Photo: Collecting Cars
Rally legend, automotive icon, timeless beauty – there are a lot of things that you can call this rare Audi Quattro, but definitely not a dull car. Especially not in Australia, where this dream car was never sold, making it a particularly coveted model.
A stunning 1985 Audi Quattro, with a previous life in the UK, was recently sold by Collecting Cars for almost $69,000 (A$93,000). It was presented as being “mechanically strong," with everything functioning, including the LCD dash, air-conditioning and electric windows. But the most striking thing about it that it looks to be in great condition, both on the outside and the inside, with minimal wear and no known bodywork damage.
It would’ve been a shame if this weren’t the case, because the powerful Tornado Red Quattro version is actually an iconic model. For those who remember two British crime drama series that were very popular at the time of this model’s making (Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes), the “DCI Gene Hunt” character was known for his Tornado Red Ur-Quattro.
Many cars claim to be legendary, but few truly are. The Ur-Quattro is definitely one of them. It’s hard to believe that what would later become a motorsport icon started out as an off-road vehicle for the German Army.
In 1976, the VW Iltis showed impressive performance on challenging terrain, compared to front-wheel-drive cars, and this is how the idea of developing an Audi car with four-wheel drive came to be. The Italian-inspired name perfectly matched the strong character of this innovative model, at the time.
The Ur-Quattro was unveiled at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show, and it stayed in production for more than a decade, until 1991. In 2020, Audi celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Quattro, as well as another milestone – the all-wheel drive technology had been installed in more than 10.5 million Audi vehicles.
In the first half of this decade, the Quattro also gained immense notoriety for being the first all-wheel-drive World-Rally Car and accumulating no less than 23 victories at the World Rally Championship. By the end of the ‘80s, the focus was more on touring car racing, with the Audi Quattro winning the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) and the TransAm series.
It would’ve been a shame if this weren’t the case, because the powerful Tornado Red Quattro version is actually an iconic model. For those who remember two British crime drama series that were very popular at the time of this model’s making (Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes), the “DCI Gene Hunt” character was known for his Tornado Red Ur-Quattro.
Many cars claim to be legendary, but few truly are. The Ur-Quattro is definitely one of them. It’s hard to believe that what would later become a motorsport icon started out as an off-road vehicle for the German Army.
In 1976, the VW Iltis showed impressive performance on challenging terrain, compared to front-wheel-drive cars, and this is how the idea of developing an Audi car with four-wheel drive came to be. The Italian-inspired name perfectly matched the strong character of this innovative model, at the time.
The Ur-Quattro was unveiled at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show, and it stayed in production for more than a decade, until 1991. In 2020, Audi celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Quattro, as well as another milestone – the all-wheel drive technology had been installed in more than 10.5 million Audi vehicles.
In the first half of this decade, the Quattro also gained immense notoriety for being the first all-wheel-drive World-Rally Car and accumulating no less than 23 victories at the World Rally Championship. By the end of the ‘80s, the focus was more on touring car racing, with the Audi Quattro winning the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) and the TransAm series.
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