One to Buy: ex-works 1984 Audi Quattro Sport S1
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Although the Quattro delivered Audi a brace of World Rally Championship titles in 1982 (Manufacturers’) and ‘83 (Drivers’), it had been conceived before the new era of Group B specials began to arrive.
Determined to keep their iconic flagship relevant, by spring 1984 Audi had developed the short wheelbase Quattro Sport: a Group B special of which at least 200 would be constructed to comply with the regulations.
The initial Group B competition version of the Quattro Sport was dubbed the S1 of which a small batch contested the remainder of the 1984 season in the hands of the official Audi Sport squad. Stig Blomqvist won the penultimate WRC event of 1984 (the Ivory Coast Rally) while Hannu Mikkola and Walter Rohrl each picked up a pair of victories in the domestic German and British series.
Between 1985 and ‘86 Audi supplied Quattro Sport S1s to various distributor teams and privateers.
One such example, chassis 905108, was dispatched to Britain for use by Audi Sport UK and is set to go under the hammer at Bonhams’ Goodwood Festival of Speed Auction on July 14th.
In the hands of Audi’s 1983 World Champions Hannu Mikkola and Armin Hertz, chassis 905108 was most notably driven to victory in two of the opening three rounds of the 1986 British Rally Championship: Mikkola / Hertz finished 16 seconds ahead of David Llewellin’s MG Metro 6R4 in the season opening National Breakdown Rally (February 21st to 23rd) and then finished 20 seconds in front of Jimmy McRae’s 6R4 on the International Welsh Rally (May 3rd and 4th).
Mikkola also established a new record for closed cars at the Shelsey Walsh hill climb of 29.51 seconds.
Today, chassis 905108 is offered in excellent condition throughout but will require a degree of recommissioning prior to use.
