(first posted 8/26/2016)
September 2003 – outside of Paris, France, approx. 12:30am, pitch dark, drizzly. After a brutal clutch-dumping launch from the stop sign and a quick run through the first two gears well into third with speeds rapidly approaching 160km/h on the narrow road, Norbert turns to me and says in very broken English: “Now, your turn, ok?” and I rapidly think “Uh, only 214 ever made, every one by hand, virtually priceless, met this guy half an hour ago, how good an idea is this?” before answering “Are you sure? Really? OK!”…
The backstory – We (my wife, 4-month old daughter, a couple of good friends – Don and Jim – and myself) were on the tail end of a trip wherein my two friends and I had toured the car museums of Germany, driven the Nürburgring in our rental Audi A4 TDI Avant, and spent a couple of days at the Frankfurt Auto Show.
Then Don flew back home and my wife and child came over and along with my other friend Jim we headed to Paris. While in Paris we hooked up with our old online friend Frederic that Jim and I only knew from the Audi S-Car List (an online forum) and had communicated with online for a couple of years.
Jim and I both owned 1993 Audi S4’s at the time (COAL here), mine pictured above, and Frederic owned an Audi S6 plus Avant (basically the same as our C4 generation S4 but a bit newer and with a V8 that was built by quattro GmbH, Audi’s in-house subsidiary that nowadays builds their RS top of the line models).
He toured us around Paris at ludicrous speeds one evening before Jim had to catch his flight home. Frederic asked if I would be around for the weekend and I said yes to which he responded that if I was around late Saturday night he would have a treat in store for me.
Since I couldn’t pass this up, we made arrangements for him to pick me up around 11pm at the hotel and after doing so, we drove for about 45 minutes to the outskirts of Paris (actually Versailles) into the yard of a small industrial estate and showroom of a small company. Here, Frederic explained, was the headquarters of the French Audi Club and the showroom of the company of their president, Norbert. Norbert, he further explained, spoke next to no English but I would enjoy meeting him.
Well, we knocked on the door around midnight, it opened and in we went. Norbert greeted us and showed us to his showroom and then took us around the corner where the French Audi Club had a space that was filled wall to ceiling with Audi memorabilia, scale models, and all kinds of other stuff. To me, being knee-deep into Audi’s since childhood (The first car I recall riding in was my dad’s Audi Super 90 in the early 70’s and I’ve owned five myself) this was nirvana.
We chatted for a while with Frederic translating, then I was asked if I’d like to see Norbert’s cars which were in a warehouse a short drive away. Yes, the whole thing seems super sketchy when I read it now but at the time, in the moment, what the hell, my life insurance was paid up, let’s go! I would ride with Norbert while Frederic followed in the S6 plus. We went outside and walked around the corner of the shop and then I saw Norbert’s car and had my Wayne and Garth “I’m not worthy” moment when I realized I was looking at a dark blue Audi Sport Quattro, apparently belonging to Norbert.
The Sport Quattro was the result of Audi’s rally team starting to fall behind the competition with their original Group B Audi Quattro rally car. Within a couple of very successful seasons the competition had caught up with their own AWD machinery, and was starting to surpass it with smaller, lighter mid-engine designs. The Sport Quattro was Audi’s first attempt to fight back with a car much different from the original regular Audi Quattro that readers may be familiar with.
This image shows the difference between the standard Quattro and the Sport. Note the difference in rear side windows due to shortened body; and a different hood, fenders, and front end as well as windshield angle.
The main (and significant) visual difference is a reduction in wheelbase of 12.6 inches, taken out of the midsection of the roof between the B and C pillars to improve maneuverability on tight rally stages. Further, the doors and windscreen were replaced with items from the Audi 80 sedan as that windshield is more upright than that of the Coupe and Quattro body, reducing reflections as experienced by the drivers.
The body is made mainly of carbon Kevlar with many pieces literally handformed and the fenders widened even further than a standard Quattro. Sitting on squat 15×9 wheels the impression is of brutish strength, perhaps a bit ungainly like a bulldog but massively solid.
