4 FEET Forward: We celebrate 25 years of Audi's innovative all-wheel-drive system

摘要

In March of this year, Audi celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of its Quattro all-wheel-drive technology, introduced to America in the Audi Quattro coupe in 1982. To see that Audi is to wonder what all the fuss was about, but that rather conservative-looking car-with its turbocharged five-cylinder engine and aggressive all-wheel drive- slew giants all over North America and Europe. Nothing could match it at Pikes Peak. They had to fiddle with the rules to defeat it in Trans-Am racing, and it went on to excel in IMSA. It was a sensation in international rallying. At USD35,000 in 1982, the Quattro was not a particularly inexpensive way to climb a ski jump or to do fifteen-second 0-to-60-mph runs on snow-covered woodland two-tracks, but it was an altogether new experience for enthusiast drivers everywhere and one they'd never forget.