FANTASTIC FOUR

All-wheel-drive technology has defined the Audi brand for more than four decades, so it's a moment to savour when the latest model to wear the famed quattro badge meets its formidable forebear 

- Ian McLaren

As a motoring enthusiast, what's your go-to on-screen car moment? While a timely revisit to the car chase scenes in Ronin nears the top of my list, I have been known to skirt a deadline, typing the name "Walter Röhrl" into my YouTube search bar. Questionable accompanying soundtrack aside, the video that tops the search list reveals one of the greatest racing drivers of all time manhandling his Group B Audi Sport Quattro S1 through a timed rally stage. Despite a parting sea of supporters playing a deadly game of dare, trying to touch the car as it powered past, the footage regularly cuts to the German driver's blue Adidas driving shoes as his feet perform a delicate dance across all three pedals. This sequence of left-foot braking and simultaneous command of the throttle to ensure the car's turbocharged engine remained within its optimal power band through regular frantic manual gearshifts remains one of the most spectacular pieces of driving ever filmed.

Röhrl joined the Audi Sport team in 1984, four years after this Ingolstadt-based manufacturer had rewritten the rule book of what was possible in its racing cars and the road-going models on which these were based.

At a shared Volkswagen Group testing facility in Scandinavia in 1977, Audi engineers noted the impressive levels of all-weather traction achieved by a VW Iltis military vehicle. Quickly realising the potential of the unit's all-wheel-drive system, they fitted it to a turbocharged inline-five-cylinder Audi 80 sedan. Unveiled at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show, the Audi Ur-Quattro would herald a new era of performance possibilities for both its maker and the broader automotive landscape. Forty years later, by 2020, the brand had not only sold more than 11 million vehicles fitted with quattro technology, but had evolved this surefooted system to feature in several of its all-electric e-tron products.

2022 AUDI E-TRON GT QUATTRO