Audi Quattro | PH Auction Block

The icon that revolutionised rallying, available for roughly the price of a lightly used GR Yaris...

There’s arguably never been a better time for homologation specials than in the '80s. You can thank Group B for much of that, with manufacturers desperate to prove their cars capable of surviving the punishment meted out by the World Rally Championship, which required them to build a handful of road-going specials to meet the entry requirements. The Lancia Delta S4, Peugeot 205 T16 and Ford RS200 are still among the most iconic cars ever homologated, and while they weren’t the first or last of the breed, few have pushed the boundaries of ‘normal car’ performance quite like the rally machines of four decades ago. 

Moreover, the decade saw the introduction of technologies that actually had an impact on the wider car industry, unlike the hyper-complex hybrid stuff Formula 1 has been pushing since 2014. For instance, twin-charging was first introduced on the Delta S4 and, though not ubiquitous, has appeared in numerous VW and Volvo products as a clever way to reduce turbo lag. And while turbocharging itself had been used in road cars long before the golden era of rallying, there’s no denying rallying helped spur its wider adoption. But the real game-changer of course was all-wheel drive, made popular by the likes of the Audi quattro, which is what we have here.

Admittedly, the quattro wasn’t the first performance car to feature all-wheel drive (famously Jensen had beaten the Germans to it with the FF over a decade prior) but the boxy coupe sold in considerably greater numbers and can lay claim to revolutionising the rally scene. It racked up three wins in its first WRC season in 1981, before clinching a pair of drivers’ and constructors’ championships apiece (not necessarily in the same year) between 1982 and 1984. Lancia famously beat Audi to the manufacturer’s title in ’83, but it employed some outrageous tactics to do it given how superior the all-wheel drive quattro was compared to the rear-wheel drive 037 on all but the tarmac rallies. 

Towards the end of the Group B era, Audi’s competitors developed their own all-wheel drive systems and it wasn’t long before Lancia and Peugeot were clocking up rally wins. These were essentially mid-engine prototypes, whereas the Quattro remained closely linked to its road-going counterpart until the ruleset was scrapped in 1986. But while it wasn’t as dominant as our rose-tinted memories would have us believe, its impact on rallying - and on the car industry as a whole - is undeniable.

Thankfully, Audi’s rally machine (the Sport variant aside) is far more accessible than many homologation specials of the era because it was built in comparatively high volume. That said, being a car of the '80s means a good chunk of them are a little rough around the edges. Not the case with this example, mind, which looks almost every bit as good as it would've done 40 years ago. And for good reason: the seller has gradually restored the bodywork during their ownership, with any remaining blemishes set to be addressed before being collected by the winning bidder. The interior, meanwhile, has been left untouched bar a Sony CD head unit that doesn’t look too out of place. The seats, steering wheel and Audi-branded floor mats are all original, and you can smell the deliciously aged leather from the pictures alone.

The rest of the car has also been left unmodified, with the wonderfully unorthodox 2.1-litre inline-five turbo engine developing its original 200hp. Despite covering a mightily impressive 134,600 miles, the car has only accrued 1,000 of those since 2008 and has been off the road since 2022. Accordingly, a wee bit of ‘recommissioning’ might be required to get it back on song, though happily it’s already said to be in ‘fine mechanical condition’ as it is. The guide price is £32,000 to £34,000, far from the most expensive Quattro on sale at the moment. Bidding opens on Sunday. 

See the original advert here