Quattro v Stratos (evo article)

I for one was amazed to see the Sport Quattro at RM in Scottsdale last week bring a paltry $365K. If ever there was a landmark/milestone/game-changing car, it was that one. Kevelar body, bristling with technology, wicked fast, a homologation special that singlehandedly invented the modern rally car. Selling for less than a 4 headlight 330 and a parade of garden variety dinos. The ur Quattro was a fantastic car; maybe it's bulldog looks turn people off?

 

I think the Kevlar body and other fancy technology was reserved for the rally version. The street version of Sport Quattro was pretty conventional so the $401,500 (10% buyers premium) that it sold at is impressive. By the way, the Sport Quattro didn't "singlehandedly invent the modern rally car". The credit goes to the earlier Quattro iterations - A1 and A2. The Sports Quattro was the third iteration and wasn't all that successful from what I know - it couldn't keep up with the mid-engine exotica from Peugeot and Lancia. The early Quattros did change rally racing by proving that all wheel drive was the way to go and did have real racing success to show for it. They were far from perfect though. Other than that the 4x4 breakthrough they were cars that had to deal with a lot of compromises that came from being based on a front engine production model. Traction was vastly superior but handling wasn't. It's not a surprise that in 1983 a less powerful but much lighter and more nimble RWD Lancia 037 managed to beat the Quattros and win the World Championship. This was the last time a RWD car won the championship and must have been quite a season to follow - the best of the previous era making one last stand against the technology that was to dominate the future of rally.

 

Fair point to credit the urQ and should've said 'defined' the modern rally car, certainly subject to debate but what else would you pick? The sport q w short wheelbase was reportedly a handful but unquestionably it was the most extreme expression of the ur.
The street version are most certainly Kevlar; The turbo and awd diff design was all pioneering engineering and the sport was a dedicated homologation specialty run just like porsche RS many of which were produced in bigger numbers and trade at 3-4X this price.

I have been trying to buy a friends car for 15 years and even at these prices I believe wildly undervalued.


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That comment about being these

 

Well, you certainly seem to know more about these then I do! I'm pleasantly surprised the body is indeed kevlar. The reason I assumed it wasn't is that with a lot of other Gr.B cars (like the 037) the rally version was kevlar but the stradale plain fiberglass. Have you driven a Sports Quattro? How does it compare to others like the Peugeot 205 t16?

 

Love the Quattro. We were watching the BBC show Ashes to Ashes with the red Quattro, and it is awesome to watch it in chase scenes. I will probably end up getting one (not the Sport).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01hdECKz_0k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgT1beCmlpU