We tend to think of the 1980s as the decade performance forgot. The original Audi Quattro is the biggest exception to this stereotype. Apart from also having a groundbreaking all-wheel-drive system and all kinds of wild tech not seen on any other road cars at the time. But the Quattros's biggest exploits came not on the streets of Suburban USA, but the crucible of motorsport.

But what's the story behind why these Audi's are so legendary in both the hillclimbing and rally racing communities? If you look at the layout of all modern rally and hill climb cars, you'll see that they share a little bit of the Quattros DNA.

Be sure to do up all six points of your racing harness, because we're taking a deep dive into the most iconic hill climb racer of all time and why it was so good, everybody else wanted to copy them.

Computerized Technology In A Still Analog World

Audi sport quattro s1 e2
Via Pinterest

The Group B Audi Quattro's rally credentials are well known and well celebrated but the Quattro was also one of the very first cars to make hill climb events an international attention grabber. Watching all-wheel-drive Quattro's blast up hills like Pikes Peak and Goodwood Festival of Speed was one of the great privileges to be able to experience back in the mid-80s. Even today, these twin-turbocharged Quattro Race cars could teach the next generation of hill climbers a thing or two about how to be fast and agile.

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Most modern rally cars are restricted to under two liters of displacement for their engine size. The Quattro of Group B rally racing fame raced before these guidelines were implemented. Meaning its turbocharged inline-five cylinder engine will have an exhaust note that's not only instantly recognizable but also loud end guttural enough to wake the dead.

Via: rallygroupbshrine.org

Computerized engine control units were still in their infancy in the mid-80s, considering the average desktop tower cost around three thousand dollars back in those days, having all that technology under the hood of a racing car was a great feat of engineering back in the mid-80s.

Related: Here's What We Expect From The 2021 Audi TT RS 40 Quattro Edition

Utterly Insane Power Figures

Via: http://guides.wmlcloud.com/cars_motorbikes/audi-quattro-s

Turbocharging setups on racing cars were still a novel practice back in the early to mid-1980s. Turbo kits of the day had a bad reputation for being gas hogs at the best of times and helping blow up the motor at the worst of times.

Via: ultimatecarpage.com

That said, Audi's turbo system worked brilliantly with the Quattro, 600 plus horsepower was a breeze with these race cars, some tuners have gotten those power figures to go well into the 700 horsepower range thirty years before the Dodge Hellcat could do it for under $100 grand.

Via: ablogtowatch.com

The advanced in its day all-wheel-drive system was one of the first to use sensors and computer data to make sure power was transferred to whichever wheel had the most traction at any given time. That's a luxury that all-wheel-drive systems today take for granted. In the '80s when rally cars like the Lancia Stratos could still be rear-wheel drive, the Quattro was a digital shot heard around the world that signaled that hill climb racing and just racing in general, was about to change forever at the hands of computers.

Related: 1985 Audi Quattro 10v Sells For $22K After Spending 25 Years Stuffed In A Barn

New School Technology, Old School Domination

All this power and all this fancy technology could only mean the Group B Quattro was bound to be something special. So when the Germans decided to take the car all the way across the pond to Colorado, it had to have been for a very important purpose.

Via Pinterest User: Michael West

The Pikes Peak Hill Climb event was not the worldwide spectacle it is today thirty-five years ago. Instead, it was mostly a hotbed for the local competition coming in to try and earn bragging rights. When the Quattro showed up in the town in 1987, all that changed forever.

Via: rallygroupbshrine.org

The car was faster than anything anyone at that event had ever seen. The all-wheel drive system seemingly planted the car to the road in a way that made it look like two magnets touching. The car made mincemeat of sharp bends and long wide-open throttle on the straightaways.

Via: www.motoringresearch.com

The end result was scarcely believable at the time 10:47.85 run. The first and only car at that time to complete the full-length hill climb in under eleven minutes. Today, that car sits in a museum in Germany. That's good in our mind because a car that special is bound to be worth seven figures or more.

All Modern Hill Climb And Rally Cars Share Its DNA

Via: Autocar.co.uk

The simple fact of the matter is without the Audi Quattro, there would be no Mitsubishi Evo, no Subaru Imprezza STI, or any of the great all-wheel-drive racing cars we've all come to love. With that said, let's pour a drink and raise a toast for the German car that transformed racing forever, cheers!

Sources: rallygroupbshrine.org, ultimatecarpage.com

Next: Retro Review: Chris Harris Pilots The Ford RS200 And Audi Sport Quattro