The first car to bring four wheel drive to the four Audi rings, the Audi Quattro (also known as the Ur-Quattro) was a legendary rally and production car that embodied Audi’s vision: “Vorsprung durch Technik,” or as we say in English, “progress through technology.”
Throughout its racing career, the Audi Quattro competition car won first place in 23 rallies, and brought home first place in a total of eight world-rallies. This was due in part to its AWD quattro technology, which excelled against RWD vehicles on the rough rally terrain.
One of those first place victories went to Michèle Mouton, who piloted the Audi Quattro through the checkered flag and became the first female driver to win a world championship rally.
But the Audi Quattro was more than just a rally car. It was also a production vehicle in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Throughout its 11-year life-span (1980 to 1991), 11,452 Quattros were built, and of those, only 664 of them made it to the United States. Even fewer made it to Canada, with 99 total sales.
This makes getting your hands on a Quattro pretty difficult and expensive. At the time of this post, we could only find one on eBay Motors for $25,000, located in Ontario, Canada.
The difference in popularity between the European model and the United States model may be attributed to the engine. The European Quattros came standard with a torque-heavy turbocharged engine that made 197-horsepower and could sprint from 0 to 60 in about seven seconds.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Canada versions lagged behind with a 160 horsepower engine. It was still turbocharged, but Audi had to include a horsepower-sapping catalytic converter to meet U.S. emissions standards.
Today, it’s the heritage of this amazing car that stands out, not the engine. We’d love to get our hands on one, but we’re not holding our breath.
If you’re more interested in an Audi that’s not 25 years old, we suggest checking out our great inventory. We’re all for old rally cars and legendary racing, but let’s not kid ourselves. We’ve progressed through a good deal of technology since the Quattro. Come see us today.