Audi’s famous Quattro four-wheel-drive system revolutionised rallying at the beginning of the 1980s, but at the start of the decade a Dakar decoy opened the door for it’s introduction to the world’s toughest title.
Quattro proved an important part of Audi becoming prominent brand on the global scale after being purchased by Volkswagen from Mercedes in 1965, with it emerging as the premium marque of the portfolio.
Audi played an extensive role in creating the Iltis military vehicle for Volkswagen using a 1.7-litre, four-cylinder engine, the gearbox from the 100, independent suspension in addition to a rack and pinion suspension.
Production of the Iltis began in 1978, but the idea to combine all-wheel-drive with the comforts of a sedan came from Audi’s head of technical development department Roland Gumpert.
Driving an Iltis as a company vehicle, Gumpert found he was able to keep up with the Audi executives driving two-wheel-drive saloons thus creating the idea of making the marque’s performance variants all-wheel-drive.
Extensive testing took place in Finland of which the results were reported back to the Audi hierarchy including boss Jurgen Stockmar, who was excited by the idea as it differentiated its performance offerings compared to Mercedes and BMW.
Testing of the concept Quattro occurred in private, while various iterations of the front-wheel-drive Audi 80 was used in competition integrating more and more parts from its all-wheel-drive contemporary.
However there was a problem with all-wheel-drive, it was not permitted in rallying competition. This was changed after Stockmar attended an FIA meeting in 1979.
Other manufacturers knew of Audi’s plan to use the Iltis in the Paris-Dakar Rally in early-1980 and didn’t view the brand as a threat.
Five examples of the Iltis contested the rally, with the one driven by Freddy Kottulinsky and Gerd Loffelmann taking the win to become the first factory entry to win the event.
As for the Quattro, it was publicly revealed at the Geneva Motor Show and contested exhibition events prior to being fully unleashed on the rallying stage in 1981.
As for the Iltis, it has become a rare model and stopped being produced in 1982, but not before its role in making rallying history occurred.