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    Audi R8 30 Years of Quattro Awd
    Audi R8 30 Years of Quattro Awd
    Audi R8 30 Years of Quattro Awd
    Ebook191 pages1 hour

    Audi R8 30 Years of Quattro Awd

    By Alan Crawford

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    About this ebook

    On a small assembly line in Neckarsulm, Germany, no more than twenty exotic Audi R8 sports cars are built daily. The entire process is overseen by small teams of specialists that oversee every step of production. Every single part is inspected carefully, and nothing goes unchecked. It is a level of hand-built quality one might expect to find in a Ferrari Enzo or the Vector W8A of the 1980s, but almost unheard of from a manufacturer the size of Audi AG. The Turbo Quattro Coupe (or Urquattro) of the early 1980s was largely assembled by hand much in the same way, but Audi has refined the process for the R8 and has introduced one of the most spectacular sports cars ever. I hope this book will provide a better insight into the design, development, and production of this magnificent automobile.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris US
    Release dateMar 5, 2014
    ISBN9781493164721
    Audi R8 30 Years of Quattro Awd
    Author

    Alan Crawford

    Alan Crawford was born in 1970 and has been a huge fan of cars since he could crawl. His early teen years were spent upgrading wannabe muscle cars from a 1973 Plymouth Duster to countless Pontiac Firebirds. Although his love for early 1970s American muscle cars never died, his life would never be the same after he drove the 1983 Audi Quattro Coupe. His teen years were spent mostly in Utah, where often half the year is spent in deep snow. The experience of driving the Audi Quattro for the first time redefined the winter driving experience in Utah. Rear-wheel-drive muscle cars were frightening in the winter, and the experience of all-wheel drive meant there was no going back. In 1990, he founded the Audi Car Club of America and had the pleasure of receiving photos and stories from Audi owners across the world. The love for Audis was apparent as owners joined from every continent. In the process, he had the pleasure of meeting many of the grassroots Audi fans that propelled Audi to a world leader, like Josef and Michael Hoppen, Ned Richie of Intended Acceleration, Frank Beddor of the Quattro Club USA, and many more. Eventually he found a 1983 Quattro Coupe for sale and, after driving it for a couple of years, decided to upgrade it. He performed the notorious engine swap, replacing the stock motor with one from a late ’80s 5000 Turbo along with the ECU, wiring harness, etc. It remains one of his favorite cars of all time. He has driven most, if not all, Audi models since then and enjoys them all, but the R8 stirs the soul like the Quattro Coupe did in the early 1980s—only with horsepower drivers could have only dreamed of then. It is a new generation of Audis, and the author hopes that this book helps provide a feel for what led to the continued development of the Quattro system as Audi has employed thirty years of motorsports experience and put one of the most incredible sports cars ever into production.

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      Book preview

      Audi R8 30 Years of Quattro Awd - Alan Crawford

      Copyright/Disclaimer Information

      © 2010 Harrisgear Technologies, LLC

      Harrisgear Technologies believes the information presented in this book to be correct at the time of publication. However, specifications, standard equipment, options, and prices are subject to change. Please ask your Audi dealer for advice concerning current availability of standard and optional equipment. See your dealer for complete details on warranty information, specifically regarding performance upgrades and the effect they may have on the manufacturer’s warranty. Harrisgear does not endorse the purchase or installation of aftermarket parts or accessories. Audi, quattro, Singleframe, MMI, FSI, and the four rings logo are registered trademarks of AUDI AG. Bang & Olufsen is a registered trademark of the Bang & Olufsen Group. ESP is a registered trademark of Daimler AG.

      Note that some of the photos in this book are property of Audi of America’s media department and have been used with their permission. We wish to thank Audi of America’s marketing department for their help in seeing that this book gets published.

      Credits

      We extend special thanks to Gerald Dauphinais for the TDI Le Mans photos on page 25 and Aston Martin of Dallas for the photos of the black R8 on page 43. Thank you to Ken Dwinell for the R8 photos on page 101 and to Audi Club North America for putting us in contact with Ken. This book would not have been possible without the help of Jessica Thor of Audi of America and the review of Audi’s R8 design team in Germany. Thank you to all the tuning companies for providing data, photos, and technical specs.

