Audi kicks of anniversary of legendary quattro four-wheel drive with Middle East quattro Tour

Among others, the Audi brand truck will be visiting Dubai, Muscat, Kuwait City and Jeddah and will enable consumers to test the technology on the Audi A6.

Audi was the first car manufacturer to introduce a permanent four-wheel drive specifically tailored to high performance on-road passenger cars. The pioneering technology was named "quattro" and has since its introduction 25 years ago written motorsport history and has been enjoying enormous success in production vehicles as well. The four-wheel drive technology is available for all Audi models and comes as a standard on models like the A8 W12 and new Audi Q7.

"Audi has 25 years of experience in producing high performance four-wheel drives and with the quattro tour we are giving car enthusiasts in the Middle East region the opportunity to test and challenge this outstanding technology in different driving exercises in a safe and fun environment. We are hoping to contribute further to road safety in the region not only through quattro, but also through actively training for extreme conditions,"

said Thierry Seys, Managing Director Audi Middle East.

By early 2005 an estimated 1.8 million Audi quattro models had come off the production line, indicating the success of the technology. quattro ensures excellent traction and stable cornering, minimizing the effect of propulsive forces on the car's self-steering properties. This is a precondition for high cornering speeds and a high level of dynamic stability. What differentiates quattro from other four-wheel drives is the Torsen Differential. With its' longitudinally installed engines it automatically ensures the optimum distribution of power between all four wheels. Normally the power is split 50:50 between the two pairs of wheels - 40:60 in the Q7 and RS4 - but in extreme cases up to 75 percent of propulsive power can be diverted to either pair.

The potential of all-wheel drive in normal production cars was first realized by Audi in 1977 during the testing of new developments - such as the utilitarian off-road vehicle Iltis - under the extreme conditions of Finland. A team of engineers was then assigned to the task and six months later the first prototype was ready for testing. With the first Audi with quattro four-wheel drive, the "Ur-quattro", showcased at the Geneva Motorshow in 1980, Audi had breathed fresh inspiration into its maxim "Vorsprung durch Technik" (Advancement through Technology). The quattro principle brought the permanent all-wheel drive onto the road and in doing so redefined all-wheel drive itself. Greater traction and improved handling gave quattro a significant lead over conventional drivetrains, with simultaneous gains in safety and driver satisfaction.

Not only did the quattro technology achieve accolades in on-road production cars but it changed the rules of rallying forever. Between 1981 and 1984 Audi gained four world rally championship titles on loose-surfaced sand and gravel tracks with the Ur-quattro and subsequently concentrated on circuit racing, winning the most prestigious trophies in Europe and the USA. Now legendary drivers like Michele Mouton, Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist and Walter Rohrl, who won and set a new record at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in 1987, remain unforgotten.

One of the most dramatic quattro moments took place in Kaipola, Finland, in 1986, where an Audi with quattro drive proved capable of driving up an Olympic ski jump with a slope angle of 37.5 degrees - or to put it in another way, a gradient of 80 percent. In a dramatic run professional rally driver Harald Demuth drove the Audi effortlessly up the 78-metre long ski jump. To mark the 25th anniversary of quattro Audi has repeated the stunt with an Audi A6 4.2 in 2005.

After the launch of the Ur-quattro, Audi introduced further all-wheel drive variants to its production program and continued to optimize the technology. At present all Audi models are available with the legendary four-wheel drive and the reputation of quattro is today, at its 25th anniversary, stronger and more active then ever before. quattro stands for better traction, better grip and more driving pleasure.

The latest additions to the legendary quattro four-wheel drive range is the Audi Shooting Brake concept car and the Q7, which was launched at the Dubai Motor Show in December 2005. Audi will continue the history of the quattro technology with further new models in 2006.