From Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro on down to Audi’s Quattro, German speakers for centuries have abandoned their own language for Italian to express articles of passion. Quattro means “four” in the language of  love, undoubtedly a better name for the driveline hardware that has come to define Audi’s high-tech and sporting image than the German vier, which is pronounced “fear.” Can you see the ads? “Come drive the new 5000S Fear at your Audi dealer today!”

With apologies to Bismarck, Quattro just sounds more prestissimo, especially  when it’s plastered to the sawed-off rump of a new concept two-seater intended to stoke scintillating memories of  Audi’s rally glory days. Audi unwrapped the Quattro Concept at the 2010 Paris auto show in September, and just a few months later delivered it to us tanked up and ready to run over asphalt at realistic road speeds (provided that we first swept its path clean of loose stones and dust and immediately  put the $4.6 million hand-built Fabergé egg back in its truck at the first sign of rain or temperatures below 45 degrees).

While we pondered the weather reports, as well as what long-term significance, if any,  Audi’s nostalgic glance back  would ultimately have on its future products, a particularly noteworthy time traveler from those old days also materialized. In 1983, to homologate a short-wheelbase version of  the Quattro Coupe for Group B rallying, Audi started building 224 Sport Quattros for testing, racing, and selling to wealthy civilians as road cars

[Source: Car and Driver]