Audi Winter Experience Drive in Sweden

There are more hospitable destinations for business trips than the Arctic Circle. But for the Audi developers, the far north has a very special meaning. Because up here in the ice, the idea for the Quattro drive was born 55 years ago. And here they write about its electric future.

It's cold, it's windy and it won't be really light today either. Carsten Jablonowski can therefore hardly recognize the contours of the landscape. Not to mention the course that his colleagues here on the frozen lake suggested to him Snow have milled. The sky is grey, the ground is white and there is no contrast – that means flying blind again. But that doesn't stop the man from moving at high speed. After all, he knows the round inside out. Because Jablonowski is a development engineer Audi and every winter several times up here Polar circle guest to put the finishing touches on the latest models from Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm.

Again and again he drives through the circuit or the handling course in order to adjust the chassis control systems and to find the right balance between traction and drift, between stability and fun. He often drives much slower than you know from the usual documentation. "Because it's less about stunts and more about everyday situations, so we approach the limits very slowly and from far below," explains the expert. But the well-groomed drift is of course still part of the program, just like the meter-long snow train that his Erlkönig drags behind him like the Queen pulls her ermine coat.

Don't worry about breaking ice

He doesn't have to be afraid that the layer of ice won't support his prototype – even if it's actually much too warm these days and the thermometer rarely shows double digits below zero. But already at the beginning of the season, the team checks the ice with a snowmobile and measures the thickness. It has to be at least 25 to 30 centimeters to be able to drive a car on it, now in the testers' high season the layer often measures more than 90 centimetres.

And because so many laps are done on it, the ice on the track is so compacted that it thaws correspondingly more slowly in spring. When the other lakes have long since been free again, huge circles or the serpentine lines of the slalom courses are often still swimming on the testers' lakes until early summer.

Audi Winter Experience Drive in Sweden
The RS e-tron GT drifts across the ice lake

Bayern are not alone in the far north. On the contrary. Whether between Rovaniemi and Ivalo in Finland or between Arvidsjaur and Arjeplog in Sweden, every winter the entire automotive industry comes together north of the Arctic Circle to put their current products through their paces, tune the control systems and test air conditioning, headlights or seals put to the test in the most adverse circumstances. "What proves itself in Arjeplog in the winter, the weather in Germany is also cold," is the tenor of the test drivers, who often cover hundreds of kilometers on the snowy back roads and icy test slopes day after day during their maturity tests.

The Quattro was born there in the 70s

Working in the most arctic corner of the continent has a very special meaning for Audi. Because it was during winter tests north of the Arctic Circle when the head of development at the time, Ferdinand Piech, was inspired by the steadfastness of an almost fully developed VW Iltis to use all-wheel drive in a sporty Audi. That was in 1977 and only three years later led to the original Quattro and thus to "Vorsprung durch Technik". Because it was the sporty four-wheel drive that enabled Audi to catch up with Mercedes and BMW and become the third big player in the upper house.

Audi Winter Experience Drive in Sweden
An improved Quattro system is already in the starting blocks

"Quattro has been part of the Audi DNA ever since," says Head of Development Oliver Hoffmann and his engineers are therefore making every effort. Last but not least, all-wheel drive decides how an Audi feels. "And whoever drives an Audi must be able to feel Audi - in the form of harmonious, characteristic driving characteristics," Hoffmann dictated to his team in the test guide: "The customer should be able to experience the genetics of the Audi driving experience in an unmistakable way." This applies to every driving situation, regardless of whether it's stop-and-go, accelerating on the outskirts of town, driving on winding roads, changing road conditions or overtaking.

What makes a Quattro a Quattro?

"Balanced, solid, controlled, networked, precise and effortless" - this is how the Bavarians describe the character of their cars and in hundreds of standardized driving maneuvers with measurements, questionnaires and long discussion groups ensure that every car from the small car to the luxury sedan, from the entry-level diesel to the electric RS model has the same basic features.

Audi Winter Experience Drive in Sweden
The top model of the e-trons: RS e-tron GT

This character has remained the same over the years, but how it is formed has changed drastically. After all, the majority of the prototypes up here in the north are already electric, giving the engineers completely new options for coordination. In addition to the many electronic control systems for traction and stability, there are now up to three motors that respond much more quickly and can be controlled more precisely than any combustion engine and, on top of that, develop a much higher torque much earlier. Not only the development of power, but above all the distribution of power opens up completely new possibilities for men like Carsten Jablonowski - and sometimes also makes them a little more trouble.

A true experience drive

"We now have a few more parameters that we first had to learn to understand," explains the expert. But now that they know their new set of instruments, they can use them to fine-tune the car much more precisely and thus skilfully lead the Quattro drive into the future. “Now it's us who are raising the bar for driving dynamics.

And the colleagues from the combustion engine world have to stretch quite a bit if they want to achieve that,” says Jablonowski and switches from the e-tron GT to an e-tron Sportback, which should not only get an update for the drive for the upcoming facelift , but also a noticeably sharpened driving profile: without neglecting one of the defining character traits, it should appear a little more committed and tickle the driver's nerves a little more intensively.

Audi Winter Experience Drive in Sweden
Physics will be challenged on the off-road track

But even the best Quattro can at best push the limits of physics and not overcome them. The developers have to learn this again and again when their snow waltz takes them offside, they shoot over the ice, get stuck in a white wall and with offended pride have to fetch their colleagues in the recovery vehicle. Despite all the electrification, they don't come with an e-tron, but with an upgraded Amarok. Just like the Iltis 55 years ago, it also bears a VW logo - and thus completes the circle.

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