One to Buy: epic 1985 Audi Quattro Sport S1 E2
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Although its four-wheel drive system initially handed the Quattro a sufficient advantage that it was able to claim two World Rally Championsip Driver and Manufacturer crowns between 1982 and ‘84, the advent of purebred specials designed from the ground up to exploit substantially reduced homologation requirements in the Group B era meant Audi had to react with a more specialist car of their own: the Sport Quattro.
Rather than start with a clean sheet of paper and accept defeat, Audi was determined to make the Quattro concept work and to this end the Sport Quattro was a shortened, lightened and souped-up iteration of the car that had already done so much to transform the Ingolstadt firm’s image.
For competition use, Audi initially ran an Evolution version of the Sport Quattro dubbed the S1 which proved a frequent podium finisher but only won once at World Championship level between mid 1984 and ‘85. Twelve months later, this was superseded by the S1 E2 which went down as one of the most radical cars ever to take to the special stages.
Unfortunately, Audi only ran the S1 E2 in half a dozen WRC events before quitting the sport owing to the rapid rise in fatal accidents. During that time the car’s best result was victory for Walter Rohrl and Christian Geistdorfer on the ‘85 Rallye Sanremo.
Of the 20 S1 E2’s built (which was the minimum number required for homologation of an Evolution variant), only half saw competitive action with Audi Sport, one of which is heading for auction at Bonhams’ Qual auction on August 15th.
Chassis RE10’s solitary appearance came at the 1985 WRC season-ending RAC Rally where it was allocated to Hannu Mikkola and Arne Hertz. Having taken the lead mid-way through the event, Mikkola’s strong showing was ultimately cut short by engine failure.
RE10 was subsequently used as a training and development car for the 1986 Rally Portugal which proved Audi’s last WRC event as, when a Ford RS200 ploughed into the crowd and killed three spectators, it proved the final straw following one too many nasty crashes.
