Audi Quattro Concept First Drive

Audi has tried hard to create worthy heritage hype-icons — the 1991 Avus Quattro, 2000 Rosemeyer concept and the 2003 Nuvolari coupe showcar all come to mind. But, alas, we've never been able to stop bringing up the early/mid-1980s Audi Quattro, Sport Quattro and all other renditions road-going and race-going of the iconic "Ur-Quattro" hot coupe that ignited Audi's fame and fortune. Especially the shortened-wheelbase versions that may look awkward, yet drove and still drive so damned well.

We've just driven the Audi Quattro Concept, seen first at the very start of October this year in Paris, up a cordoned-off (especially for us) Decker Canyon Road near Malibu. The hill climb chock-full of wastegate chatter between shifts, the barreling-down descent and the subsequent straight drive time along Highway 1 were all three exhilarating.

The Audi Quattro Concept looked good in France and in the flesh it needed to haul ass in convincing Sport Quattro fashion for us to not shrug our shoulders and toss back the keys.

After this drive, they had to wrench the keys from our bleeding fingers. The 402-horsepower Quattro Concept gases us that much, yes.

They Got It Right
The running internal name for the Quattro Concept has been "Anniversario," hinting at the 30th anniversary of the Ur-Quattro's first showing in 1980. The overall proportions of this eye-catching white sport coupe take many cues from the original Sport Quattro, apart from the honestly awkward shorter wheelbase treatment of the 1984 car made to look even more awkward by long overhangs.

It's 2010 now, though, and Audi designs pretty well-proportioned cars. Taking the chassis of an RS5, the Audi Quattro Concept saws 5.9 inches out of the wheelbase and crops the overhangs to dramatic effect. Both the thick C-pillar shape and nearly flat slab rear glass of the large hatch echo nicely the more severely angular Sport Quattro tail of old. And not to be missed, the 32-inch-wide raised breathing vent in the hood and the multiple hood side gills.

This new wheelbase and the 7.9 inches lopped off the rear end compared to the RS5's backside overhang make it all come together. Add a now wider-seeming front and rear RS5 track width, and a roof line some 1.6 inches lower, and the proportions are all there and correct. And, like the Sport Quattro, the Audi Quattro Concept coupe does away with the rear passengers, leaving two very supportive carbon-fiber shell 40-pound Recaro performance seats.

Unlike the Sport Quattro of 1984, this one today looks kind of gorgeous.

Heritage-True Under the Hood, Too
To match the all-aluminum RS5 underpinnings, Audi has plucked and chucked the larger car's naturally aspirated 444-hp 4.2-liter V8 and left in its place the "W28" turbocharged and intercooled 2.5-liter inline five-cylinder from the TT RS to save both weight and space.

Worry not. By turning the 404-pound mill lengthwise in the engine bay and fiddling with the ECU, the Quattro Concept milks 402 hp from the unit, maxxing at 5,400 rpm, while torque hits 354 pound-feet starting at 1,600 rpm. The RS5 V8, by comparison, produces 444 horses, but torque reaches only 317 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm.

Plus, at 2,866 pounds (matching exactly the 302-hp 1984 Sport Quattro), the Concept is a solid 1,100 pounds under the standard RS5 weight. Acceleration to 60 mph is set to take an estimated 3.7 seconds.

Emotional Rescue
On our chattering drive up the canyon, even without the torque-vectoring sport differential aboard as it will be in production trim, the Audi Quattro Concept honestly allowed us to hunt apexes. The feathery weight and quick turbo traits above 3,000 rpm make for heady stuff on good tarmac via 275/30 R20 Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT tires pulled from the RS5 bin.

Just starting the Audi Quattro Concept is an involving activity.

Our paragraphs of conditional praise for most of the recent RS Audis (RS5 and TT RS with S tronic excepted) with their massive curb weights were quickly things of the past as we launched between corners above Malibu. The Audi-VW MQ500 six-speed manual is taken from the TT RS (and S4/S5) and it permits seamless shifts as the revs climb toward 7,000 rpm. More than likely Audi will keep the "stripper" Quattro Concept in production with some six-speed manual, but an S tronic seven-speed is a certainty for the options list.

