One to Buy: ex-Herbert von Karajan 1980 Audi Quattro UR
/
Having introduced four-wheel drive to non-utility type vehicles and changed the sport of rallying forever, the Audi Quattro was arguably the most influential performance car of its era.
It also had a transformative effect on Audi’s image; without it, the company would almost certainly not have become the industrial behemoth it is today.
Each Quattro was hand-built at a special hall in Audi’s Ingolstadt factory staffed by a team of 48 personnel.
It featured a B2 pressed steel bodyshell with fully independent suspension, a permanent four-wheel drive system and a turbocharged and intercooled inline five cylinder engine that displaced 2144cc. Peak output was 200bhp at 5500rpm and 210lb-ft at 3500rpm.
Following its launch at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1980, the first customer cars were delivered in November of that year.
One of these extremely early Quattro road cars (and reputedly the oldest known to exist) is chassis 900061 currently on offer at the Cargold Collection in Germany.
The eleventh road car built, it was originally delivered to Austrian orchestral conductor, Herbert von Karayan.
Renowned for his love of fine automobiles, von Karajan (who sold an estimated 200 million records during his career) had previously owned all manner of exotic machinery to include a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, a Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso and 275 GTB, a Ford GT40 Mk3, a Lancia Stratos and multiple Porsches (550, 911 2.2 S, a 911 3.0 Carrera RS and a one-off 911 Turbo Spezial).
Chassis 900061 was delivered to von Karajan’s residence in St. Moritz in December 1980 and remains in fantastic condition having covered a little over 140,000km from new.
