Volkswagen Iltis
Were it not for the utilitarian Volkswagen you see here, the Audi Quattro may never have been developed, Audi would not have reinvented and dominated the World Rally Championship in the early 1980s, and the Audi brand may not have become as desirable and successful as it is today.
Although it may seem unlikely, this basic VW 4x4, the Iltis (German for polecat) is the Grand Daddy of the Quattro. A quick rewind to the mid-1960s might help to explain more. Volkswagen acquired the two-stroke-driven Auto Union DKW group from its temporary custodians, Daimler-Benz, in the mid-60s, and re-invented the Audi brand name to consolidate the Auto Union marques under a single banner.
At the time, the German military ran a sizeable fleet of DKW Munga ‘jeeps,’ a highly capable 4x4, but saddled with an out-moded two-stroke motor. Volkswagen was keen to access this lucrative military sector, so immediately begin making use of the technologies it had acquired in the Auto Union purchase.
Equally, the German armed forces were anxious to replace the outdated two-stroke Munga as well, so the resultant Iltis prototype combined old DKW technologies with new in an off-road vehicle developed by Audi. This used a variation of the Munga's platform with modified suspension parts and a four-wheel-drive system based around components from the first-generation 1969 Audi 100, mated to a VW 1.7 litre four-cylinder engine.
The design of this Iltis four-wheel drive layout provided the basis for Audi's quattro system, launched a couple of years after the VW’s 1978 debut, as used in the now legendary 1980 Quattro coupe.
Ultimately, the Iltis was to prove less successful with the military (and civilian market) than the DKW Munga and VW 181 (see below) models that it replaced, with just 9,547 examples built, including a four-year production run under licence by Bombardier in Canada, plus a handful of Citroen C44 variants, offered to the French Army using the Citroen CX petrol and diesel engine options.