Audi Quattro
It's from 1980, before you were born.
- Iconic generation
- 1980 Ur-Quattro
- Origin
- Ingolstadt, Germany
- Engine
- 2.1L turbocharged inline-5
- Power
- 197 hp (200 PS)
- 0–60 mph
- approx. 6.5 sec
- Top speed
- approx. 138 mph (222 km/h)
- Drivetrain
- Permanent all-wheel drive
- Production
- 1980–1991 (11,452 built)
About
As of 2026, it's 46 years old.
Before 1980, everyone 'knew' that all-wheel drive was for tractors, trucks, and military vehicles too unsophisticated to be fun. Then Audi strapped a permanent four-wheel-drive system into a turbocharged coupe, sent it to a rally stage covered in snow, and watched it disappear over the horizon while everyone else's two-wheel-drive cars spun their wheels helplessly.
The Ur-Quattro ('Ur' meaning 'original' in German) was powered by a turbocharged five-cylinder engine, which is a deeply weird number of cylinders that gives the car its signature warbling, off-beat exhaust note, the sound of a generation of rally fans falling in love.
In Group B rallying, the most gloriously insane motorsport category ever sanctioned, the Quattro rewrote the rulebook so thoroughly that within a few years every serious competitor had copied its all-wheel-drive layout. It didn't just win races; it made the old way of doing things obsolete overnight.
Today, almost every fast Audi wears the word 'quattro,' and grippy AWD performance cars are everywhere from Subarus to supercars. They all owe a debt to this boxy, warbling coupe that proved traction is a superpower.
Audi Quattro through the years
Ur-Quattro debuts
Audi unveils a turbo five-cylinder coupe with full-time AWD at the Geneva Motor Show.
Rally revolution begins
The Quattro enters world rallying and instantly embarrasses two-wheel-drive rivals on loose surfaces.
Manufacturers' title
Audi wins the World Rally Championship constructors' crown, proving AWD's dominance.
Mikkola takes the crown
Hannu Mikkola wins the drivers' championship in the Quattro.
Sport Quattro arrives
A short-wheelbase, even wilder Group B version is built for homologation.
End of the line
After 11 years, the original Quattro bows out, its AWD legacy permanently woven into Audi's DNA.
