In the iconography of motorsport, success is often associated with a prancing horse or pony, or perhaps a silver three-pointed star. However, few emblems have found themselves on the bonnet of so many successful competition cars of varying types and breeds than the four sacred rings of Audi Sport.
Today, Audi operates under the motto ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ (Progress through Technology) – yet much of the ‘Vorsprung’ over the past few decades has been the result of the ‘Technik’ derived from the brand’s sporting division. As the company prepares to enter the pinnacle of motorsport next year with the formation of the Audi F1 team, we take a look back at the history of Audi Sport, get up close and personal with some of its iconic road and race cars and find out what’s in store for the future.
A brief history of Audi Sport
In its current form, Audi has amassed fans and countless wins in several categories across motorsport, yet the beginning of its racing story is a rather uncomfortable one that began with the formation of Auto Union in 1932.
The Auto Union merger of Audi, Horch, DKW and Wanderer was the brainchild of the then German chancellor, Adolf Hitler, who announced two things at the 1933 Berlin Motor Show – the People’s Car project, which would go on to spawn the Volkswagen Beetle, and also a state-sponsored racing programme.
In the years following, Auto Union saw success in Grand Prix racing, but the Second World War stopped its involvement with motorsport overnight.
It wasn’t until Ferdinand Porsche’s grandson, Ferdinand Piëch, joined Audi in the early Seventies that the brand began thinking about motorsport again. At the time, Audi lacked identity and had been experimenting with Wankel rotary engines to try to get ahead of the German competition. Even before the ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ ad campaign of the eighties, pushing the very boundaries of technology was firmly instilled in the brand’s DNA.
Yet the foresighted Piëch knew how the Audi brand could earn the credibility it so desperately desired: success in motorsport, specifically rallying. To showcase the potential of four-wheel drive in this space, chief engineer Jörg Bensinger took the Audi-developed Volkswagen Iltis truck for winter testing and demonstrated how, despite producing half the power of prototype turbocharged Audi 80s, it was able to pull away from them with ease.
After convincing Piëch with prototypes using the Iltis running gear raided from the VW Group parts bin and watching how modified Audi models were already seeing success through private entries into rallying and the European Touring Car Championship, the Quattro project – which until then was known as ‘Development Order 262' – was given the green light. After a short pre-production period, the Quattro made its debut at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show, just months before the start of the 1981 rally season, equipped with a state-of-the-art permanent four-wheel drive system.
Yet, before any Quattro models could get down and dirty in the WRC, Audi needed to secure a change in the rules, because up until that point, four-wheel-drive cars were prohibited. In 1979, Audi convinced the FIA to amend the rules, with no one suspecting that a 4WD vehicle – which were then still seen as utilitarian workhorses – could ever be truly competitive. Boy, were they wrong.
When the Audi Quattro made its first rally appearance at the 1981 Monte Carlo Rally, it blew away the competition on the first stage, with Swedish driver Hannu Mikkola finishing a full minute ahead of the rest of the cars. The Quattro, unfortunately, failed to keep up this early promise for the remainder of the rally, but
it was a snapshot of what was to come.
It secured three wins during its debut WRC season, including at the Sanremo Rally, during which Michèle Mouton became the first woman to win a world rally. It wasn’t until the following year, however, that the Quattro truly asserted its dominance, with Audi Sport taking home the Constructors' Trophy and Mouton finishing runner-up in the drivers’ championship.
Over a six-year period, the Quattro secured two drivers’ and two constructors’ titles, as well as three wins at Pikes Peak, courtesy of Mouton, Bobby Unser and Walter Röhrl.
Head of Historical Collection at Audi Tradition, Timo Witt, told Auto Express that the Quattro is “the car that has ultimately had the biggest impact on the Audi Sport brand”. Chatting to us in the seat of the very first Audi Sport Quattro to be built – a 224-unit homologation special designed and made for the WRC Group B supercar series – he explained that since the Quattro, Audi Sport has continued to use motorsport as a method in which to turbocharge the success of its road cars, both in a metaphorical and literal sense.
Witt explained: “When we raced the TDI (diesel) version of the Le Mans-winning R10 Prototype back in 2006, there was a lot of development work in terms of high-pressure diesel injection systems, which eventually went into full production years later.”
However, it’s the quattro four-wheel-drive system – spelt with a lower-case ‘q’ to differentiate it from the car from which it derives its name – that has made its way into almost every subsequent Audi Sport road car, aside from the occasional outlier, such as the Audi R8 RWD.
Following the Quattro, the first model to get the iconic ‘S’ Audi Sport designation was the S2 – a high-performance version of the Audi Coupé, this was envisioned as a spiritual successor to the Quattro. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the even more high-performance RS 2, which came just a few years later.
The RS 2 was developed as part of a collaboration between Audi and Porsche, at a time before the sports car brand was absorbed into the VW Group. With Audi already assembling the 924 and 944 on Porsche's behalf, the Stuttgart-based marque tuned the Audi 80-based RS 2’s five-cylinder engine to produce 312bhp and gave it brakes, suspension, wheels and even wing mirrors from the 964-generation 911 of the time, which made the links between the brands obvious. There was also the option of unique RS Blue paint, which was offered on the RS 2 and no other Audi model.
