1981 Audi Quattro meets the 2010 Audi RS5

The press release from the 1980 Geneva Auto Show carries the imprint of "Audi NSU Auto Union AG." It's also clear that it has been written on a typewriter, an instrument that now seems like a relic of the distant past. The text explains, "Quattro shows the kind of further technical developments which are still possible even in modern automotive engineering."
It describes the now-legendary 1981 Audi Coupe Quattro.

What it doesn't say is that Audi expected to build only 400 examples of the car. It was a homologation special, conceived to prove that all-wheel drive would be the future of rallying, and was twice as expensive as any other Audi. Yet it became a sensation from the moment it debuted at Geneva in March 1980. By the time production of the Audi Coupe Quattro ended 11 years later, 11,452 examples had been sold, four world rally championships had been won and Audi had been reborn under the slogan Vorsprung durch Technik ("Progress through Technology"). It is the car that made the 2011 Audi RS5 possible.

Time Stands Still
Sitting idly on the ancient streets of Oxford, England, this 1981 Audi Coupe Quattro looks as good as ever. Built for a Scottish farmer in March 1981, it was one of the very first to roll out of the factory. Dressed in blue, the traditional hue of Scotland, it has the telltale twin headlights of the early cars. The chiseled proportions have an ageless chic.

By contrast, the car lurking nearby could only be from the modern era. The 2010 Audi RS5 has all-wheel drive and blistered fenders, but it has firepower under the hood that even the most fearsome Group B rally cars of the original Quattro's era would struggle to match. It pays homage to its ancestor, but it also embodies everything that Audi knows in the here and now.

The Birth of a Good Idea
The origins of the Quattro have passed into motoring folklore. Early in 1977, Audi chassis engineer Jörg Bensinger discovered by chance that the four-wheel-drive Volkswagen Iltis military vehicle could outperform much more powerful machines in snowy conditions. By March, he'd equipped an Audi 80 with parts from the Iltis to create a mobile test bed. A year later, the prototype (codenamed "A1") was lapping the Hockenheim racing circuit faster than far more powerful cars, and doing so in dry conditions. Almost by chance, Audi had discovered the future.

Step Into the Future
Like its forebear, the 2011 Audi RS5 is based on a mainstream model, the Audi S5. Those wheel-arch extensions help to express its muscularity, as do the subtle aluminum spoiler and exaggerated rear aero diffuser. The vibe is similar to the Quattro's — it's different enough to gain a nod of appreciation from those in the know, but it could never be described as ostentatious. That's the Audi way.

Step inside the RS5 and the passage of time since the Quattro is more keenly defined. The Quattro driver of 1980 would find the RS5 a daunting companion, as the quantum leap in computer technology in the last 30 years has brought with it the kind of electronic toys that would have been science fiction three decades ago...

Full article and more pics follow to Inside Line ->
2011 Audi RS5 vs. 1981 Audi Coupe Quattro

 

I love the 81! I want one of those

 

great post DJ

 

thanks for posting DJ, Interesting article...