100 Cars That Changed History

“Ashes to ashes quattro tvc” by Bostonracing – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

9. Audi Quattro 1980–1991 Germany

The idea for a high-performance four-wheel-drive car was proposed by JörgBensinger, Audi’s chassis engineer, in 1977. Bensinger discovered that his Volkswagen Iltis could outperform any other vehicle in snow, even those that were more powerful. He began to develop an Audi 80 variant that would be versatile in bad driving conditions. The Quattro was the result, a road rally car with four-wheel drive. Quattro comes from the Italian word for “four,” and has since been used to refer to Audi’s all-wheel drive systems. The 2 door coupe became the company’s most popular car in the 80’s. The Audi Quattro was also the first rally car to take advantage of then-recent rule changes allowing four-wheel drive cars to compete. It went on to be have great success racing over the next few years. The car also featured independent front and rear suspensions.