Yet it was a partnership with a different sports car maker that created what is arguably Audi Sport’s most iconic model yet, aside from perhaps the Quattro. Audi was yet to create a poster car, but that changed with the R8 in 2006.
With an exterior design almost identical to the Audi LeMans Quattro concept from the early Noughties and sharing many of its parts with the Lamborghini Gallardo (thanks to VW Group’s acquisition of the Raging Bull in 1998), the R8 was a revolution, its most iconic aspects being its contrasting side blades and, come the arrival of the Gallardo-derived V10 model in 2009, its full-LED headlights, which were an industry first.
As Audi’s new halo car, the R8 was a fixture on the bedroom walls of almost every young car enthusiast of the era and catapulted the brand into an era of sales success that peaked at more than 1.9 million units worldwide in 2023. Securing success in GT3 and Endurance racing plus appearing in some of the biggest film blockbusters, the R8 was a phenomenon and cemented Audi’s position as a brand that could produce truly desirable performance cars.
What does the future of Audi Sport look like?
AS we move into a new era of electrification, a lot of what makes Audi Sport products stand out, such as five-cylinder engines or trick four-wheel drive systems, are set to disappear or, as is the case with quad electric motor all-wheel-drive set-ups, become the norm.
To find out what the future must live up to, we got behind the wheel of the newly updated Audi RS 3 which, in our opinion, is the closest thing on sale that channels the essence of the original Quattro. Looking past the admittedly funky customisable headlights and Virtual Cockpit, the RS 3 isn’t too far away from the Quattro’s philosophy of being a small, four-wheel-drive sports car that’s usable every day and has the performance to rival contemporary supercars.
Today, the RS 3 is the only car on sale in the UK powered by a five-cylinder engine. It emits a sonorously throaty burble that’s more exotic and emotional than the turbocharged four-cylinder units employed by rivals. In fact, throw it round a corner at speed, with the quattro system acting like an invisible set of rails to keep you from ploughing into a neighbouring field, and it’s pretty easy to feel like you’re Mouton or Röhrl.
Yet with the next generation of A3 expected to go fully electric, just how will Audi keep its heritage and DNA alive?
Rolf Michl is the managing director of Audi Sport and told Auto Express that his connection with the Audi brand goes back to his father, who owned an original RS 4 – a car that celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025. Michl said: “The [Audi Sport] brand today is in a great position, because we have attractive combustion engines, like the five-cylinder, and very powerful electric ones”.
Michl added that characteristics which define Audi Sport cars today are set to change in the future, explaining that "while you will probably lose some of the aspects that are creating emotion today, such as sound, you will gain others, like greater lateral dynamics”.
Comparing Audi Sport’s vision with the likes of BMW M and Hyundai N’s approach of augmenting certain elements, such as engine sounds and gearshifts, Michl said that “like in motorsport, you have to find your own strategy”. Fake engine burbles are not the same as the unique synthesised sounds played through
the speakers in the RS e-tron GT. Hot Audis, according to Michl, “need to remain authentic” and that “a copy of an element in another dimension would not be the future solution”.
So what's the next step for Audi’s line-up of S and RS cars? The company launched the aforementioned e-tron GT as its new electric halo car in late 2020, with Michl’s beloved RS 4 set to be reborn in spirit, if not name, with the new plug-in hybrid RS 5 later this year.
Addressing concerns around the undeniable weight challenges of hybrid and other electrical technology, Michl said: “You can’t eliminate a certain amount of weight, which is an obvious physical limitation. A car’s power, drivetrain and suspension can [still] make for fun driving”.
And he added: “Honestly, with all the power these latest technologies offer, you really won’t feel the weight – even in terms of lateral dynamics, this will be more than compensated [for].”
Aside from this, future performance Audis will be very much design-led. We’ve already spotted test mules of the RS 5 sporting huge central exhausts and blistered wheelarches reminiscent of the original Sport Quattro. “A wide body is always a sign that marks an Audi Sport model,” Michl says.
Whether the brand will be able to recapture the magic and once again stand at the forefront of performance car technology, though, is yet to be seen. Audi Tradition's Timo Witt reminded us that “aside from sharing the four rings, all Audis also share a passion for technology”.
This will inevitably become the brand’s core message. Michl hinted that the Ingolstadt marque is already in the conceptual stages of developing its next halo product. “It’s very ambitious to continue an icon [like the R8] and make it new,” Michl said. “[The] thoughts are there, but the future will definitely be electric.”
Ultimately, while Audi’s days as a boundary-pushing underdog may be well behind it, it’s clear that the team at Audi Sport see the electric revolution and its entry into Formula One as the start of an era. “It’s a new chapter,” said Michl, “and it’s a very tough competition. But it gives us a chance to prove ‘Vorsprung’ like we always did.”
What is quattro?