      Copyright © 2014 by Alan Crawford. 539950

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012901482

      ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4931-6471-4

      Hardcover 978-1-4931-6470-7

      EBook 978-1-4931-6472-1

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      Rev. date: 03/07/2014

      To order additional copies of this book, contact:

      Xlibris LLC

      1-888-795-4274

      www.Xlibris.com

      Orders@Xlibris.com

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Appendix A

      Appendix B

      Appendix C

      About the Author

      Part1_Page_02_Image_0001.tifPart1_Page_02_Image_0002.tif

      Thirty Years of Quattro All-Wheel Drive

      Alan Crawford

      On a small assembly line in Neckarsulm, Germany, no more than twenty exotic Audi R8 sports cars are built daily. The entire process is overseen by small teams of specialists that oversee every step of production. Every single part is inspected carefully, and nothing goes unchecked. It is a level of hand-built quality one might expect to find in a Ferrari Enzo or the Vector W8A of the 1980s, but almost unheard of from a manufacturer the size of Audi AG. The Turbo Quattro Coupe (or Urquattro) of the early 1980s was largely assembled by hand much in the same way, but Audi has refined the process for the R8 and has introduced one of the most spectacular sports cars ever. I hope this book will provide a better insight into the design, development, and production of this magnificent automobile.

      Chapter 1

      1980: Audi’s Unfair Advantage

      rally.tif

      When I see the interesting possibilities of this system, I ask myself- why not four wheels driven?

      —Jorg Bensinger

      The year was 1980. In the United States, an Audi was viewed neither as a sports car or a luxury car up to that point. Audi automobiles had been on US roads since 1969, and the late 1970s brought the US market the 5000 sedan (comparable to the 100 saloon in Europe). Meanwhile, in Ingolstadt, Germany, Audi was preparing to unveil a groundbreaking technology that had begun three years ago in 1977. Dr. Ferdinand Piech, the Audi board member responsible for research and development, was asked if Audi’s chassis engineering department could start working on a four-wheel-drive platform for the Audi sedans. Dr. Piech quickly approved the project but requested the AWD be used in a new performance car, not the 100 sedan.

      The genius behind Audi’s all-wheel-drive system was Jorg Bensinger, an engineer that had been toying with the idea since 1976, if not before. He studied earlier 4WD systems made by Ferguson, Jensen, and even Ford of Britain, then the Auto Union Munga and Volkswagen Iltis. Full-time four-wheel drive was first used in 1966 on the Jensen FF, which also had antilock brakes, but like most other 4WD attempts, it proved to be a commercial failure.

      Jorg Bensinger pointed out that no parts existed at that time to make the car he envisioned, but in 1977, work began on equipping an Audi 80 (labeled as the 4000 in the United States) with the Iltis 4WD system, a true 4WD system with no center differential to allow for differences in speed between the front and rear wheels.

      Ultimately, the heavy and space-consuming 4WD systems of the day were determined to be unacceptable, and an ingenious design was conceived that eliminated a transfer case and allowed one compact casing to house the gearing components that transferred power to the front and rear differentials.

      Part1_Page_05_Image_0001.tif

      In the diagram above, the true genius of the original quattro system shows. The red line shows engine power being transmitted via the upper power transmission shaft. The green outline shows the hollow lower transfer shaft. The orange lines follow engine power from the upper power transmission shaft to the outer gears of the lower transfer shaft to the center differential. Yellow lines show the power then being distributed through the hollow lower shaft to the front differential and rearward to the driveshaft and rear differential.

      Amazingly, the lower gearbox shaft that made all this possible is under 10½ in. long, yet it eliminated transfer cases and reduced vehicle weight significantly.

      Part1_Page_05_Image_0002.tif

      The Audi Quattro was officially unveiled at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland after years of secrecy by the Audi team. Not even Audi’s parts suppliers saw the production plans! The heads of Audi knew they had an unfair advantage, and it was remarkable that this awesome car made it from concept to a show-ready model in such a short time.

      The quattro’s 2144 cc turbocharged inline-five engine delivered 200 hp, but the US spec model came in at about 160 hp. Still, the AWD advantage led Audi to attract the attention of some of the best rally drivers, and the quattro went on to dominate the rally circuit. Audi won several world titles and broke many records time and time again. Eventually, the decision was made to roll out quattro as an option on the rest of the Audi model lineup, and the Audi Quattro became known as the Turbo Quattro Coupe (or Ur-quattro, meaning original quattro).

      Part1_Page_06_Image_0001.tif

      Audi followed the rally domination with the 200 model that raced in the Trans-Am Series and again stunned audiences as the 5-cylinder sedan took on V8-powered specially-built cars and won consistently. Eventually the Audis were given additional weight and narrow tires, and their airflow was restricted to even the playing field. The quattros weren’t affected. The radical IMSA GTO Audi took the quattro to a new level with advanced telemetry systems, and again the Audis showed up the competition

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