Audi introduced the Audi Quattro, whose four-wheel drive helped win the 1982 World Rally Championship.
Audi revealed the Quattro at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show. Its key innovation was a permanent four-wheel-drive system applied to a high-performance rally car, giving it strong traction on loose and slippery surfaces.
The Quattro rally car became one of the defining machines of Group B-era rallying. Audi won the manufacturers’ title in the 1982 World Rally Championship, while Walter Röhrl secured the drivers’ championship for the team in the same season.
The Quattro did not invent four-wheel drive, and it was not the first rally car to use it. Its significance was bringing a practical, powerful permanent all-wheel-drive concept to the forefront of international rallying and influencing later performance cars.