source: Audi AG
- Annual program with more than 20 events
- 40 years ago the first Audi quattro was presented in Geneva
- Start of the season at the Bremen Classic Motorshow
Audi Tradition will once again take part in more than a dozen events in Germany and abroad this year, celebrating a very special anniversary. Exactly 40 years ago, the company presented the Audi quattro with the four rings and thus took the first step into the premium segment. Classics in the event calendar are the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Classic Days Schloss Dyck, the Eifel Rallye in Daun and the Donau Classic, where the quattro models will of course be in the foreground in this special year.
The Bremen Classic Motorshow (January 31 to February 2) will kick off the event program this year. The historic department of AUDI AG also shows the flag at the GP Ice Race (February 1st and 2nd) in Zell am See, where an Audi quattro Rallye S1 drifts across the frozen lake. The classic start of the annual program is traditionally the “Techno Classica” classic car fair in Essen (25 to 29 March). Audi Tradition can be found in Hall 4 of the historic automobile exhibition. The motto of Audi’s appearance at the fair is “40 years of quattro – all-wheel drive for all days”. The focus is on a wide variety of original Audi quattros.
In March 1980, an all-wheel drive, sporty coupé caused a sensation during the Geneva Motor Show. For the first time, the Audi quattro was a high-performance vehicle with all-wheel drive, a drive concept that until then had only been used on trucks and off-road vehicles. The idea for such a four-wheel drive passenger car came up in the winter of 1976/77 during test drives with the VW Iltis off-road vehicle that Audi was developing for the German Armed Forces. The excellent driving behavior of this off-road vehicle on ice and snow led to the idea of installing the all-wheel drive of the VW Iltis in a standard Audi 80.
The test drives were convincing. The result was a sporty Audi coupé called quattro. The feed was provided by a variant of the 2.2 liter five-cylinder turbo engine, which had been increased in performance to 147 kW / 200 hp, in autumn 1979.
The Audi quattro made its motorsport debut at the January Rally in Austria in early 1981. From then on, the four-wheel powerhouse from Ingolstadt revolutionized the international rally and racing scene.
Reason enough for Audi tradition in this year’s event season, be it the street or rally models, to let historical Audi quattros roll out of the depot. Classics in the Audi Tradition event program are the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England (July 9th to 12th), the Eifel Rallye Festival in Daun (July 23rd to 25th), and the Classic Days Schloss Dyck in Jüchen (July 31st to August 2), the home events Donau Classic (June 18 to 20) in Ingolstadt and the Heidelberg Historic (July 9 to 11) near Neckarsulm and the Sachsen Classic at the historic company location in Zwickau (August 13 to 15). The flag shows the brand with the four rings at the Rossfeld mountain race in Berchtesgaden (September 25 to 27), at the Audi RegioSprint in Ingolstadt (April 25) and for the first time at the Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix (1st and 2nd August). Historic motorcycles and an Auto Union Type C can be seen and heard at the Sachsenring Classic in Hohenstein-Ernstthal (May 8-10). The season finale is formed by the model car exchanges in the Audi Forums Neckarsulm (November 8) and Ingolstadt (November 29).
