia Stratos in the snow that had started one minute before him. Only an accident pre vented the Finn from winning; he secured his first victory the very next race at the Swedish Rally. The French driver Michle Mouton became the first woman in the world to win a World Champion ship race in San Remo, and Mikkola emerged victorious again in the RAC Rally. At the end of the Audi models first year in action, it was placed third in the drivers standings.

By 1982, the quattro was already virtually unbeatable anywhere in the world; Audi easily captured the Manufacturers Trophy with seven victories. Mouton won in Portugal, Greece and Brazil; only a breakdown in the penultimate race in the Ivory Coast cost her the drivers title. However, Mikkola set the record straight in 1983 after winning in Finland, Sweden, Argentina and Portugal. Audi introduced two evolutions of the competition car in short order during this season. The second version with the internal designa tion A2 ultimately developed as much as 295 kW (a good 400 hp) in its final evolution. The weight was reduced to less than 1,100 kilograms (2,425.08 lb), in part due to an aluminum cylinder block. The next year, too, began with a win. The newly recruited twotime World Champion Walter Rhrl won the Monte Carlo Rally ahead of his team colleagues Stig Blomqvist (Sweden) and Hannu Mikkola. The season ended with Audi once again dominating the manufacturers championship with seven victories. Blomqvist posted five of those and won the drivers championship ahead of Mikkola.

Source: DVD quattro Highlights 2010 | Status: 03/2010