Road Rally Audi Quattro

" 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3." " In the world of rally there is before Cuatro and after Cuatro. It's that simple. It is the E=MC2 of motor sports. The idea of having 4-wheel drive hit the world rally circuit in 1981 and suddenly everything that have been made before it became obsolete overnight. [unk] Nuclear bomb! " " It's like the first building that was built 20 storeys high when no one else has ever figured it out how to build one that was more than 2 storeys high." " And the concept is so simple. You take this kind of 4-wheel off-roading technology and you put it in a salon car. That way all 4 wheels are powered by the engine, which gives the car more traction, which means it can take corners faster. Which means it can get around the track faster. Which means the car wins more races. So, why haven't anyone done it before? Simple, everyone thought the 4-wheeel system will be so heavy that once it was placed inside the car it wouldn't be competitive. In fact car manufacturers around the world thought the idea was so stupid as giving a monkey a stick of dynamite." " In the beginning everybody was laughing about the Audi because everybody was thinking that it cannot be. It is much too complicated and too heavy so it cannot be competitive." " They went to 4-wheel drive with their rally cars when everybody else, and I remember being one of them saying, it's too complicated." " But Audi did it anyway. First, they cut their way to the 4-wheel system. The body weight was reduced to the minimum then just to make sure the extra weight wasn't too much of an issue, they throw in the world's first turbo-powered rally engine." " Not only did the Audi provide 4-wheel drive for traction, braking, cornering, it also had a hundred more horsepower with the turbo-charged engine that none of the other cars had it at that time. But of course with every plus you have a minus and the problem was, is trying to adapt your driving style. It took me another rally or two to get used to the 4-wheel drive system. The power and the idea that you can actually go around corners so fast that you didn't need to" " She was so successful. She was so good that we also were astonished and she was able really also to win world championship races." " In actual fact, Audi's inclusion of a woman's team wasn't just some marketing coup; it was a neat summation of their mission statement. The Cuatro like its driver wasn't about appearance or pre-conceptions, it was about performance." " I'm an engineer and for me the main important thing was to build a very quick car. A competitive car so excuse me I gave it at this time for the looking of the car." " But people really do fall in love with the car's no nonsense looks." " But the car's looks, I think it's aggressively elegant." " Yeah!" " And its legacy is inescapable." " There are fabulous cars and of course now, we have 4-wheel drive everywhere in the performance application; really important vehicles." " The Audi Cuatro. Driven by men. Grrr. And women, purr. Its 4-wheel drive system was a revolution the likes we have yet to see since. And at the first rally going turbo engine, it won countless races, it's sold by the bucket load, and it's our number 1 ultimate road rally car."