Motoring – Book Review – Quattro
Motoring Book Review
It is that time of the year, when book sales increase and both coffee-table and readable materials assume fresh levels of relevance, writes Iain Robertson, as he contemplates another fine hardback, either for giving, or personal possession.
Quattro: The Race and Rally Story: 1980-2004
By Jeremy Walton
ISBN: 978 1 910505 43 4
£50.00
EVRO Publishing (evropublishing.com)
One word, one author. Having lived and worked through the pinnacle period of rallysport, one word evokes more emotional attachment than any and that word is ‘Quattro’. While capitalised for the specific model of car from the Audi stable, upon which much of its international acclaim was based, the word was served up in lower case to represent the 4WD transmission system that Audi would apply to many of its cars. The Author? That would be Jeremy Walton, known affectionately as ‘Warthog’ by his chums in and around the motoring scene.
Mr Walton was required reading by every motorsport enthusiast for the best part of forty years, his wit and wisdom forming a fan-base. Coincidentally, this fine 304pp hardback book celebrates no less than 40 years of quattro and, as Jeremy is the many-storied, revered author and devotee of the brand, it could be called critically ‘a journalistic dream ticket’. Having admired Jeremy’s writings and reportage for many years, it was journalistic happenstance that put us together, for the very first time, on a BMW Z3 test driving exercise in the 1990s. We have been good chums since, as much appreciative about the other’s driving style, as the subsequent words ‘on paper’.
Intriguingly, I have sometimes viewed Audi’s sledgehammer efforts to crack the World Rally Championship with cynicism. While it arrived with all the colour and pizzazz that Audi could muster, it also became the means to destroying the ‘man and machine versus the elements’ for which countless two-wheel drive Ford Escorts, Opel Mantas and Chrysler Talbots became renowned. Virtually overnight, four-wheel drive became the motive force and, with it, a significantly heftier price tag. While it took the company a couple of years to iron out reliability issues, it was a winning formula fresh from the box. It altered the face of rallying.
Personally, I shall never forget the prodigious soundtrack and thrilling sights, while in Sweden, filming that nation’s 1985 round of the World Rally Championship (for the embryonic Sky Sports). The Course Car had already footled through the snow-covered stage. We awaited Car No.1, a Quattro driven by Hannu Mikkola. It could be heard first; exhaust popping and barking, as it approached the left-hand bend through the forest. Smooth but fast, Mikkola slipped past our camera in a linear and understeering powerslide. Next would be his team-mate, Stig Blomqvist. The off-beat five-cylinder sound effects seemed somehow to start earlier and louder. Then he arrived…a rooster tail of snow rising at least four times the height of the wildly oversteering Quattro. All four brake discs were glowing yellow, as was the exhaust tailpipe of the screaming and wastegate-popping engine. The racket was blood-curdling. The angle of approach unfeasible. This was Quattro effect in action.
Jeremy delves into Audi’s history to seek the logic for the Audi Quattro, underscoring the fact that Audi did not invent four-wheel drive but highlighting its import to the brand. His recognition of future VW Group chairman, Dr Ferdinand Piech’s role as ‘Father of The Quattro’ is a welcome early marker-post in the book. Yet, appropriate coverage is provided on the assembly of an international team of specialists that would contribute to the reputation of quattro, not least the winning ways of Michelle Mouton, who would become the first lady to win a World Rally Championship round (1982, San Remo). However, to observe the impact that quattro had on other carmakers and their competition departments is also noted throughout the book.
Yet, readers have to wait until almost two-thirds through the content to appreciate quattro’s role in dominating circuit racing, which started with the Audi 200/5000 in the 1988 Trans-Am Championship of the important North American racing scene. It would take another three years before the production-based Audi 80 quattro would commence its major European race campaign. The subsequent A4 model would make its British Touring Car debut in 1996, winning both races on the day. However, success, or at least too much of it, leads to penalties and quattro was effectively ballasted out of contention.
Although brief, the final chapter of the book deals with the other formulae, with which Audi and quattro have enjoyed so many victories over the past forty years. As Jeremy states somewhat apocryphally, “From its 1980 debut to date, the quattro story has all the elements of a best-seller.”. In automotive terms, it was most certainly a gamechanger and one worthy of the recognition this excellent book provides. It is beautifully written and illustrated with over 330 (mostly full colour) photographs.