This was also Audi’s first use of the 4valve per cylinder version of their turbo-inline 5, good for 302hp and 258lb-ft of torque from a 2.1 liter engine with a KKK K-27 Turbocharger for the road-going models with competition versions producing significantly more power than that.
With the street car’s weight of around 2600lbs, it made for a car faster than a Porsche 930 Turbo of the day (which has a much larger engine). Keep in mind this was developed and produced in 1983!
Audi produced 214 models for sale to the public with a further 20 for “evolution” purposes kept in house as a minimum of 200 had to be produced (and sold) in order to comply with the Group B rules.
Most manufacturers produced and sold these cars at steep losses merely to be able to compete with them. In 1984 Audi Quattro won both the Group B World Rally Championship for drivers as well as manufacturers with Stig Blomqvist behind the wheel, although, it must be said, he drove the standard Quattro (A2 version) more often than the shorter Sport.
However, the car was not universally loved, it is said to be difficult to drive at the limit with the short wheelbase producing a very nervous chassis, fine for a skilled top-notch rally driver but not so much for mere mortals at the limit. The engine still hung way too far out in front making it a bit of a pig handling-wise, this being the main reason Audi was developing a still-born mid-engine car before the Group B era came to a close.
So Audi’s new car (the Sport Quattro) was still very much based on a production car (at least conceptually), but the most successful competition by now had developed cars that in passing resembled production cars, but were really tube frame racers with a center section that was weather proof and and used mere shells to cover the front and rear with engines placed amidships, namely the Peugeot 205T16 as well as the Lancia Delta S4. Ford was about to introduce its RS200 which was nothing like any production car of theirs (2 seats, mid-engined) and the next Audi car under development would actually follow the Ford’s formula fairly closely. But that’s a story for another day.
Audi Service area, Rally Corsica, 1984 – Standard rally car in back, shortened one in front, standard road Quattro in middle.
When the Sport Quattro was introduced in late 1983 I was 14 years old and I read everything about it that I could lay my hands on (and still do in fact). On a trip to Germany the following summer Audi had a driveline of one (wheels, engine, transmission, suspension but no chassis or body) on display at Frankfurt Airport.
I drooled over it and took the brochure that was there which to my horror was accidentally discarded by my mother during one of her “closet purges” while I was away at college some years later.
When new, the cars were available (in Europe) for the equivalent of just over US$60,000 (DM200,000). As a teenager I thought this a bargain and hoped my dad would do the sensible thing and purchase one. He gave me that look, you know the one. Of course, even if remotely affordable it would have been useless here in the U.S. Ah, the innocence and optimism of youth.
While they were all sold, it apparently took a couple of years to do so, a common fate with Group B homologation specials, many of which were admittedly rough.
The Audi however, was extremely well finished with a beautiful 4-seat interior (even if the back seats actually touched the backs of the front seats due to the wheelbase reduction) and a very high quality level overall.
They were produced in several colors, with Tornado Red (128 cars produced) and Alpine White (48) being the most popular. Malachite Green (15) and Copenhagen Blue (21) were available as well and there were two Black ones – one for Ferdinand Piëch who took all his company cars in Black and another for Walter Röhrl, Audi’s lead driver in their rally program before he left for Porsche after Group B was banned by the FIA.
For Audi fans of the Group B rally era, these cars are pretty much the holy grail. I saw my first one (red) at the Monterey Historics years ago, where one owned by Steve Beddor in Minnesota was on display at the Audi tent.
I then saw another at a Quattro Club driver’s event at Sears Point Raceway that I attended with my S4. That one was imported into the US from Oman by a very casual acquaintance of mine that resold it another gentleman in the club that now drove it at the track.
It was originally green but had been repainted white. Both were in exceptional condition but I did not have any real access to either beyond just looking at them. Then I saw another red one at Wolfsburg’s Autostadt Museum during the trip we are discussing now. After that it started getting real.
