This 1984 Audi Quattro S1 Replica Is Turbocharged, Group B Madness

I am, of course, talking about the Audi Quattro, so let's check out the car, what Group B was and meant, and bask ourselves in turbocharged, fire-spitting craziness. First off, let's take a look at the class itself, and then we'll move on to the car.

Before Group B was created, WRC was already an exciting sight, with cars racing around tight corner streets, loose gravel roads, and slippery snowy woods. But, manufacturers had a whole lot of rules in place, meaning that the potential for these racing machines was limited to whatever could be squeezed out of a performance engine – that's where Group B steps in.

It was founded in 1982, and contrary to other classes, it was insanely permissive. While in Group A, a manufacturer needed to make 5,000 road cars to meet homologation rules, Group B only needed 200. And it also had an evolution clause, meaning that if a vehicle was updated, only 20 road cars needed to reflect the change.

On top of that, high-tech materials were permitted, there were no restrictions for boost, and the weight and tire width were dictated by the engine displacement. What followed was a symphony of flat-fours, V6s, and inline-fives screaming through dangerous roads while producing insane amounts of horsepower.

But there was a problem. As expected, cars were getting faster and faster, reaching numbers of over 500 hp (507 ps) - this translated into a lot of really dangerous crashes, and, in early 1986 in the Portuguese rally, Joaquim Santos tried to avoid a group of spectators, a move tht shot his RS200 into another group of spectators, injuring 31 people and killing three. This crash came a year after Lancia driver Attilio Bettega was killed in his 037. Another tragedy came again from Lancia when Henri Toivonen was killed alongside his co-driver as their Lancia S4 blew up, fell down a cliffside, and caught fire. And that was the end of Group B.

But it was an amazing, yet too dangerous, time of innovation and lunacy, which spawned a few great cars. One of them, even though its origins are in Group A, is the Audi Quattro, so let's take a look at it.

The Quattro history begins in 1976 in the snowy hills of Sweden, where Audi engineers were testing the four-by-four Volkswagen Iltis they were developing for the military. Seeing how capable the 75 hp (76 ps) boxy off-roader was, one of the engineers, named Jorg Bensinger, had the idea of shoving that drivetrain into an Audi sedan.

The result was an Audi 80 body slapped on the Iltis four-wheel-drive design – and it performed remarkably well, impressing a board of Audi execs on how capable it was on a snowy track in Austria, and the green light was given to produce the new cars that drove all four wheels – enter the Audi Quattro.

The Quattro went on to dominate in racing, specifically WRC Group A. At first, it wasn't allowed to race as the homologation rules were not met yet. That said, it took part as a non-competitive entry, and were it to compete, it would have won the Algarve rally by more than half an hour with Hannu Mikkola at the wheel - things were looking good from the get-go for Audi's new team, called Audi Sport.

While the Quattro was dominating the WRC, in Group B, horsepower wars were raging on. That meant that Audi had to step up their game, and in came the S1. And, today, to bask in all of that turbocharged glory, we have a replica Group B retro rally car thingy to dive deep into.

While this is just a replica, it is one done right. It's based on a 1984 Audi 80 chassis, and it has a plethora of modifications. On the outside, it has a carbon-kevlar E2-style body kit finished in white and wrapped with the old-school livery of the 1985 S1 Quattro that won the Sanremo rally. This white-and-yellow look houses really wide fenders, a big rear wing, and a front bumper the size of your average water slide.

Complementing the rally car looks are Hella driving lights and a set of 17-inch five-spoke wheels wrapped in Toyo Proxes tires. Behind them, you'll find cross-drilled and ventilated discs on all four corners with red Porsche calipers. Keeping it planted at the insane speeds that it can travel at are KW V3 coilovers.

Moving on to the cabin, and the race car theme continues. Upon sitting in the Sparco fixed-back seats, you'll find a Momo steering wheel that fronts a 200 kph (125 mph) speedometer and a 10,000 rpm tachometer alongside other gauges. You will also find aluminum Sparco pedals and, really surprisingly, air conditioning.

While this car looks insane both inside and out, let me blow your mind with the powerplant. The Audi Quattro, besides the evolutionary drivetrain, also used a really interesting engine – a five-cylinder turbocharged unit producing a little over 200 hp (203 ps) in roadgoing form. But, this makes quite more power than that.

While the 2.2-liter (134 ci) displacement of the five-pot is the same, that's about where the similarities end with the road cars. It has an anti-lag system, custom exhaust headers, a fuel cell, and a ginormous Garrett turbocharger - all of this translates to an insane 700 hp (710 ps) and a 9,000 rpm redline! All of that oomph is sent to all four rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox.

Now, if you want to live out your Group B fantasies, this particular Quattro is up at auction in Potomac, Maryland. It currently sits at 65,000 dollars, but buy at your own risk, as it is a really rowdy car, and thus it doesn't have a title because it isn't intended for road use – which might be a good thing.