When the 75th Geneva Motor Show opened its doors on March 6, 1980, the star of the anniversary event was already certain. A few weeks earlier, selected journalists had surprisingly been given the chance to drive the new Audi quattro in Austria. Now Audi had placed a white sports coupé on the turntable at Lac Léman - nicely draped by two lily bushes - and the world marveled, frowned or wrinkled its nose.
Today we know that the quattro marked the start of a new era for Audi. 40 years after the presentation of the model subsequently dubbed "Ur-quattro" in the scene, Audi AG pays well-deserved tribute to the "forefather" and presents a book about the Audi that started not everything, but many things.
Finally, done
Why is it only now that Audi has published a book about the Über-Audi? Well, shortly after the vehicle was discontinued in the early 1990s, Audi's public relations department came up with the idea of publishing a book. The reviewer himself was an employee of this department at the time, conducting extensive research on the subject in the company.
The good intention came to nothing, the research material gathered dust in the cellar - good things take time. So now it is available, a powerful book that should and must carry weight. Dirk-Michael Conradt, former founding editor-in-chief of Motor-Klassik, is the author of four hundred pages of this wonderfully designed book. The Audi quattro is not only considered a German car icon. Above all, it is Audi's icon. quattro, Italian for the number four: 4 decades, 4 x 100 pages. So let's be pleased that the book has been published after all.
A company goes back to its history
It's almost unbelievable that the quattro presentation should date back half a lifetime? The name has always been present, especially thanks to Audi's motorsport successes on the world's rally tracks and circuits. After the premiere of the all-wheel drive coupé, Audi and quattro formed a dynamic symbiosis with which the inconspicuous VW subsidiary set out from the Upper Bavarian province to become a cosmopolitan global player in the premium class. Unimaginable today: five years before the introduction of the quattro, a company that still had the top model in its price lists with just over 100 hp and a list price of around DM 20,000 dared to take on the established competition in the sports car market.
At the presentation in Geneva, Head of Engineering Ferdinand Piëch must have felt that he was in a spirit of optimism. He didn't want to compete against the fat 500 SLC and automatic transmission. Rather, he, Porsche's grandson, had his sights set on competitors such as the 911 SC. Eleven years after pulling the cloth off the Porsche 917 in the same place, he was once again able to present an absolute star at a motor show.
Audi was not the only company to enter a new era with the quattro. Piëch also marked one of his countless technical scent marks here for the first time, with which he woke Audi from its slumber in the 1980s and set out to close the gap on Mercedes and BMW. Speaking of the Porsche 917, the quattro finally made motorsport possible again for Piëch. And anyone who knew him knew that he wanted nothing less than to finally win world championship titles again. Piëch was back in the race and Audi was back on the radar.
A 2.1 liter 5-cylinder engine with all-wheel drive in a two-door coupé body marked Audi's ambitious entry into the elite circle of better car manufacturers, which was considered impossible at the time. All this and much more is now available in book form for the 40th anniversary - published in the Edition Audi Tradition series. When companies tell success stories...
A standard work
There is no question that Audi Tradition, as the publisher of the book, has pulled out all the stops. This should be a standard work. At 400 pages, it is one of the most comprehensive monographs available. It begins with introductory chapters on the history of all-wheel drive and exhaust gas turbocharging in automobiles, placing the Audi quattro in the history of technology. It becomes clear why the vehicle was considered a sensation at the time. Why hadn't anyone thought of it before, why not us? Audi had presented a sensation with just a few technical touches.
The book follows the development history within the company, how test drives with an all-wheel drive VW Iltis became the initial idea for the high-speed permanent all-wheel drive in a high-performance vehicle, with which the company then also planned to enter the World Rally Championship. The "Ur-quattro" remained in the program for eleven years, undergoing countless small evolutions, which the book meticulously traces: The differential technology and operation were refined, the rough 5-cylinder engine was finally given a 4-valve cylinder head with catalytic converter and, as a thank-you, 10% more power, ABS and better equipment.
In the World Rally Championship, a woman can suddenly win, almost even become world champion. "Hädi, kanndi, dadi, wari", as they say in Bavaria. There was also Walter Röhrl, who drove for Opel and only later joined the Audi team. Anyway. Four world championship titles, countless championships, the competition was duped. Audi was on its way to the top, the quattro led the way. In the mid-1980s, the World Rally Championship had more spectators than Formula 1, and its drivers were better known than most monoposti drivers. The popularity of rallying is inextricably linked to the entry of the Audi quattro.
Of course, the "hill climb spot" should not be missing in a book like this. An Audi 100 CS quattro drives up the ski jump, advertising for eternity. With this book, the 80s pass us by in the Audi quattro. Sophisticated design and perfect texts by the former editor-in-chief make it easy to take a seat in the passenger seat. This is the quattro bible that many have been waiting for.
A book like an Audi: more than perfect
Without a doubt, this is a great book. Comprehensive, profound, detailed. You can revel in the superlatives of that time. All passages read smoothly, stringently and straightforwardly. Nothing goes wrong: company history on the ideal line. Of course, no wonder, Audi won't shoot itself in the foot. Perfect form in the design, a penchant for perfection in the detail of the text. No doubt, a success story, everything meshing like the cogs of the quattro center differential: the turbocharger, no problem, 5-cylinder engine, just in development, a hollow shaft, quickly invented. All myths that Audi established early on in quattro marketing.
