Audi's first two circuit racers in full detail ...
In the early 1980s, Audi entered and revolutionised rallying with the sophisticated 'Quattro' all-wheel drive system. The five-cylinder engined machines would go on to win everything from the World Rally Championship to the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. By the end of the decade, the existing racers were rendered obsolete for various reasons, and on the insistence of Audi of America, the German manufacturer produced its very first circuit racer. Known as the 200 Quattro Trans-Am or simply 'R4', the first one was built to race in the 1988 SCCA Trans-Am series. It was built around the 200 chassis and featured a single-overhead camshaft version of the familiar five cylinder engine. A major point of the exercise was to show the Quattro system worked as well on solid ground as it did on the loose surface of the rally stages. This point was well proven and the 200 Quattro Trans-Am dominated in its debut season. Such was the might of the Quattro machine that the SCCA decided to ban all-wheel drive from 1989 onwards.
Audi was forced to look elsewhere and soon decided to enter the even more competitive IMSA GT Championship. Its even more liberal rulebook allowed Audi to build a new racer from scratch, using only the roof of the 90 Quattro it was based on. The R5, or 90 Quattro IMSA GTO featured the full competition specification of the five-cylinder engine, which produced well over 700 bhp and 720 Nm of torque. To make sure all this power could be used effectively, the car was fitted with 14" wide tyres on all four corners. Arriving too late to compete in the long distance races at Daytona and Sebring, the 90 Quattro IMSA GTO raced in eleven rounds of the championship, winning no fewer than seven. Like its predecessor, the R5 was raced for only a season as Audi opted to race in the DTM in 1990.
We captured both the 200 Quattro Trans-Am and the 90 Quattro IMSA GTO in full detail at a joint outing during the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Enjoy the links:
1989 Audi 90 Quattro IMSA GTO - Images, Specifications and Information
1988 Audi 200 Quattro Trans-Am - Images, Specifications and Information
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
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