During that trip to Germany we also visited MTM (a very well known Audi tuner founded by Roland Mayer, commonly considered the father of the Audi rally turbo-5 engine program) and they very graciously let me sit in a competition rally car version of the Sport Quattro known as the S1 (pictured above).
This was after taking us on a tour of their facility (which was already mind-boggling, we saw several raw Audi RS6 Avant bodies – a car which had just been released by the factory, what looked like a total beater parts-runner Audi RS2, their partially built twin-engine Audi TT that we would read about in the press a couple of years later along with dozens of other interesting cars) – it was obvious MTM still maintained close ties to Audi AG which was located just a few kilometers away.
Anyway, back to the car behind the shop at night… I was looking at Norbert’s Sport Quattro, finished in Copenhagen Blue, I am certain the image above is of that actual car. He got in and motioned for me to do the same and we drove off with Frederic behind us. This brings us full circle to the beginning of the post which I will repeat so you don’t have to scroll up:
September 2003 – outside of Paris, France, approx. 12:30am, pitch dark, drizzly. After a brutal clutch-dumping launch from the stop sign and a quick run through the first two gears well into third with speeds rapidly approaching 160km/h on the narrow road, Norbert turns to me and says in very broken English: “Now, your turn, ok?” and I rapidly think “Uh, only 214 ever made, every one by hand, virtually priceless, met this guy half an hour ago, how good an idea is this?” before answering “Are you sure? Really? OK!”…
After I agreed, Norbert pulled over and I nervously got behind the wheel. I could tell you that I drove it like a man possessed and impressed Norbert with my skills but I’d be lying. In reality I was well aware that it was late, dark, drizzly, I’d never driven one of these before and I was already sweating nervously.
I drove off without stalling it and accelerated while in gear but didn’t drive it nearly as hard as he did. I looked over and he was sort of waving me on from the passenger seat so I gave it more gas and then the road went around a series of S-bends and I kept on the throttle lightly. We slowed and he indicated to turn right at the next turnoff, which I did and accelerated as hard as I dared through the gears.
Looking to my right I saw him smiling which relieved me and then we drove for another ten minutes or so until we arrived at a warehouse and he said to stop and we got out.
Locking front and rear differential and switch to turn ABS off/on. And seat heater!
It was a very solid car to drive. It was also quite light. It went around the corners very well and accelerated much faster than my Audi S4 which was chipped with an MTM chipset and had an Audi RS2 turbo and exhaust manifold setup making significantly more power than stock but was obviously much heavier.
In short, I had met my hero and was NOT disappointed at all. Driving the Sport Quattro was everything I had ever hoped it would be. Before I started actually writing for CurbsideClassic, my screen name on here was WalterRohrl. Now you know why.
So at the warehouse, we got out of the car, Frederic pulled up behind us and Norbert opened the overhead door. Housed within was pretty much an Audi fan’s candy store. Two Ur-Quattro’s sat off to one side, an actual early 90’s French Touring Car championship Audi 80 was in the middle as well as a couple of other Audi’s. Stacks of wheels, tires, and pallets containing engines, suspensions and various parts were all over the place. I specifically recall a new Audi RS2 engine in a factory crate. Frederic and Norbert were explaining what everything was while I was just agog over it all.
In short, it was a fantastic late evening. Eventually we realized it was very late and it was time to go. Norbert and I shook hands and Frederic drove me back to the hotel where my wife and daughter had been asleep for hours. It was a fantastic ending to a great trip and one which I will never forget.
Recently I was thinking about this again and trying to figure out how to tell the story when I was searching the internet and came upon a French article about a blue Audi Sport Quattro.
Since only 21 were built in blue I thought it might be familiar, reading through the article using Google Translate I realized it was the same one I drove and told the story of Norbert acquiring it after finding it neglected and restoring it to its present excellent condition about a year before I drove it. Apparently it originally belonged to the head of VAG France.
