The original Audi quattro (ur) with the flared wheel arches is the car that really made 4WD work without excessive weight and transfer boxes and thats the true quattro and has permanant 4WD. It definately wasn't the first but it really was light years ahead of anything else that had been done before with 4WD.
I think at that time the name "quattro" had a more creditable name than Audi and hence Audi used the quattro name for a whole host of lesser cars in the range, which totally confused everyone, something along the lines of one car being called a "coupe quattro" and a diferent model being a "quattro coupe"..... now that is confusing!

 

I cant remember for sure but I think it was Cosworth who produced a 4WD F1 car in the 70's. I think it was Mike Hailwood I saw driving it once at Mallory Park in a Formula Libre race for testing purposes. It went round corners alright anyway.

Quattro were the originators of the 4WD rally car and won everything with it.

Les

 

It was the first turbo charged 4x4 production car came out in 1980 Audi was paid by the german Army to produce a 4x4 offroader which they started making in 1978 I think the 4x4 system is different to subaru so i dont think they nicked it anyway where would we be today if they had not made the origional Audi Quattro in 1980 it inspired more companys to compete and we ended up with the scoob
just think would anyone build a rally car without 4x4 or a turbo after 1980 I dont think so!

 

a company called dangel in france make 4 wheel drive peugeots have done for a long time dont know when they started though but they done paris dakar cars etc