Audi Nanuk Quattro Concept revealed at Frankfurt Motor Show

Audi, the German luxury car manufacturer has surprisingly present an all new Nanuk Quattro Concept at the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show. The reason why are we calling it 'surprising' is the fact that nobody in the industry knew about Audi's plans of unveiling it. The crossover concept combines the dynamics of a high-performance sports car with Audi's Quattro expertise on the road, on the race track and also off-road. The Nanuk Quattro concept show car is jointly developed by the Audi and the designers from Italdesign Giugiaro.

The two-seater is powered by a newly developed V10 TDI installed longitudinally in front of the rear axle. The powerful 5.0-litre diesel engine is capable of developing 544bhp and delivers 1,000Nm of top torque. Its twin-turbo register charging unit is controlled via the Audi valvelift system (AVS). The engine transfers the torque to a specially designed Quattro drivetrain via a beefed-up seven-speed S-tronic transmission. The Nanuk Quattro concept sprints from 0 to 100kmph in mere 3.8 seconds, and has the top speed of 305kmph.

Double wishbones guide the show car’s 22-inch wheels, which are shod with 235/50-series tires up front and 295/45 at the rear. The carbon fiber-ceramic brake discs can withstand high temperatures and are extremely abrasion-resistant. It sports an adaptive air suspension with electronically controlled dampers. The driver can manually adjust the ground clearance of the Audi Nanuk Quattro concept in three stages: normal, 30 millimeters (1.18 in) lower or 40 millimeters (1.57 in) higher. The system also controls the level of the body itself based on driving speed and the predictive route data supplied by the navigation system.

The Audi Nanuk Quattro concept features the new Audi Matrix LED technology, which helps to toggle between the low beams and high beams. When driving with the low beams, the show car appears clean and open, but hunkered down and focused when driving with the high beams. The centre tunnel console and the steering wheel features all control elements, including the controls for the electronically controlled air suspension, the touchwheel for navigation and multimedia functions and the turn signals. The seats, with folding backs, pronounced side bolsters and integrated head restraints, are power-adjustable. A mobile phone can be charged inductively in the Audi phone box.

The instrument cluster is very functional, as the driver can call up a variety of displays and information as desired. Two small monitors are placed in the area of the A-pillars serve as digital exterior mirrors and display the images from the cameras on the doors.