Audi 100 Quattro Owner's Manual page 159

Your Audi 100 quattro is exemplary in the
world of passenger vehicles. The so-
phisticated design of the permanently
engaged all-wheel drive, together with
the torque sensing and self-locking
center differential, combines capabilities
of superb efficiency and performance.
Properly and wisely used, the performan-
ce and responsiveness of your Audi 100
quattro will enable you to more effectively
deal with many difficult driving situations
on varying road surfaces under various
weather conditions.
Be sure to take the time to become
thoroughly familiar with
operation of your quattro so that you will
fully appreciate the advantages of per-
manently engaged all-wheel drive and be
able to properly use and enjoy all of the
potential inherent in this innovative power
transmission design.
How it works
The illustration on previous page shows
the power train configuration.
Engine power is transmitted to the self-
locking Torsen
and from there directly to the front axle
differential (1) and, by way of a drive
shaft (4), to the rear axle differential (2).
When a vehicle is going around a corner,
the outside wheels turn faster than the
inside ones. To compensate for the diffe-
rence, a differential gear is installed in
the drive axles.
To compensate for the movement of the
the proper
wheels on the front and rear axles, the
Audi 100 quattro has an additional center
differential.
1)
tor
Torsen =
1)
center differential (3),
sen
que sing
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
If one wheel should start to slip and begin
to lose traction, a differential will normally
only transmit a small amount of power to
the other wheel that is not slipping.
On the Audi 100 quattro, this unwanted
differential effect will be counteracted
automatically by the self-locking Torsen
center differential between front and rear
axles and the engine power will be
transmitted to the wheels with the better
traction.
The unwanted differential effect between
the two rear wheels can be prevented by
locking the rear differential. Power is then
transmitted to the rear wheels evenly
regardless of road conditions.
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