One to Buy: Malachite Green ex-Nick Mason 1984 Audi Quattro Sport
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Pitched against purpose-built Group B specials, the Audi Quattro’s inherent quality ensured it was still a front runner at World Championship level despite more mainstream characteristics than its exotic rivals.
Famously, Audi decided not to go for a clean sheet Group B challenger as it thought such a move would reflect badly on the production Quattro. Accordingly, what emerged was the considerably lightened short wheelbase Quattro Sport which Audi kitted out with seriously uprated running gear and a trick KW engine.
Having made its salon debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1983, production of the Quattro Sport got underway in February 1984. Following the completion of the 200 cars required for Group B homologation, the FIA rubber stamped Audi’s application on May 1st. However, that was not quite the end as the odd Quattro Sport continued to emerge until January 1986, by which time 214 units had been completed.
Although a couple of solid Black cars were built for VIPs, Audi officially offered the Quattro Sport in just four colours: Tornado Red, Alpine White, Copenhagen Blue and Malachite Green. Of these, the most infrequently requested shade was Malachite Green with just 15 units having been completed as such.
Today, one of those handsome Malachite Green Quattro Sports is residing at the Tom Hartley Jnr. showroom in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire: chassis 905193.
Completed on December 17th 1984, chassis 905193 was supplied new to Audi main agent, Bischoff & Hamel in Hannover, where it remained part of the in-house collection for ten years. The Quattro then passed to the Ritz family (Audi dealers based in Hesse) who retained the car for a further seven years. In 2001, chassis 905193 was acquired by Reinhard Sadlowski of Berlin with whom it remained for the next 14 years.
Most recently, the Quattro has formed part of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason’s collection. According to Tom Hartley Jnr.: “Shortly after acquiring the car in 2015, he entrusted it to Lanzante Ltd in Petersfield, where it has remained under their care ever since. During this period, the composite body was stripped back and painstakingly refinished in its original Malachite Green, while the car also benefited from extensive mechanical recommissioning, with every detail restored to period-correct specification.
Today, this Sport Quattro must rank among the finest examples to come to market in recent years. With fewer than 60,000 kilometres from new, more than three decades of continuous German ownership, long-term residence within one of Europe’s foremost private collections, and almost a decade of specialist care by Lanzante, it represents an exceptional opportunity to acquire one of Audi’s most celebrated homologation specials.”
