Coming across an Audi Quattro, or even a Sport Quattro, is already rare, but finding one prepped for hill climbs is even more extraordinary! Spotter Tizz420 captured this fantastic scene in Lugano, where a race-ready Sport Quattro takes center stage. In the background, we see the more common Quattro, still a remarkable car, alongside a red Bentley Bentayga cruising by. If you look closely, there's even a third Quattro lurking in the distance. What a perfect combo!
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Let’s take a look back at Audi and their iconic Sport Quattro. The rebirth of the Audi brand in 1965 and the merger of Auto Union and NSU in 1969 brought a new focus on motorsport. Excluding the pre-WWII era, including Auto Union's legendary Grand Prix race cars from the 1930s, Audi’s motorsport history truly began with the Quattro.
By 1986, the first six years of the Quattro era came to an end. Drivers like Mouton, Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist, and Walter Röhrl had secured 23 World Rally Championship (WRC) victories and four world titles for Audi in Ingolstadt. Even during a transitional year in 1987, Audi managed to win the grueling Safari Rally with a Group A quattro model. This era exemplified how motorsport can turn a technological idea into a success: quattro was the triumph of a concept. After Audi revolutionized rally racing and stormed Pikes Peak three times in a row with record-breaking runs in the Sport Quattro, they proved the quattro drivetrain's capability on circuit racing tracks as well. First came the Audi 200 quattro in the 1988 Trans-Am series and the Audi 90 quattro in the 1989 IMSA-GTO in the USA. Then, in 1990 and 1991, Audi captured two titles in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) with the Audi V8 quattro, followed by success in super touring car championships with the A4 quattro.
In 1996, the Audi A4 Quattro won championships in seven countries. Between 2012 and 2016, Audi brought all-wheel-drive back to the track in the form of the hybrid e-tron Quattro system in the Audi R18 LMP1 race car.
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1984 - The double World Championship
It seemed as though the switch to a new sponsor, adopting the yellow and white colors of cigarette manufacturer HB alongside the familiar Audi livery, had brought a wave of good fortune. In the first three events of the 1984 WRC season, the powerful Audi Quattro A2s dominated in spectacular fashion. Walter Röhrl, in his first-ever outing in a Quattro at Monte Carlo, secured a legendary victory, with Stig Blomqvist and Hannu Mikkola taking second and third places.
When Blomqvist and Röhrl faced off in the same team with the same cars for the first time, conditions were treacherous. It was all snow, snow, and more snow, along with a powerful storm that buried everything in its path. It felt like the winters of the 1960s, with snowdrifts as high as a Mini Cooper. For the rear-wheel-drive competitors, it was chaos. Stig Blomqvist, starting with number 7, passed a Lancia, squeezed past a Porsche, and found himself behind a Nissan. "Damn traffic," Stig remarked at the finish, "what was going on out there?" Röhrl, starting first, had a different challenge: spectators who were still wandering in the middle of the road with their picnic baskets, unaware of the incoming cars until they heard the turbo whistle muffled by the snow. The rest became the stuff of legend, with the media running out of superlatives to describe the feat, from "legendary" to "otherworldly." As they descended into Monte Carlo, Christian Geistdörfer, Röhrl's co-driver, turned to his boss and congratulated him on the greatest performance of his life. What had happened? Röhrl had beaten Blomqvist six times in a row. His driving had transcended what was normally possible. The icier the conditions, the bigger his lead over Stig, though always just by a few seconds - enough to make you wonder what was unfolding on those snowy roads when Blomqvist, the "king of ice and snow" and a left-foot braker since childhood, was driving flat out.
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At the Corsica Rally, the shorter Sport Quattro was introduced for the first time. As soon as Walter Röhrl got behind the wheel on those wide Michelins, he sensed something was off: "This thing's got a problem." Sure enough, it did. Later testing revealed that the thermostat was stuck and wouldn’t open, which caused the car to overheat quickly. During the rally, temperatures skyrocketed within the first five kilometers of the opening stage: water reached 118°C, and the oil hit 160°C. By the end of the stage, both Röhrl and Geistdörfer needed medical treatment after inhaling hot oil fumes, feeling as if they'd been poisoned. Four liters of water were added to the engine, but the damage was already done. Though the thermostat was eventually removed, the engine had already been compromised. Röhrl continued on, finishing in eighth, ninth, and even sixth place before the car eventually caught fire. Fortunately, Röhrl was out of his harnesses quickly, and Geistdörfer didn’t have to think twice about where the fire extinguisher was. Oil had leaked out like a geyser and ignited the car’s plastic parts, leaving a dramatic scene behind as the following cars battled through smoke and steam.
At the Acropolis Rally, Audi secured another double victory with Blomqvist and Mikkola, both driving the long-wheelbase quattro. Hannu Mikkola also claimed third at the Safari Rally, while Austrian driver Franz Wittmann finished a remarkable eighth overall in this Easter marathon.
Audi brought the manufacturers' title back to Ingolstadt, celebrating another double victory. Although 1984 was meant to showcase the shorter Sport Quattro, it was the original, long-wheelbase Quattro that claimed the crucial victories for the championship. Stig Blomqvist became world champion, winning more events than any other driver that season (Sweden, Greece, New Zealand, Argentina, and the Ivory Coast). The world belonged to Stig, though a new threat loomed with the emergence of the Peugeot 205 T16.
Blomqvist’s championship was partly thanks to his stubborn decision to stick with the long-wheelbase Quattro, even though the shorter Sport Quattro was theoretically the better car. In reality, the new Sport Quattro struggled to live up to expectations. Despite Audi’s efforts, the car failed to become truly competitive. Its only World Rally Championship victory came at the Ivory Coast Rally.
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