Audi's Technological Tour de Force

By Motoring Channel Staff - 14/01/2005

Audi unveiled its brand new allroad quattro concept at the 2005 North American International Automobile Show (NAIAS) in a bid to highlight the marque's emerging technologies.

The new crossover vehicle was developed specifically for America's biggest motor show, while at the same time celebrating the German company's 25th 'quattro' anniversary this year.

In addition to the celebratory theme, the concept car also showcases a number of Audi's next generation electronic systems, which the company assures us will be "destined to enter series production in just a few years".

Including the world first 'Audi road vision', as well as 'lane assist' and 'side assist', the new technologies featured in the allroad quattro concept are designed to keep the driver and passengers safe under all road conditions.

In what the company is calling a world-first achievement, "Audi road vision" employs an optical sensor system able to recognise the condition of the road and its surface, thus providing a quantum leap in terms of driving safety.

Simply put, the system not only informs the driver on potentially critical conditions such as gravel or black ice, but also gives the electronic stabilisation program (ESP) and the adaptive cruise control additional, crucial parameters for even better proactive control.

Land assist works by inducing vibrations on the steering wheel to inform the driver that he or she has inadvertently left his lane.

Side assist, meanwhile, incorporates radar sensors monitoring the area behind and next to the car, so that once the system detects vehicles approaching or driving in the car's blind spots, the driver is informed accordingly by a warning light coming on in the exterior mirror on the appropriate side.

As well as these interesting new technologies, Audi hopes to attract attention to its allroad quattro concept via more conventional means, such as its intrinsic versatility.

The impressive size and visual appearance of the allroad quattro concept, which measures 4.93 metres in length and 1.89 metres in width, provides a perfect match for the many new technology highlights. The fact that it's a wagon based design also means that cargo space is plentiful and seating arrangements flexible.

The allroad quattro concept comes with the same bodyshell and body proportions as the latest production Audi to enter the market, the new A6 Avant (wagon), with which it also shares the now trademark single-frame grille.

But when it comes to height the allroad quattro concept is much taller than the A6 Avant, measuring 1.52 meters, or about 60 millimetres higher than the Avant, in order to improve ground clearance.

Audi's new concept car is a crossover vehicle, designed to slot in underneath the BMW X5-sized Pikes Peak quattro concept, which is likely to be renamed the Q7 in future.

The wide track and the moderate increase in body height come together to provide for a muscular looking vehicle, and distinctly flared wheel arches add a bit of understated machismo. The wheels themselves measure 19-inches in diametre and run on chunky 255/45 R19 tyres specially developed for the concept car.

Further features clearly characterising this concept car are the gently curved roof railing as well as the extra-large open sky glass sliding roof, which almost makes the entire roof area between the A- and D-pillars completely transparent.

The very latest lighting technology lurks behind the clear glass covers on the headlights too: LED headlamps boasting the additional functions of daytime running lights.

The headlamps themselves are modular in structure, the outer module being made up of 14 individual LEDs offering the same level of light intensity as xenon headlamps. Both the direction indicators, the brake lights and the tail lights also come with high-speed LED light units.

At its core, the powerful new 4.0-litre diesel engine provides plenty of performance punch. The all wheel drive quattro system is coupled to a 6-speed automatic transmission, and allows the allroad quattro concept to accelerate to 100km/h in just 6.4 seconds, with top speed limited electronically to 250km/h.

The new 4.0 TDI, as Audi dubs it, is the first 8-cylinder motor in the Audi's range of new TDI powerplants, incorporating common rail technology and piezo inline injectors to output 210kW (286hp) @ 3200rpm and peak torque of 650Nm is sustained from 1600rpm to 3000rpm.

Audi's 3936cc turbo diesel engine weighs 259kg (which Audi is quick to tout as the lightest diesel V8 in the world) and has 32 valves, for a 4-valve-per-cylinder array, while making use of new turbocharger technology and map-controlled, cooled exhaust gas recirculation. Both the camshafts and the oil pump are driven by chain as well.

Now fitted with a particle filter, the allroad quattro concept is the first eight-cylinder TDI to outperform the strict EU 4 European emission standard.

Audi's permanent quattro all-wheel drive, featuring a torsen centre differential, conveys the power of the sophisticated new diesel engine to all four wheels both on-road and off-road, ensuring maximum traction and lateral stability at all times - essential prerequisites for the very best in driving dynamics and motoring safety.

This drive concept has become increasingly successful over the years ever since the first Audi quattro all-wheel-drive came off the production line 25 years ago. No less than 1.8 million Audi production cars have been equipped with this technology in the meantime, not to mention countless victories on the racetrack and in rallies attributable to this supreme drive system.

The chassis and suspension of the Audi allroad quattro concept also offer genuine all-round qualities. Adaptive air suspension, a combination of air suspension and electronically controlled dampers, offers a perfect synthesis of dynamic handling and supreme suspension comfort. Variable ground clearance adjustable from 160 to 210mm enables the Audi allroad quattro concept to tackle even rough terrain without problems.

Inside Audi's new concept crossover, an extra-large rev counter and speedometer dials come in newly designed, teardrop-shaped surrounds housed together with the circular coolant temperature and fuel gauge displays in one large central instrument panel.

A particularly important innovation is the large color display that, for the first time in an Audi, features revolutionary Organic Light Emitting Diode, or OLED, technology.

This technology uses an organic polymer for significantly enhanced presentation and clarity. Compared with a conventional liquid crystal display (LCD), an OLED monitor is much easier to read, particularly in bright sunshine and when looking at the display from the side. Audi even reckons you can still read the monitor with ease from an angle of 170°.

Since the concept car is a 4-seater (likely to be adapted for 6 or 7 seats when the next generation allroad arrives), the seats both up front and in the rear come with a high center console in between. The instrument panel in the middle and the upper part of the center console proudly boasts an 8.9-inch MMI monitor featuring 1024x600 pixel resolution, where conventional 7-inch monitors currently offer just 480x270 pixels, again showcasing Audi's commitment to the latest technologies.