THE EVOLUTION OF AUDI SPORT

From the game-changing quattro's rally dominance to the Le Mans-winning R8's cutting-edge tech, Audi Sport's relentless pursuit of innovation redefined performance both on the track and in the showroom

- by ADAM TOWLER

THE WRC YEARS

How four-wheel drive brought rallying and sales successes for Audi in the '80s

IT'S A WELL TOLD STORY, BUT NOT WITHOUT GOOD reason. Before the Audi quattro, four-wheel drive was for farmers. After it, to turn up to a rally without four driven wheels was to admit defeat even before the flag had fallen to commence the opening stage. When Audi introduced the quattro for the first round of the 1981 World Rally Championship, at the Monte Carlo rally no less, it not only began a new era for itself as a company, but also for the world of performance cars and the sport of rallying.

A four-wheel-drive Audi road car was originally proposed by engineer Jörg Bensinger in the late 1970s, during development of the Iltis military vehicle for Volkswagen. The idea was enthusiastically championed by newly appointed Audi boss Ferdinand Piëch as a way of establishing the marque alongside tough German opposition in the market - the original Vorsprung durch Technik. WRC regulations of the time forbade the use of four-wheel drive, but when the other participating manufacturers agreed to relax those rules they had no idea that Audi had been working away behind the scenes on a muscular, turbocharged, four-wheel-drive super-coupe.

The resulting Audi quattro - now known as the Ur-quattro, 'Ur' translating to 'original' in German - was unveiled at the 1980 Geneva motor show, ahead of the model's debut for the 1981 rally season. Originally conceived as a true homologation special, demand soon evolved it into a flagship of the Audi range, selling more than 11,000 units during its 11-year production run.