Why did Audi leave WRC?

AL_B

AL_B

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Why did Audi leave rallying?

You always hear people say Audi "dominated rallying" - but it doesn't appear that way to me after reading Jeremy Waltons "Quattro" book (which stops at '83/'84). From what I've read the 5-cyl 10v and the later 20v engines were plagued with reliability problems which took some time to iron out. So quite a few times the Audi's didn't finish. Plus there were accidents etc. too. It was only on snow, gravel, and British RAC which Audi dominated. Tarmac stuff like Corsica, rwd cars trounced Audi - hardly domination. Plus a couple of times, Audi went to rallies that their main competitors didn't attend, in order to get enough points to keep up or keep at the top in the championship.

Now, Lancia on the other hand, 1987 onwards won chamionship after championship, year after year - thats domination.

Views, comments?

AL
 
Audi left WRC and Group B rallying in 1987 and went on to America for NASCAR

The catalyst for this was that after Henri Toivonen was killed in the Corsica rally driving a Lancia in 1986, Group B was basically canned (it was just getting too dangarous). Audi withdrew from Group B immediately after this and entered only a handful of rallies in the 1987 season with a 200 Quattro.

There you go /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
audi upgrades
Nope! he is correct, give that man a gold star!!! I have a photo of the 200 Turbo quattro being driven in rally guise...

Further to that, Group B was getting to the ridiculous stage of 500bhp+ from cars such as the 6R4, the Stratos, and the Pug T16...

Audi then went on to participate in the American Pikes Peak hill climb with the short wheelbase Quattro, the 2.2 Turbo then developed to deliver over 1000bhp!! the Record for the most horsepower from a 2ltr engine as it was termed still stands today....Incidentally, if you look for a video called the "Quattro Experience" you will see the Short wheelbase Quattro in action... The brakes on these were water cooled, yes! water cooled, Audi trialed these before reverting back to the standard Oil cooled, hence if you look in the video you will see puffs of steam from the wheels...

In order that the Short wheelbase Quattro could participate in Group B Audi had to beat the Homologation ruling that meant that the car used for rallying had to be one in current production, although modified, so to get around this rule Ingolstadt made 50 Short wheelbase models, an extremely rare car these days.. There is a photo available of all the new owners picking up their cars at the factory, and today there is still the annual pilgrimage to the factory by these owners although now an exclusive club....

These cars had the 20v Engine fitted to them along with a larger water cooled KKK turbo charger.

The Quattro was actually a coupe born out of the parts bin only, if you look closely you'll see the similarity to the quattro from the interior switch gear, through to the head lights etc ....
 
28v6 said:
Nope! he is correct, give that man a gold star!!! I have a photo of the 200 Turbo quattro being driven in rally guise...

Further to that, Group B was getting to the ridiculous stage of 500bhp+ from cars such as the 6R4, the Stratos, and the Pug T16...

Audi then went on to participate in the American Pikes Peak hill climb with the short wheelbase Quattro, the 2.2 Turbo then developed to deliver over 1000bhp!! the Record for the most horsepower from a 2ltr engine as it was termed still stands today....Incidentally, if you look for a video called the "Quattro Experience" you will see the Short wheelbase Quattro in action... The brakes on these were water cooled, yes! water cooled, Audi trialed these before reverting back to the standard Oil cooled, hence if you look in the video you will see puffs of steam from the wheels...

In order that the Short wheelbase Quattro could participate in Group B Audi had to beat the Homologation ruling that meant that the car used for rallying had to be one in current production, although modified, so to get around this rule Ingolstadt made 50 Short wheelbase models, an extremely rare car these days.. There is a photo available of all the new owners picking up their cars at the factory, and today there is still the annual pilgrimage to the factory by these owners although now an exclusive club....

These cars had the 20v Engine fitted to them along with a larger water cooled KKK turbo charger.

The Quattro was actually a coupe born out of the parts bin only, if you look closely you'll see the similarity to the quattro from the interior switch gear, through to the head lights etc ....
Click to expand...


Hi Dave , glad to see your keeping us on the straight and narrow, will need to meet up again for a beer wehn work allows, mick
 
If you still want to see an Audi rallying look out for David Kynaston's self built 4x4 A3. Saw (and heard) it on stage in last year's Manx National rally and then again at the Jim Clark. Running the DTM motor is sounds unbelievable as he shifts up through the box out of a junction, must be one of the sweetest sounding rally cars around, although Andy Burton fans may disagree!
 
I remember Andy Burtons AlphaFerrari. Wicked. Whats he got now ?
Remember seeing Kynastons old car before he bent it. Haven't seen the new one though.

Chris.
 
s3bow said:
I remember Andy Burtons AlphaFerrari. Wicked. Whats he got now ?
Remember seeing Kynastons old car before he bent it. Haven't seen the new one though.

Chris.
Click to expand...

I've missed all the season so far cos I've been in Singapore, come home at last this weekend just in time to miss the Dukeries rally.

Andy Burton is running a 306ish space framed 4 wheel drive monster that is not so nice to look at but really flies on stage.

David Kynaston's latest car is built on the new A3 and is the sort of thing Audi should build, the engine is so far back it could almost be classed as mid-engined. It looks stunning although the engine sticking through into the cab makes seating a little cramped!
 
DuncS3 said:
Audi left WRC and Group B rallying in 1987 and went on to America for NASCAR

The catalyst for this was that after Henri Toivonen was killed in the Corsica rally driving a Lancia in 1986, Group B was basically canned (it was just getting too dangarous). Audi withdrew from Group B immediately after this and entered only a handful of rallies in the 1987 season with a 200 Quattro.

There you go /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Click to expand...

Bang on, have a few old vids from back then ;)
 
If you can get those vids on to DVD ( i have the hardware to do so I think)......
I reckon you could probably sell a few copies on Ebay tec.... I'd buy a copy!
 
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