Quattro is Audi’s unique four-wheel drive system, pioneered by and fitted to the original Audi Quattro in the early eighties. It differed from other all-wheel-drive set-ups of the time, because rather than using a traditional transfer box, the first-generation system used two driveshafts: a traditional one for the front wheels, and another hollowed-out one, connected to a central locking differential, and powering the rear wheels.
The system has been gradually refined and improved upon over time. In 1987, for example, a torque-sensing central differential was added that, rather than distributing power 50:50 all of the time, could send as much as 75 per cent of power to either axle to provide optimum traction. Now, with the advent of Auto e-tron quattro models, power is provided by two electric motors, one sitting on each of the front and rear axles, with an electronic differential deciding where (or not) to send power.
Audi RS and S: what's the difference?
With powerful performance and just a letter to separate them at first glance, it can be difficult to tell the difference between Audi’s line-up of S and RS models, but they are distinct.
An abbreviation for ‘Renn Sport’ (German for ‘Racing Sport’), RS models are the best that Audi Sport has to offer, with chassis and engine upgrades over standard models. S or Sport cars, on the other hand, are more approachable alternatives in terms of both price and performance, still offering upgrades over the standard Audi fare, but optimised for the road, rather than the racetrack.
Other than by drilling down into the performance figures, there are a handful of easy ways to spot the differences between S and RS cars, apart from the badge on the boot lid.
S models typically come with quad exhausts, whereas RS vehicles are famed for their dual-oval set-ups.
RS models tend to come with more radical bodykits, sometimes even with carbon-fibre accents. Finally, on the inside, RS cars get hexagonal stitching, whereas S models make do with a less elaborate quilted pattern.
That said, Audi’s S models are still capable and can, sometimes, be our pick over the RS alternatives. The facelifted S3, for example, may not get the RS 3’s five-cylinder engine, but its Golf R-derived four-cylinder still provides prodigious power. We also shouldn't ignore the fact that the S3 gets the RS 3’s once-exclusive limited-slip rear differential, narrowing the gap between the two cars even further.
Top 5 Audi Sport models
From the rally winners of the 1980s to the blisteringly quick performance cars of today, Audi Sport has the kind of fast car heritage that other brands envy. Steady refinement has made the latest range of cars better to drive than ever, but there’s also a healthy roster of past masters…
Audi Sport Quattro
The Audi Quattro of 1980 had shown that four-wheel drive could be an unstoppable force in rallying, but the Sport Quattro of 1984 was a full homologation model to enable Audi to win in the new Group B class.
At a glance the 302bhp Sport Quattro looks much like the regular car it was based on, but Audi chopped more than 12cm from the wheelbase for more agility, fitted wider arches (part of a set of carbon-kevlar panels) to accommodate fatter tyres, and even gave it a steeper windscreen to cut down on dashboard reflections for the rally drivers.
Audi R8 (Gen 1)
The R8 was a turning point for Audi. We knew the brand could innovate, and it was more than capable of building performance cars, but here was a genuine sports car, maybe even a supercar, that had the measure of a Porsche 911 on Audi’s very first attempt at such a model.
It might have been off-piste for the brand, but it instantly became Audi’s halo car. Its 4.2-litre naturally-aspirated V8 made 414bhp, and the driver controlled it with a fabulous open-gate manual gearshift. No previous Audi handled as well either – the R8 was genuinely involving to drive.
Audi RS 2
Along with the Volvo 850 T5, the Audi RS 2 made performance estate cars cool when it debuted in 1994 – and it’s likely the RS 4s and RS 6s that followed may not even have existed had the cool Nogaro Blue RS 2 Avant not laid the groundwork.
Audi collaborated with Porsche on the RS 2, and evidence can be found throughout the car, from the Carrera Cup alloy wheels to the 911-sourced door mirrors. The 2.2-litre turbocharged inline five very much had Audi heritage, though Porsche tweaked that too for a thumping 311bhp, a fabulous noise, and plenty of turbo lag.
Audi RS 4 (B7)
After the Audi RS 2 came the RS 4, but it’s the second-generation ‘B7’ that’s more fondly remembered than the original ‘B5’ – on account of it using a version of the same 4.2-litre V8 found in the R8 sports car.
Available in saloon, convertible, and of course Avant estate form with a 442-litre boot, the RS 4 revved to 8,250rpm, and made the same 414bhp as the R8 along the way. Where previous Audis had been somewhat nose-heavy, the RS 4 was agile and engaging in the corners too, making it far more than just a straight-line performer.
Audi RS 6 (C8)
The ‘C8’ Audi RS 6 launched in 2020 could be the ultimate performance estate car. With its 621bhp twin-turbo V8, it’s certainly set to be among the last fast estates powered by a rowdy combustion engine alone – any successor will have a lot to live up to.
The RS 6’s styling looks like a Hot Wheels car rendered in 1:1 scale, while four-wheel steering and the optional rear Sport Differential give this 2.1-tonne car amazing agility. The RS 6 isn’t just fast (190mph with the raised limiter) but great fun in the corners – and in all weathers too.
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