Behind the 20-inch Dunlops rest the carbon-ceramic brake discs and crimson calipers of the R8 GT. In this concept car trim, these stoppers stop so well that they make the prototype aluminum and carbon-fiber body groan and creak a bit. But because the chopping and dropping of the car (it is lowered 0.6 inch versus the RS5) has been done by Giugiaro in Turin, we have no reason to fear that the body will separate from the chassis.

Emotional Release
All of this is so refreshing that we start driving it with the same enthusiasm with which we've driven Audi's museum Sport Quattros, and the concerned technician riding passenger has to tell us to slow down.

Apparently the minimal clearance between the front carbon-fiber chin spoiler and Earth is cause for concern in Decker Canyon's tighter hairpins. It doesn't help that former world rally champ Walter Röhrl's signature greets us on the rocker panel scuff plate every time we open the door.

Just starting the Audi Quattro Concept is an involving activity. The anodized red alloy starter button needs to be pressed twice — once for ignition-on and then to get the five cylinders to roil to life and hold their 800-rpm idle. Just as in any original Sport Quattro, the powertrain and drivetrain sounds come hallowing into the cabin and we are assured by our Ingolstadt experts that they will try and keep most of that raw sound. And, thanks in large part to Boysen, the noise does sound awfully good. The rearmost sections of tailpipe fabricated in-house by Audi have no valves in this concept stage, but that may have to change for production.

The interior reveals a minimalism that Audi is eager to include in future top-sport models. In the Quattro Concept in particular, though, drawing from some 1984 details, this Spartan feel is, of course, taken to the necessary limit. There is Multi Media Interface (MMI) onboard functionality, but it is all jammed into the fully digital and tight instrument cluster as viewed through the 14-inch-diameter steering wheel. And that's it, really. There's a very small climate control section at the mid center stack and then only essential controls by the right thigh. Again, the Quattro Sport gets it all right.

The emotions were flowing even at an electronically limited 73 mph just anticipating this car being let out to its promised 186 mph in a few years' time. It feels that ready to be built.

Futurist Show on Hand, Too
We played a bit with the prototype version of the latest version of Audi's MMI onboard the Quattro Concept. Two very cool-factor features, besides the latest 3-D graphics, are the ability to change the physical orientation of the Earth's surface and street plan almost infinitely and easily, and then we are told a new feature especially for the sport Concept is going to be a Race mode that provides rallylike pace notes for the road ahead when safe conditions present themselves.

The new take on the adaptive headlights and taillights, too, is pretty spectacular. The crystalline lighting elements oscillate independently via sensors that constantly monitor the ambient light and road condition situations. Watching them do their movements especially up front is quite the treat.

Inner door panels, rear cargo lid, engine hood, rear cross brace housing, front and rear bumpers and the automated 46-by-9-inch adjustable rear wing are all in carbon fiber to reduce weight and add rigidity. Much of the detailing of the interior is also carbon-composite based and the workmanship — surprise, surprise — is Audi at its best.

And That Future
Something between an A5 and an A6 would need, at the very least, to be identifiably sporty and separate in order to exist without cannibalizing other Audi models. It's a tricky situation, but it seems clear from our conversations that Audi has decided to build fewer than 1,000 Quattro Concept units (or whatever it ends up being called by late 2012), but more than 500.

Many physical traits of the stunning Audi Quattro Concept will need to adapt for production. The greenhouse height challenges ingress and egress and the current 20-inch wheels and tires are too big for functional bliss in city-tight maneuvers. But this carnivorous monster that thrashes all current Audi RS models and weighs less than a Porsche GT3 RS will retain most of what you see here. Otherwise, what's the point?

Starting around $150,000 means automatic exclusivity for the 2013 Audi Quattro Concept. In the marketing vein of the recent heart-stopping prices for the Porsche Sport Classic and Speedster models, you say? We anticipate that this surprise Audi rebirth treatment of its one true icon will mean far more in substance and spirit than those two Porsches. The limited-run 1984 Sport Quattro also cost more than a Porsche Turbo and that didn't hurt it, so tradition marches on.

Edmunds attended a manufacturer-sponsored event, to which selected members of the press were invited, to facilitate this report.