8 Millionth Audi With Quattro Rolls Off The Production Line

Audi came up the Ur-Quattro, a 2-door coupe, in 1980 and the car remained in production for 11 years. The name is a mix of German and Italian and means ‘the original four-wheel drive’. At the time, no other manufacturer offered a lightweight all-wheel drive system in a large-scale production vehicle. The all-wheel drive system used in the car played a critical role in helping Audi maintain their prowess in the World Rally Championship. The rules had just been changed to allow four-wheel drive systems and Audi was quick to adapt to stay at the top. The Quattro 2-door coupe then started a winning streak for Audi and continued to grab titles left and right for the next two years. The German luxury carmaker honoured the car by calling its all-wheel drive system Quattro for eternity.

The company has had time to polish the drivetrain and now, more than 100 models in their lineup come equipped with one or the other flavour suited for the car’s intended use. The company is celebrating making its eight millionth Quattro-equipped car as it rolled off their new plant located in San Jose, Mexico. It's a garnet red Q5 2.0 TFSI. The tech comes standard in the A4 allroad, A6 allroad, A8, R8 and all RS and S models. In 2015, 44 per cent of Audi customers chose a Quattro model. The Q5 ranked high on the list with about 2.62 lakh units. In their home country, they managed to sell about 1.22 lakh Quattro cars in the same calendar year. According to Audi, the sale of Quattro models is strong in the US, Canada, Russia and the Middle East, where buyers encounter extreme weather conditions. The Quattro plays its part by making the car predictable and safe to drive on wet, snowy or icy conditions.  In the world of motorsports, the Quattro technology has helped Audi bring home four World Rally Championship titles, six wins in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb race, a victory in the TransAm series, two DTM titles, 11 national Super Touring Car Championships and a Touring Car World Cup.