The picture above is Norbert’s car when he acquired it prior to restoration. The link detailing the restoration is here if anyone is interested: http://rocracinghistoric.fr/restauration-sport-quattro-01.htm and here is another article (also in french) from another publication: http://www.urquattro.fr/Web/Pages/Journaux/sportauto/sportauto07.html
I still pine for an Audi Sport Quattro of my own but realize that it will never happen. Recently one came up at Bonham’s auction and sold for $427,000 which is much more than a bit out of my reach. So I still read everything I can about it and think about my own experience actually driving one for the short opportunity that I had. I am also very thankful that a Frenchman who does not know me and with whom I could barely even communicate entrusted me with his treasure of a lifetime.
Very enjoyable read Jim! Thanks for the excellent background info on this car and I’m happy you were able to get behind the wheel of a car you lusted over for so long.
I’ve always been very fond of Audis from the 1980s, and especially intrigued by cars such as the Sport Quattro, which I’ve never seen in the metal. I remember it was in my big A-Z Cars book I had as a kid.
You aren’t kidding about how the rally versions of this car weren’t universally loved; Michèle Mouton was fairly vocal about the car being very hard to control at speed and how she had to imagine spectators as “just trees” so as to not be unnerved by the car’s unwieldy nature. She also had several fairly spectacular crashes in them, if memory serves. This is coming from someone who has stated her favorite rally car she competed with was an Alpine A110, itself a car not known to be very forgiving.
Yes, it did best on rallies with tight corners, such as Corsica where the longer wheelbase A2’s sometimes had to actually do three-point turns around some of the hairpins. On rallies with long flowing stages it was worse. But watching and hearing them jump over the hills in places like Finland at full throttle is marvelous.
I think a lot of the problem lies in how far forward the engine is, resulting in kind of a reverse pendulum effect with the short wheelbase, think the opposite of a 911 for example. Had Group B continued and the smaller mid-engined car made it to fruition, who knows what could have occurred. There is footage of the car actually running in the 2016 Eifel Historic Rallye on Youtube. I’ve seen it twice, once in Sinsheim in ’98 and then again in 2003 after it apparently got moved to the Audi Museum in Ingolstadt. It’s obviously a development prototype but I hadn’t realized they actually had it running again this year.
There is a great new video that someone compiled about Michele Mouton, it has footage of her in A110’s, of course quattro’s, and even a bunch in a 911 as well as some other stuff. I hadn’t seen it before, it’s a good video.
The ultimate Gremlin! 🙂
Nice write up; few things top fulfilling a long-held automotive desire. Like getting to drive a 327/350 ’67 Corvette this summer. I must get around to writing that one up.
Now I can’t unsee that image, thanks Paul! I’ve been wanting to tell this story since I started here and couldn’t ever figure out the best way to attack it, there were too many angles. Looking forward to hearing about the Corvette!
Oops; sorry. But certain visual similarities were always a bit too apparent for me.
Well at least the long hood and short tail are the only real similarities. That Gremmy is leading the 2002! Or about to get lapped in the twisties, maybe there was a long straight just before.
Funny! Gremlin is the first thing I thought of when I saw the picture of the back seat. By the way, Gremlins were very successful in IMSA RS, where this picture appears to be from.
As a former ’86 Coupe GT owner (one of the few cars I’ve owned that I would “do over”), this was very cool to read. Thanks, Jim.
Gremlin, that’s the first thing I thought as well.
Although I’ve never actually seen one in person, I’ve read about the Audi Sport Quattro, and I find it more attractive than anything produced by Audi today.
This was great to read. Like you, I’ve admired these cars since childhood, but it’s been ages since I’ve thought about them, so looking at the photos and reading the description was really enlightening. There are some things here that I never realized — like that the Sport Quattro had a different windshield angle, or that it had back seats (I assumed they were 2-seaters). Thanks for sharing this with us.
Tangentially, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who has been victimized by Mom’s closet purges!
