While the M3 and 190E 2.3-16 took most of the laurels, a fair amount of DTM fans forget that it was the V8 quattro – replete with wood trim – that took the 1990 (Hans-Joachim Stuck) and 1991 (Frank Biela) crowns before its flat-plane crankshaft was deemed illegal. In 1991 Audi introduced an Evolution model, which sprouted adjustable front and rear spoilers. That’s what you see here – A rare Audi Sport race chassis that was initially run by race-winner Stuck and campaigned by Schmidt Motorsport. If you have deep enough pockets and happen to be cruising through Monaco, it can be yours!
One of the most popular tuning swaps in the Audi world until quite recently was to slot a 3B/AAN turbocharged 20V motor into a B3 coupe. The “Ersatz” (replacement) S2 required a fair amount of custom engineering, but you got a sleeper package that was capable of some serious performance that the U.S. bound Coupe quattro with its normally aspirated 7A 20V inline-5 lacked. For an effectively an entire generation these custom turbocharged examples have held a special place in the market, worth more than generally every other Audi from the period, but that’s changing. Now it’s 2016 and the market has awoken to the original Quattro; really pristine examples have shot through the roof in terms of pricing. But the bigger thorn in the side for custom-made S2s is that the real factory built S2s are now importable to the U.S.. While that’s not the easiest road to travel, if you search around you can find some real budget examples of the real-deal original S2 for much less than the asking price of U.S. bound replica cars. While this 1993 is still a few years from legal importation, it certainly gets me thinking about what could be:
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Audi seemed a bit lost in terms of direction of its motorsports programs. With the death of Group B following the development of the monster S1 E2 Quattro, Audi turned to the 200 to lead its racing brigade from Group A rally to the crazy Trans-Am effort. That would continue with the introduction of the V8 quattro, campaigned in the DTM in 1991 and 1992 before being banned. But focus would return to the smaller chassis cars in the early 1990s, with Audi introducing a line of Super Touring 80s and the most memorable of the bunch, the flame spitting Audi 90 IMSA GTO racers. Though few remember the 80 STW, it was run extensively in the DTM and Italian Super Touring series and paved the way for the later A4 STW that would dominate many international touring classes in 1996. But there was a lesser known development, that of the ROC engineered 80 quattro Supertourisme. Built by ROC in 1991 on behalf of Audi Sport for the French Super Touring class, it was unlike any of the super touring cars Audi produced:
Motorsports seems to undergo a giant leap every decade or so, where rules changes or massive shifts in technological innovation immediately render the existing designs antiquated. I was thinking of this while watching Le Mans a few nights ago; only a decade after the swoopy 917s ruled the tracks of Europe, the ground effects era of the 956/962 would be ushered in. Fast forward another 10 years and they’d be effectively completely gone because of rule changes as prototypes moved towards open cockpit designs once again. Innovation was not limited to prototypes, though; everything from touring cars to Formula 1 goes through similar cycles of design and innovation, and for fans of each series there are favorite periods. For many in Formula 1, there are the evocative memories of the wingless Cosworth-DFV powered V8 missiles sliding around Spa’s course – or perhaps the flame-spitting Turbo Era and the birth of the Senna legend. For Touring Car fans, it comes down to preference, but I love watching those early to mid-1990s BTCC races, personally. And in World Rally, for many it’s the era that defined the spectacle of the WRC; the roaring Quattro and it’s complete revision of the rules of how to go off-road racing. Big budgets, legendary designers and drivers, an unconventional layout and one absolutely roaring 5-cylinder soundtrack was a recipe worthy of the notoriety the Quattro has gained:
While Touring Car fans are widespread (after all, we can interpret NASCAR as a form of Touring Cars, right? crickets chirp in the distance), it seems that every fan has their favorite era. For some, it’s the wild wings and gold BBS wheels from the 1970s that defined production-based racers. For others, the winged warriors from the 1980s and early 1990s are the best era; after all, we get the M3 and 190E 2.5-16 Evolution from those generations. I have to admit that my personal favorite touring car has to be the V8 quattro that was won the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft in 1990 and 1991 is my favorite because Audi just did things differently. They took their largest car, kept some luxury details like the wood trim, and stomped on both BMW and Mercedes-Benz with their lightened luxury liner. But although there was some stellar racing from some superstars of the 1980s in the DTM around then, it’s not personally my favorite period. For that, I’d have to move up towards the mid-1990s, when even more companies like Nissan, Opel and Renault joined Audi and BMW at the front of race series like the British Touring Car Championship. I watched in awe as pilots like championship-winning Frank Biela rubbed doorhandles with the Alain Menu, Matt Neil and John Cleland. And who could forget Rickard Rydell, the Super Swede piloting the 850 wagon replete with inflatable dog in the back? It gave the series more character; you genuinely weren’t sure who would win any day the flag fell, and that made for some great watching. Today, two stars from that period are for sale and allow us the rare opportunity to get into a touring car – if you have the means:
