700HP Audi Quattro Monster | LCE Performance

1985 Audi Sport Quattro: The Group B Homologation Special

In Austria in 1980, just a year after four-wheel drive cars became eligible to compete in the WRC, Audi debuted the first Quattro rally car and forever changed the sport. Over the next half of the decade (and onwards, if you count the Pikes Peak specials), these Audis would be subjected to a period of rapid iterative evolution that led to the short-wheelbase Sport Quattro models that helped define the infamously fast and dangerous era of Group B rallying. The relatively lax nature of the Group B regulations gave rise to a number of downright ferocious cars from Audi’s competitors (most notable being Lancia and Peugeot), and while it was not the most successful nor technologically advanced of these top tier cars by the end of the Group B era, the Sport Quattro is a worthy poster child for the lot of them—being first to the punch has its advantages. The advent of the Group B class provided manufacturers with practically every leeway imaginable given they adhered to a basic set of limits on the car’s engine capacity, track width, and weight, but in order to race these monsters they had to produce 200 versions for the street. The result of this requirement was a group of legendary homologation specials like the Lancia 037, Lancia Delta S4, MG Metro 6R4, and Peugeot 205 T16. Audi’s contribution to this lot was the Sport Quattro road car, a 300-horsepower box-flared rally weapon with license plates. In this week’s film we’re joining our host Sam Hancock for a tour through the history of Audi’s paradigm-shifting rally program in the 1980s, as well as through the Swiss Alps behind the wheel of a homologation special that lives up to its purpose. More films, articles, and photos: https://www.petrolicious.com

1980 Porsche 924 Carrera GT: From Entry-Level To Homologation Special

This week we’re returning to join host Sam Hancock for a drive in a special Porsche in Italy. Among a certain group of the Porsche faithful, the 924 has long been considered a lowlier model in the company’s 911-dominated history. The base model 924 was in fact not an entirely in-house Porsche project either, born as it was from the reshuffled plans of a water-cooled Volkswagen sports car that never came to be. The Porsche-badged, entry-level, front-engined machine that eventually came to be wasn’t the fastest car on the strassen of Stuttgart, but it was a well thought-out overall package, a suitable replacement for the aged 914, and also a solid base on which to build a sports racing program. Which is what Porsche did for the 1980 season, basing its sports racing contenders on the homologation special featured in today’s film, the 924 Carrera GT. The Carrera GT road car formed the regulatory basis for Porsche to build racing versions of the Carrera that would compete for the factory team in the world’s major motorsport contests. Contests like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where Porsche managed a sixth-place overall finish against outright prototypes in 1980 with the 924, and a class win the following year. The racing pedigree of the 924 platform is owed in part to the potential of the base model 924 chassis, but the turbocharged wide body Carrera GT saw to it that some of that racing potential also made it onto the street. An output of around 210 horsepower is not an astounding amount on its own, but considering it was extracted from what was started as a pretty tame VW-Audi inline-four, it is considerably more impressive in that context. And speaking of context, it’s hard to imagine a better place to drive than the mountain roads of Lombardy. More films, articles, and photos: https://www.petrolicious.com

Ferrari 348 GT Competizione