A number of people actually make replicas of the Sport Quattro but usually start with either a regular Quattro or even a Coupe GT (or a Coupe Quattro, available outside NA) and then make modifications from there. Some of them look extremely good, but most of them don’t go to the trouble of changing the windshield angle and doors, this ends up being the hallmark of a very well done job. None of the pictures I used are of replicas but there are a fair number out there.
The back seat – check out the picture, you can see that the bottom cushion is actually much shorter than something usable, it’s almost like a jump seat in a Ford Ranger etc but with even less legroom.
And yeah, the closet purges were a bitter pill to swallow.
Wonderfully descriptive. I could almost feel the dark, rainy night while you were flogging that Audi.
And what a terrific Audi to flog. Driving one is so much different that having the same ride but sitting 18″ to the right.
Great story, ditto pictures and one hell of a video ! Thanks.
The Sport Quattro’s era (early~mid eighties) was also Audi’s starting point for becoming a direct BMW and Mercedes-Benz competitor, with cars like the 1982 Audi 100 (C3) and 1986 Audi 80 (B3). It was a long road and it took them many years, but in the end they’ve managed.
If you want a more practical Sport Quattro, there’s always this:
A thoroughly enjoyable article; thanks.
Great story! Usually when we build up something in our minds, the reality falls far short…glad to see your holy grail lived up to all the hype.
Ive always liked Audis, especially in coupe or wagon form. Youre right, the proportions of these are a little wonky, but that turbo 5 banger is NASTY. I wish the A5 coupe started out with a variant of that to replace the 2.0T and the V6. The 5 and the 8 are the only engines that particular car needs.
Just watching a video of the Group B Audi in anger is a spine tingling event. And then actually driving it?!
Jim, I am glad you met your hero and live to tell about it!
I just now got to watch the video…man that 5 popper sure is a sexxy sounding plant! And I think that little beast spent 3/4 of the video in a 4-wheel power drift. Bet its a rush to drive!
The turbo-5 in Audi’s has always been a great sounding engine, and even better when uncorked and at full chat. Check out more of the videos when you have time, the guy that put that one together has several other excellent ones. Anything to do with rally quattro’s from the early to mid 80’s will be just as much fun to watch and listen to. You gotta love the left-foot braking action (see brake lights on) but with full throttle or at least bursts of it through the corners to keep the turbo spooled up.
I have to disagree on the drifting part, it looked completely opposite to me. It looked like they had the car in perfect control under all times. It looked like a perfect grip monster to me, totally glued to the track. I can’t even understand how they did that, especially on loose surfaces like gravel. The amount of grip that car had is astounding. So much so they just twist it around unseen corners in assured assumption the car could take it. I’ve actually never seen a car being flung around in so much control. It’s a monster….
That was a great read…
I have read through several of your posts. I too am a fan of most German machinery, but I didn’t know any of the details you posted. To say I am envious is an understatement.
Thanks so much for sharing
You lucky lucky chap!
Wonderful car, wonderful tale!
The Group B rally cars were some of the most exciting road cars ever, and the Audi was perhaps the ultimate.
A friend of a friend had one.
In red.
The interior was made by Recaro in tartan colors if I remember wel.
Anyway, he’d pull up in the car every now and then to let it loose out on the open.
The owner could afford it but was not a good driver.
So I remenber us going all four wheels loose and jumping like we’ d be in a rally.
My friend actually was a amateur rally driver.
These had an alloy engine block whicb is very, very rare only few were made.
As always a great read, Jim.
About the wheels though: werent’t they in fact in that odd TRX size and not 15″?
I would actually be interesred in reading about the whole background for that idea. Iirc, the Sport Quattro used those?
I remember reading about someone driving one of these at way past 120mph and suddenly noticing he could turn the steering wheel lock to lock due to the front wheels not actually touching the ground due to horrible downforce at high speed. I always wondered, if that was true and if it even seems possible.
