Audi Quattro Sport

It’s good to have an objective. Just ask Dr. Ferdinand Piech, the man responsible for the marvel  dubbed the Audi quattro. 

Piech came by his life’s work truthfully. After graduating from the Zurich Technical University with a degree in mechanical engineering, he joined a small but influential automotive company you might have heard of called Porsche, which at that time happened to be operated by his uncle, Ferry Porsche. A fast learner with a knack for getting things done, Piech dove into Porsche’s efforts in sports car racing and by 1968 he was technical director of the Porsche Experimental department, which is much similar to being given the keys to the candy store.

Piech’s initial objective was to come up with a Porsche that could beat the Ford GT40s and Ferraris  that were dominating endurance racing in those days, and soon he accomplished it with the 917 that took both the 24 Hours of LeMans and the World Championship, while at the same instance, putting a stranglehold on the then-thriving Can-Am series. It seemed that Piech was on top of the world until Porsche decided to modify its business structure, restraining the influence of the Porsche family, and in the fallout Piech was left looking for work.

Modernized four-wheel-drive

He didn’t have to look too far, as it turned out. The Audi NSU branch of the Volkswagen conglomerate, which had always shared a common bond with Porsche, employed Piech as senior manager for special projects, which essentially meant racing. Rising quickly and, some would say cruelly, through the Audi NSU ranks, he acquired enough power to spur the development of a car for the World Rally Championship, a series that is mainly unknown in the United States but a series that wielded great influence on European car buyers.

His assignment  in 1977 was to turn the humble (and we do mean humble) Audi 80 into a World Rally Championship winner. Since the Audi 80 of that era was about as strong as a strand of over-cooked spaghetti with the reliability of a convicted felon, it was a tall order. But with the services of chassis engineer Jorg Bensinger and drivetrain engineer Hans Nedvidek, he moved ahead based on the bright idea of  utilizing  four-wheel-drive to give the racecar traction and handling advantages.

Up until that time, four-wheel-drive was regarded as strictly an off-road system. Only Jensen, in fact, with its FF, had blazed a trail of road-going all-wheel-drive. The Jensen Ferguson Formula (hence “FF”) was actually a very sophisticated  blueprint. It highlighted viscous coupling differential locks for both the center and rear differentials, a system that is still used extensively today, and the result was incredible stability. But Jensens were impossibly expensive,  roughly double what a contemporary Jaguar E-Type cost, so it came as no surprise when Jensen FF production ceased in 1972.

Audi had its own four-wheel-drive experience with the Iltis off-road vehicle of 1976, so the technology was still au courant as Piech and crew adjusted the technology to the lowly Audi 80. Not surprisingly, the team borrowed components from the Audi 100/200 range, including the gearbox and the  five-cylinder turbocharged engine. From a purely technical standpoint, the first-generation or “ur-quattro” system wasn’t as advanced as the old Jensen FF, because it used manually locked and unlocked center and rear differentials, but Audi immediately transferred to “Torsen” (for “torque sensing”) center diff and read limited-slip differential.

Revealed to the public at the 1980 Geneva Auto Show, the new Audi quattro coupe stood the collective rally world on its period with its combination of power and uncanny roadholding. It quickly captured Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles and resumed dominating over the course of the next two years. Since World Rally regulations called for a number of “production units” in order to homologate the model, some Audi quattros were purchased for street use and rapidly won reputations as incredibly competent motorcars.

After three years of near-total domination in World Rally, Audi ran into hardships in 1983 when the Lancia 037, a rear-drive vehicle, began to eat Audi’s lunch in the series. Piech, of course, would have none of that, so Audi engineers returned to their drafting tables and produced the quattro Sport, which could well have been the most powerful rally car in history.

One more,  dipping into the Audi parts bin, engineers came up with a 2133cc all-alloy, five cylinder block topped with a four-valve head. On the strength of serious boost from an out-sized turbocharger, utmost power in racing trim was said to be some 500 horsepower. Even in street trim, the engine supplied somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 horsepower.

Time to slim down

But extra power wasn’t its biggest change. Instead, the Audi engineers did some serious plastic surgery, and we use that term advisedly, since the car highlighted Kevlar and glass-reinforced plastic body panels plus extensive use of aluminum. To  improve maneuverability and cut weight, the design staff  cut a huge 12.6 inches from the quattro’s original wheelbase, giving the car a bit of an unsteady look because of its long front and rear overhangs. With its lightweight body and serious powerplant,  it could vault from zero to 60 miles per hour in an astonishing four seconds and blow through the quarter mile in under 12 seconds.

The quattro Sport marked the launch of Audi’s 20-valve turbocharged engine into a road-going car. The 2133cc displacement and compression ratio of 8.0:1 don’t seem to promise much, but the KKK-K27 turbocharger ran at an astounding  utmost boost pressure of 17.4 pounds per square inch. Combined with Bosch LH Motronic all-electronic fuel injection and Bosch digital electronic ignition the ordinary  “street” engine produced 306 horsepower at 6700 rpm and peak torque of 246 pound feet at 3700 rpm.

Essentially the Audi quattro Sport offered supercar function in a package that could be mistaken at first glance for a mid-level hatchback.  Unfortunately, a series of driver and spectators deaths served to spell the end for the wild Group B rally cars, of which the quattro sport was the classic  example. Because of that and the car’s stupendous price, just a few more than 200 of the 1984-6 vintage quattro Sports were ever assembled  and few made their way to the U.S., but the model still has a loyal worldwide following that consider it the greatest rally car. And as to Piech, he didn’t just cease at dominating World Rally; he eventually became the all-powerful head of Volkswagen Group, retiring in 2002.

Tagged with: luxury car • Porsche

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