quattro is not just the term for a technology, quattro is the symbolic form in letters for the advance through technology. That's what Audi likes to see and that's how it is currently being marketed:

Audi quattro - the technology in detail

Today, the all-wheel drive is one of many technical solutions in the automotive industry and is not limited to a brand. No matter if Stuttgart, Munich or just Ingolstadt. All German premium brands have models with four-wheel drive in the program. While one speaks in Munich of xDrive, in Stuttgart of 4matic, is the term four firmly rooted in the history and current range of Audi models.

But that was not always so. It has only been a good 33 years since Audi presented the “all-wheel drive” with the name quattro to the public at the Geneva Motor Show.

Thanks to the Audi four-wheel drive one of the smartest heads in automotive history:

Ferdinand Piech and the quattro success

In 1977, it was the Audi test provider Jörg Bensinger who convinced the then Development Director of Audi, Ferdinand Piech, an Audi 80 with the drive train of one VW polecat equip. A mirror-inverted McPherson front axle served as the rear axle and instead of the switchable all-wheel drive, as with the Iltis, a rigid connection of the transmission with the front axle and rear axle was provided. Today one would speak of a “locked” all-wheel drive. In the winter of 1978, the all-wheel drive prototype was tested for the first time during tests of winter tires and snow chains in Austria: it was supposed to drive up a snow-covered slope. And he did that on summer tires.

However, the board of directors of the Volkswagen parent company, which was much more involved at the time, was only involved in the project in the summer of '78 and convinced during a test on a very wet meadow on a steep slope that only the “quattro prototype” climbed. Until now it was the will of Ferdinand Piech that drove this development forward. Without the knowledge of the corporate headquarters in Wolfsburg.

Technical extravagance

The rigid connection between the front and rear axles provided excellent traction, but posed a major problem on dry roads. Since the front axle travels a larger arc than the rear axle when cornering, the drive train tensed and the car began to hop over the wheels, because the fixed connection of the two axles meant that the wheels wanted to achieve the same number of revolutions. But Audi wanted to use the technology of “permanent all-wheel drive” in the vehicle and not a “switchable all-wheel drive” as in off-road vehicles. The system had to work without the driver having to do anything.

The solution was a hollow drilled shaft in the gearbox through which the force was directed in two directions. To the front to the front differential (compensation of the wheel speed differences when cornering) and to a “center differential” which in principle took on the same task as the differential on the front axle up to now. However, it does not compensate for the differences in speed between the left and right, but between the front and rear axles. The “quattro drive” was born.

From the initially planned small series of the “Ur-Quattro” with 400 pieces, over 11.400 models will be sold in the end. Audi has put all-wheel drive on the road. There is only one thing that Ferdinand Piech has failed to achieve to date, the announcement that all-wheel drive will one day not cost more than a set of winter tires. But that's a good thing, because even with quattro drive, you can enjoy the traction advantages of good winter tires.

advertising coup

1986, an Audi 100 CS quattro rode up a ski jumping hill in Finland:

In the movie you see a steel cable under the car, but this was only for backup. The Audi 100 CS quattro actually drove up the 80% extremely steep ski jumping hill. It was a promotional stunt that demonstrated one thing in particular: The quattro drive provides a real traction advantage. 1986 was still a technique for freaks.

On the technical refinements of the quattro variants [click] - Part 2

This is how today's Quattro variants work, explaining the technology behind Torsen, Kronenrad and Haldex!