Audi has been planning for the rebirth of their legendary Quattro since 2010. In fact – they were already set for production and it certainly hyped up its fans everywhere. Powered by the 2.5-litre 5-cylinder engine from the TT-RS, it was Ingolstadt’s answer to the Porsche Cayman. Sadly, not too long after the production planning, the idea was scrapped to make way for the development for a coupe crossover.
Ahead of the Frankfurt Motorshow, Audi released their first official photos on a concept they’re working on. Its in yellow and its got ‘Quattro’ written on it. We looked at it and thought.. “NO WAY! the Sports Quattro!”.
Before we move ahead – let’s be clear that this is not the same Quattro concept from 2010. Nope…It isn’t and although it looks convincingly similar, it has a few facelifts here and there. We’ll leave it to the readers to spot the difference but the key word is ‘BIGGER’.
This is because we are more interested in the heart that’s powering this beast. It certainly looks menacing from almost any angle with its short overhang and flared wheel-arches, so it must have the GO to match the appearance. We are pleased (or rather displeased) to inform you that it is a hybrid… Yeap, because of some ‘Air Problem’ the new concept is powered by an electric motor. However – don’t despair as the hybrid system is mated with Audi’s 4.0-litre V8 turbocharged engine and produces a whopping 700bhp.
Zerotohundred in 3.6 seconds and Audi says it’ll do 190mph. And the good news keeps coming in.. However there is a flaw. A large one in fact. It weighs on the 1850 kgs and we are afraid that this has dialled the performance down. As expected, the problem with hybrids are the massive lithium ion batteries that is carried about everywhere you go and although the torque figure will counter that, you will start to imagine how much faster it is if it only weighed around 1.5tonnes.
We’ll have to wait till Frankfurt to see live pictures of it but if it looks this good.. It’ll be a worthy successor to the Quattro! So go on Audi..MAKE IT! Put it in production so that we can see this baby come to life!
