WRITER: RYAN PHENEGAR | PHOTO: ETHAN PELLEGRINO
EXHIBIT SPOTLIGHT - AUDI QUATTROS
CREATING A MOTORSPORTS ICON
The Museum’s latest exhibit, “Street | Rally | Race,” features iconic rally cars that enthusiasts like myself dream of owning. These cars helped establish their respective marques as motorsport legends, but none more than the screaming five-cylinder, all-wheel-drive (AWD) monster from Ingolstadt. As the newest kid on the block, the German manufacturer, Audi, was looking to separate itself from the crowd in the ever-competitive world of the German automotive industry. Facing fierce competition from BMW and Mercedes-Benz, Audi executives knew they had to create something special to steal the spotlight from its well-established rivals. By the year 1980, Audi had found exactly what they were looking for. Making its official debut at the 1980 International Geneva Motor Show, the Audi Ur-Quattro (Original Quattro) took the automotive world by storm. The Audi Ur-Quattro quickly became the focus of automotive enthusiasts. The car featured a glorious-sounding, turbocharged inline five-cylinder capable of producing upwards of 450 horsepower in some rallyspec cars. Paired with its five-cylinder powerplant, the Ur-Quattro stood out from the crowd with its revolutionary permanent AWD system named Quattro (Four). The Quattro system directed power to all four wheels, something that 18
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