7. Audi Quattro Sport
Like the Ford RS200, the Audi Quattro Sport was born on the rally tracks and Audi sold a road-worthy model to homologate it for racing. However, Audi proved to be more successful than Ford on the race tracks as well as on the market. In fact, the Quattro Sport was considerably more popular than highly limited RS200. Back in early 80’s, Audi was just an upgraded Volkswagen with not much to offer.
Then, the motorsport department proposed entering the rally championships with an innovative all-wheel drive model they called the Quattro. Suddenly, Audi had a championship-winning car that was on the forefront of two new technologies, all-wheel drive and turbocharging. This resulted in a growing interest in the company and the rise of the Audi as we know it today.
The Quattro Sport featured a 2.1-liter straight five-cylinder engine with a turbocharger and 306 HP in street trim. With a short wheelbase, light body panels and a short ratio gearbox ready to jump at any moment, the road-going Quattro Sport was capable of achieving 0 to 60 mph in just 4.8 seconds. This made this car one of the quickest car of its era, showing the capabilities of the Quattro all-wheel drive system.