The legendary quattro celebrates its 40th anniversary

Our search for the origins of the Audi quattro takes us straight back to the winter of 1976 when Audi developed the VW Iltis off-road vehicle for the German Army − with its all-wheel drive. The engineers were impressed with the outstanding performance by the VW Iltis on both snow and ice. During the test runs for new Audi prototypes, the Iltis also participated for purposes of comparison − and its performance was superior to front-wheel-drive cars. This gave rise to the idea of using this special, all-drive technology in mass-produced vehicles.

Walter Treser, then Director of Pre-Development, was fascinated by the “vision of developing a type of car that had to date not existed,” as he later commented. To do this, he needed a suitable name. The car with all-wheel drive almost became known as the Audi Carat (abbreviation for “Coupé All-Wheel-Drive Turbo”). However, there was already a perfume with the same name − this would not have gone well with the image of the car. So, Walter Treser's suggestion prevailed: “Audi quattro” − a name that would soon become famous.

With this technology, the drive torque is automatically evenly distributed to the four wheels. This way, the quattro drive offers the advantages of perfect road grip and a safe drive − even in adverse conditions.
Audi adapts the drive technology to the respective vehicle type. There are two variants for cars with longitudinally installed engines:

• The tiptronic automatic transmission uses the classic quattro drive with self-locking center differential.
• Audi with a manual gearbox or S-tronic use cutting-edge technology which engages all-wheel drive as and when required.

For models with transverse engines and the Audi R8 sports car, Audi uses its own quattro drivetrain with a hydraulic multi-plate clutch. 

Audi has never rested on its laurels with the quattro. True to its motto: even a legend must continue to develop. With the electric all-wheel drive in the Audi e-tron and the Audi e-tron Sportback, we are at the cutting edge of technology. Here, the drive technology functions via electric motors on each axle.

In the Audi e-tron S and the e-tron S Sportback, Audi presents the latest version of the electric all-wheel drive. The two really dynamic electric SUVs each have three electric motors on board. Their intelligent drive control takes driving safety and, above all, driving dynamics to a new, higher level.