Vad innebär quattro audi
With common usage dating back over four decades, the term has since gone beyond a registered trademark and into the realm of household name. The system proved so dominant on dirt that it forced virtually everyone else into a 4WD arms-race.
Along with other pioneers like Subaru, the quattro system revolutionized practical full-time AWD applications in passenger cars. But how did it get its start, and how does it even work? The quattro story begins not with Audi, but with Volkswagen. This later went on to become the Schwimmwagen, the amphibious variant, whose drivetrain was further adapted to exactly early Volkswagen Beetles.
Produced between and , these 4WD Beetles, known as Kommandeurswagen, became the first true 4WD passenger cars mass-produced by Volkswagen, and formed the precursor to early quattro designs. They continued production of military vehicles, specifically the Volkswagen Typ Iltis, a permanent-4WD light utility truck. Meanwhile, throughout the s, Audi played a subdued role in automotive markets throughout West Germany, mostly relying on sales of variants of Volkswagen products to sustain themselves, such as the Audi 50 Volkswagen Mk1 Polo.
That is, until when chassis engineer Jörg Bensinger came up with a clever idea.
Körupplevelse
The all-terrain Volkswagen Iltis was a longitudinal front-engine, 4WD system that was highly revered for its off-road ability. People even bought and kept them as cars. And so, the idea for the original Quattro was born. The technology used in the S1 Quattro remained relatively unchanged from its military roots.
Audi quattro.
That is, a longitudinal engine with a traditional transmission and centrally-located differential. With decades of development by its introduction in , this system was already well-refined, robust, and simple. Essentially, it was just a mechanical locking differential that split the torque between front and rear wheels, like leaving the transfer case permanently on in a modern Jeep.
There were some downsides to this system, however. For the uninitiated in driving 4WD vehicles, negotiating parking lots can be tricky because the front wheels spin unevenly at such sharp turning angles. Also importantly, this system had no means to adjust torque levels.
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Like traditional transfer cases, torque-split between front and rear wheels depended upon the gearing of the center-locked differential, and therefore was fixed. Subaru beat Audi to the private market with the Leone with its optional AWD system, but the Quattro undoubtedly left its mark on the motorsport end. The S1 Quattro quite literally rewrote the rulebook of Rally, setting multiple records since its debut.
The Quattro A1 and A2, and later Group B and Hillclimb variants, owe their stunning successes to this early quattro system. The early systems were undoubtedly optimized for off-highway use, being derived from military truck applications. Therefore, Audi immediately set about refining its design, which debuted in as the Torsen Typ 1 or T-1, or Type A.
The T-1 quattro system, unlike its parent design, relied on a torque-sensing limited-slip differential. In fact, even before Audi adapted it, the equally revolutionary though far less well-known AMC Eagle sported a Torsen-type full-time 4WD system in Later on, they switched to two different gearsets as technology progressed. First being a gearwheel similar to a transfer case, and then a planetary gearset like an automatic transmission.
These are known as Torsen Type B and C, respectively.
Audi quattro AWD: What It Is, Where It Came From & Where It’s Going
The way this system works is as clever as it is simple. Otherwise, under normal driving conditions, most of the torque goes straight to the rear axle. The torque split is all done mechanically. It also means that the wheels couple together under deceleration. At first glance, this looks incredibly daunting, as a sort of combination between an already confusing planetary gearset and a traditional open diff.
The way this works is basically, take two plates.