Audi Quattro Concept has Internet radio, anger issues
Audi is celebrating 30 years of its Quattro four-wheel drive by unveiling a hatchback. No, come back! The Quattro Concept might not be a supercar, but it's fast enough to outrun an Aston Martin and it comes with an Internet radio!
Audi is celebrating 30 years of its Quattro four-wheel drive by unveiling a hatchback. No, come back! The imaginatively named Quattro Concept might not be a supercar, but it's fast enough to outrun an Aston Martin and it comes with an Internet radio!
The Quattro Concept is as aggressive-looking a car as we've seen in recent times. Its front air intake is big enough to swallow a small horse, its headlights make it look like it's thinking deeply resentful thoughts, and it has two massive exhausts on either side of a natty F1-style rear diffuser.
The car pays homage to the Audi Sport Quattro of 1984, so, unsurprisingly, it's bleedin' quick. It uses a 2.5-litre, five-cylinder petrol engine handed down from the Audi TT RS, but, whereas that car's motor produced 340PS, this bad boy now chucks out a whopping 408PS, which is enough to propel it from 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds and onto a 186mph top speed.
On the inside, Audi's fitted the Quattro Concept with an all-digital instrument cluster that shows the car's speed, engine revs and mapping data, using fancy computer graphics.
The car also has a fancy new stereo system that allows passengers to listen to Internet radio stations from around the world. The system uses the driver's 3G mobile phone to stream data from the Internet, so those who use it should ensure they have a huge amount of data on their mobile-broadband contract.
Audi says the Quattro Concept will also feature a 'prayer book' -- a visual description of the route ahead -- displayed on the digital readout. Currently, it looks like a sat-nav display that only shows the road you're travelling on and not any surrounding roads, so it doesn't seem particularly useful. But it does have a timer and a digital scoreboard, so it should appeal to the gamer in all of us.
There's no word as to whether the Quattro Concept will go into production, but we've got our fingers crossed. Let's not forget that even the Audi TT started as a concept car back in 1995, so, if there's a positive enough reaction from you lot, it could force Audi's hand.
Have a gander through our photos in the gallery above and then let us (and Audi) know how you feel about it in the comments section below.