Isn't there a lack of resistance from within the company? And especially from Wolfsburg? Volkswagen Board Member for Sales Werner P. Schmidt, once himself Chairman of the Audi Board of Management, was considered less than enthusiastic when the Ingolstadt subsidiary raved about 400 "homologation models" of this high-priced model. Almost at the same time as the Audi quattro, he laconically brushed aside the ambitious motorcycle plans of Piëch, Treser and Co: "We are not bicycle dealers." This meant that the idea of a 100 hp motorcycle, with which the two-wheeled tradition of DKW and NSU was to be continued, was dismissed in one fell swoop. Nor did he trust his sales department, which was more geared towards Beetles and Golfs, to sell the new Group flagship. Resistance, stumbling blocks, they are not so easy to find.
However, the book does not deal with the story quite as trivially as it may sound. Of course there are hurdles: for example, how and where the Audi quattro should actually be produced. In-house, or at a coachbuilder...?
Nevertheless, the path sounds less rocky than one might imagine, especially if one is familiar with the relationship between Ingolstadt and Wolfsburg or Piëch and Fiala. I'm missing more in-depth references from archive documents here: board minutes, etc. Where was there doubt, who was stonewalling? The bottom line is that everything is a little too perfect.
"Quattro" or "quattro"?
Instead of a statement, this book begins with a question. Should "quattro" be capitalized or lowercased in the book? It is important to know that since the model was presented in Geneva, the model designation at the rear and later also on the radiator has always been written in lower case. Whereas in vehicle-specific company literature, i.e. brochures, workshop folders, operating instructions or internal sales documents, the capital "Q" has always been used: "Quattro".
The author attempts to bring order to the inconsistent use of the type designation with a typographical and also a legal approach. Conradt consistently writes "quattro" in lower case, but does not provide an answer until the end. At the beginning of the 1980s, consistent lower-case spelling was revolutionary and innovative, and the lower-case lettering had to be protected under trademark law. The answer should now be given here: the research of the 90s must have been good for something. The different spelling continued until February 1984. Even the little brother "Audi 80 Quattro", which was added at the end of 1982, became "quattro" at the rear with all-wheel drive, and an "Audi 80 Quattro" brochure was taken into the showroom. The top model "sport quattro" presented at the IAA in 1983 also made its debut on the cover of the brochure as "Audi Quattro Sport".
From spring 1984, this was no longer the case. Volkswagen Product Marketing had decided to call its "quattro" clone, still presented at the 1983 IAA as the Passat Tetra, "syncro" from then on. Knowing that after the summer break for the new model year at Audi, the quattro drive would be introduced across the board in the model range from the Audi 80 to the Audi 200, the decision was made to consistently write "quattro" in lower case from then on. A model designation had become a technical equipment variant across all model series." quattro" was Audi, Audi was "quattro". That's what product marketing had decided.
The absolute limit
The publication of this book was overdue. Almost 30 years after production ceased, there have so far only been more marketing-driven publications from the company itself. The exception: "Victory of an Idea", by Herbert Völker and Paul Frére. Now the book that claims to be the standard work on the subject of "Audi quattro" is available. With 400 pages, more than 600 pictures, absolutely not underpowered and with the highest level of design, it traces more than just the history of the Audi quattro, also includes the sport quattro and also deals with the significance of the Audi quattro in rallying. It always stays close to the subject, namely the car and its makers.
However, it is not only the author who regrets between the lines the long time gap between debut and publication. Many interviews were only conducted in recent years. Much has been forgotten, some things have been romanticized and, in the worst case, interviews could no longer take place. As a result, secondary literature and the trade press are quoted a lot, while internal company protocols seem to be used less frequently: Specification sheets, design meetings, missing.
And a few errors have also crept in: probably only the experts will stumble across them: the steering wheels of the Audi 200 5T and the Audi quattro are not initially identical as claimed. Elsewhere, the captions and image motif appear to be correct at first glance, but a Japanese export model is shown. Comparing pre-production models in body details with a late production model is courageous and requires being able to identify the pre-production models in pictures.
Minor details, complaining at a high level. In any case, the great impression of holding a brilliant monograph in your hands prevails: Rarely will the history of a model from one's own company have been dealt with in such detail as Audi Tradition has succeeded in doing in this book on the Audi quattro. The fact that it can be purchased for only EUR 49.90 in view of its scope and the effort behind it can be seen as a birthday present. There probably just had to be another "four" at the front. Thanks to the reader!
Bibliographical information
- Title: Audi quattro
- Author: Dirk-Michael Conradt
- Language: German
- Publisher: Delius Klasing,
- Edition: 1st edition November 2020
- Format: Hardcover, 230 x 265 mm
- Scope: 400 pages, 630 photos and illustrations
- ISBN: 978-3-667-11946-9
- Price: EUR 49,90
- Buy/order: Online at amazon.de, online at Verlag Delius Klasing or in a good bookshop
