They’re arguably some of the most exciting scenes ever seen in the world of motorsports: legendary racers such as Walter Röhrl, Stig Blomqvist and Hannu Mikkola driving the Audi Quattro flat out at World Rally Championship events in the early ’80s. Huge drift angles and wheels spinning at all four corners, while the aerodynamics – from formidable ventwork cooling the powerplant to a large front spoiler and massive bi-plane rear wing – fight physics to keep the car on the gravel.
As is often the case in motorsport, the highlights in terms of the car’s performance and subsequent achievements are often the product of a change in the regulations, or a team finding a loophole therein. At the time, the engineers at Audi decided to make
