THIS ALL STARTED with the Audi A1. It was red, with an Audi 80 body, the 200’s five-cylinder turbo engine and the all-wheel drive guts of Volkswagen’s Iltis offroader. Audi engineer Roland Gumpert had convinced his boss, Jörg Bensinger that the Iltis’ all-weather capabilities would translate to production cars, and Bensinger, in turn, phoned engineering head Ferdinand Piëch to sell him the benefits. The rest is history.
The car that changed the world nearly wasn’t called the quattro. That name was the idea of another Audi engineer, Walter Treser, after the previously preferred name, CARAT, for Coupe-All-Rad-Antrieb-Turbo was owned by a perfume manufacturer. Yet the car before us here is, and only ever could be the quattro. Lower case. Mononymous.
Designer Martin Smith’s work has worn the years lightly, the blistered wheel arches and quad ring door decals creating an iconic design language. The quattro font that tracks through the heated rear window element has endured across four decades. This is the last of the ur-quattros, one of only two 20v models that found their way to Australia via personal import. Introduced in 1989, the 20v debuted the Torsen centre diff, which can apportion up to 80 per cent of torque to the axle that can best deploy it. This is a 1991 car, but perhaps we can overlook that detail.
Denne historien er fra Annual 2020-utgaven av MOTOR Magazine Australia.
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Denne historien er fra Annual 2020-utgaven av MOTOR Magazine Australia.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Ged Bulmer
THE ACCOMPANYING YARN WAS A RIB TICKLER, BUT THE SUITS AT PORSCHE DIDN'T SEE IT THAT WAY
Dylan Campbell
WE WERE LIVING THE DREAM. WE ALL WANTED TO WORK FOR MOTOR AS TEENAGERS
HONDA NSX
Honda's alloy missile - a friendly firecracker
TESLA MODEL S
Looking back on the automobile's iPhone moment | TESLA AIMS TO ELEVATE THE ELECTRIC CAR FROM INTRIGUING CURIOUSITY TO A VIABLE MEANS OF EVERYDAY TRANSPORT
PORSCHE 959
Weissach rethinks the supercar
PCOTY LEGENDS - 1996-2022
HOW THE ANNUAL QUEST FOR AUSTRALIA'S BEST PERFORMANCE CARS HAS DELIVERED A ROLL CALL OF EXCELLENCE
THE UNDEFEATED
HONDA'S FK8 CIVIC TYPE R IS OUR LINEAL CHAMP, WINNING EVERY MOTOR COMPARISON AS WELL AS BOTH PERFORMANCE CAR OF THE YEAR AND BANG FOR YOUR BUCKS. WE PAY OUR RESPECTS WITH A FINAL DRIVE IN THE END-OF-THE-LINE LE SPECIAL
THESE ARE OUR PEOPLE
IN A CULTURE OVERFLOWING WITH POSERS AND TRY-HARDS, WE FIND A HAVEN FOR THOSE THAT LOVE DRIVING ABOVE ALL ELSE
OPEN WIDE, SAY R
VOLKSWAGEN'S GOLF R LANDS IN AUSTRALIA AND IT ALREADY HAS THE SWAGGER OF A GIANTKILLER ABOUT IT. WE LINE UP SOME ASYMMETRIC ALTERNATIVES TO SEE IF THE GOLF HAS THEIR RESPECTIVE TALENTS COVERED
SING FOR YOUR DINNER
As the motoring world undergoes seismic shifts in focus, Rob Dickinson's vision for Singer remains clear