I own an extremely rare copy of Jurgen Lewandowski’s book “Audi Sport Quattro” which I bought years ago, looking in there indicates that the street version uses 9×15 rims with an offset of 12, made by Speedline.
The tire spec is 235/45 VR 15 so no, definitely not TRX.
There was also a winter wheel available, spec of 7×15, offset 20 with a 185/65 HR 15 tire. Frankly that narrow of a section sounds frightening on that car unless there was actually deep snow on the ground.
The rally spec wheel is a 16″ and may have used some odd size rally tires, but those changed anyway depending on road surface (tarmac, snow, ice, gravel, etc) and other factors so maybe that’s what you are thinking of.
The book also lists top speed as 250km/h, which is equivalent to the 155mph that most German makes limited their cars to back then. I can’t imagine that it was not steerable above 120mph, that’s not a particularly high speed for the Autobahn and the car is definitely front heavy to the tune of 58/42% F/R
I just noticed I was slightly off on my price. Until 12/84 it was listed at DM195,000 and after 1/1/85 it was raised to DM203,500
The mix of colors was decided at the outset of production, so the first buyers got their choice but later on they ran out of certain colors and the subsequent buyers had to take what was still available.
The car I drove looks to be originally given to the French Audi manager, the book shows every car and where it was delivered, only two blue ones went to France so this one was either number 144 produced Nov 5, 1984 or number 195 produced Dec 11, 1984. The book even lists license plates numbers if they were known. Chassis number and production dates do not correlate, i.e. there was no method to the production order.
Only 8 came to the US directly from the factory, not for road legal sale,six were red, one white, one green. Of the 214 total produced, only 164 actually found their way into the hands of customers. Later, in 1988, 5 cars which had been used as spare part depots were completely overhauled and sold.
The green car in the lead photo, license plate IN-NE 90 is chassis number 200 and was produced Nov 22, 1984.
The book itself is magnificent, outstanding quality, many excellent pictures – the lead picture of this post is used in the book, and that car features heavily. It contains tons more info such as the fact that manual windows were standard, electric was optional due to weight concerns. The car was built to be everyday usable with strong components and ease of servicability considered important.
As far as building them, one anecdote concerns the front bumper inserts – building a tool would have been cost-prohibitive, so an aluminum block was cut out to serve as a mold and a flexible material called flexane (which is a rubber-like material) then can be produced in various degrees of hardness. It was possible to create one every day and let it harden overnight – so it took nine months to create all the bumper grill inserts!
The book itself is beautifully produced with a separate embossed linen-covered sleeve as well as including a copy of the pace notes from the 1985 Rally San Remo.
Thank you for the response, Jim. Now I’ll remember that they weren’t TRXs.
Just a question about the service photo from the 1984 Corsica Rally.
What are the four units lying on the grass next to the chap on the left wearing the red coat?
I believe it is shock/strut assemblies with brakes already attached. I think the coils are still wrapped in packaging material.
I think of the Sport Quattro as Hobbesian, “nasty brutish and short”. I love the evolution 2 with the early PDK sequential gearbox as an ultimate development, although the Pike’s Peak cars are even crazier.
Fantastic post Jim, what a great experience! A friend told me about a ride in a ‘normal’ Quattro that blew his mind.
Interesting to learn of the windscreen swap, the car attached ran in the Leyburn Sprints in a small town in Queensland and does not have it done (hard to see). I can understand it is not an easy thing to change but when building a replica why wouldn’t you?
I’m not positive why you wouldn’t change it when you’re going to all that trouble already. I’d certainly want it done. Although you’d need two donor cars instead of just one a standard Audi 80/90 for the necessary parts is cheap. In the end, it’s probably much more complicated to get it right as compared to the standard way of making two parallel cuts behind the doors all the way around and then joining it back up again.
Just got around to reading this–great story, and I’m glad to hear that your hero did not disappoint unlike so many others! Amazing car, I’d be happy to even lay eyes on one. Thanks for sharing this memory!