ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST ICONIC HOMOLOGATION CARS HEADS TO AUCTION - A MINTER OF A 1988 AUDI SPORT QUATTRO
The Group B rally class from the 1980s was the pinnacle of automotive competition and racing, it was fast, exciting, entertaining and ridiculously dangerous. So dangerous that it was eventually banned altogether. There were simply too many deaths involved, and that went for races and spectators. To be fair, spectators from back then were next-level stupid and did things that would get them lifetime bans from motorsport events, or even jail time. Group B was introduced way back in 1982 and it pushed the limits of technology, speed, and performance to unprecedented levels thanks to massive budgets allocated by the various automakers involved in racing at the time. Group B regulations allowed manufacturers to create highly advanced and powerful rally cars while having minimal restrictions on technology, design, and materials. The competition was fierce between the likes of Audi, Ford, Lancia, Peugeot and Renault and they had some amazing cars created for the sole purpose of winning races. While all these automakers had flagship cars, none were more recognisable than the Audi Quattro Sport. As is usually the case, to get the car eligible for competition use, a certain number of road-going examples had to be built and sold through regular dealerships. As you might imagine, with the race series being in the region of 40 years old now, there are even fewer of these limited-number homologation cars left making them rare, sought-after and eye-wateringly expensive. When clean examples come up for sale, they can fetch really good money. This specific example recently listed at RM Sotheby’s for the annual Arizona auction is arguably one of the cleanest around.
The car listed is 1 of 214 Sport Quattros constructed and is believed to be one of the only examples delivered new to Japan in the 80s. It was first sold to Japanese collector Yoshikuni Okamoto, who is well known for his amazing collection of sports cars. The car was well-looked after from delivery and it shows, when the car was brought over from Japan the odometer read just a smidge over 7,000 km. The current owner took that mileage up to 8,806 km, which can be broken down to around 200 km per year over 40 years. That’s just madness. The QS has white over grey leather with cloth Recaro Sport seats as well as a host of Japanese-specific factory decals. There’s even an aftermarket Sony colour TV system in the dash. The consignor, a former North American Rally Championship driver, continued the high standard of care during his near-decade of ownership, the QS was meticulously stored, maintained and run monthly in a climate-controlled facility and it was entrusted to both Anderson Motorsport of Chanhassen, Minnesota and Audi of St. Paul, Minnesota for servicing and preventative maintenance. The sale includes a set of tools, the jack, an owner’s and service manual, a radio manual, all relevant import documents, former bills of sale, and service invoices. The turbocharged 2.1-litre 5-cylinder powerplant and Quattro all-wheel drive system remain stock, it’s a 5-speed manual. As you can see from the images taken by Kris Clewell, this is an amazingly clean and neat 40-year-old car. It’s estimated to bring in between $575,000 and $700,000 (up to just over R13,000,000) when it goes under the hammer later this month. With the new Race for Glory: Audi vs Lancia movie about to release, there should be even more interest in the sale.
Take a look at the YouTube video from the Petrolicious crew as they take a deep dive into everything about one of the most recognisable and iconic homologation cars of all time, the original Audi Quatro Sport. The street version is amazing and it did what it needed to do to get the car into the legendary Group B rally series of the 1980s: 1984 Audi Sport Quattro: The Racer’s Daily | Petrolicious
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