€2m Audi quattro is a record breaker

Topping the charts

This 1988 Audi Sport quattro S1 made history in Paris on Friday (5 February 2021) when it sold for €2,016,600 with Artcurial Motorcars.

Its final sale price, including premium, was more than double its lower estimate and set a record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a rally car.

Super seven

The quattro was one of seven Group B rally cars from the same collection to be consigned to this sale at the Hôtel Dassault in Paris, which saw bidding in the room and on the phones.

All the cars came from the Manoir de l’Automobile, a museum in Lohéac, France, owned by friends Michel Hommell and Olivier Quesnel

Star performer

Of the seven, the Audi was the one to hit the highest price.

It is an example of the model’s final iteration and it joined this French collection back in 1989, directly from the manufacturer.

Big names

Perhaps some of the rallying superstars associated with this car helped nudge its price up?

This car was loaned by Audi for the first Race of Champions, organised by Michèle Mouton, which was held at Montlhéry on 4 December 1988, in memory of Henri Toivonen, who died during the 1986 Tour de Corse.

One by one

The competition was held on- and off-track, the racing being a timed special stage featuring the last eight world champions.

The drivers each took turns round the course, behind the wheel of cars brought to the event by the manufacturers.

It was won by Juha Kankkunen, Timo Salonen the runner-up.

Sealing the deal

Quesnel was at the event – and when he saw this car, he knew he wanted to add it to the museum.

It took a lot of perseverance and pestering before Audi agreed to sell it.

Seizing the opportunity

Quesnel himself picks up the story: “We completed all the paperwork with Audi AG, including a lengthy sales agreement, and my team went to collect the car and deliver it to Bruno Saby in Grenoble to be prepared before it was installed in the museum.

“It so happened that the same weekend, Bruno was organising an event for charity on the racetrack, which dated back to the 1968 Olympics. When he saw the quattro arrive on its trailer, he succeeded in persuading me to let him drive it. I just asked him to take care...”

A lucky trio

Quesnel continues: “Then Ari Vatanen turned up and asked me the same thing. And finally Michèle Mouton. I couldn't say no!

“But the turbo broke. I asked Audi for another one, and after the car had been repaired, it went to the museum.”

Seldom seen

According to the paperwork that accompanies this car, it left the factory on 14 September 1988, finished in ‘Alpinweiss’ with 1000km on its odometer.

However, it was only ever campaigned at that Race of Champions event, never seeing a WRC stage. And since entering the museum it has only been driven a few times by visiting rally drivers.

Pedal power

Its lack of competitive use and cosseted life within the collection undoubtedly contribute to its current apparently good condition.

And despite the car’s engine being rebuilt in the early 2000s, its winning bidder would be wise to carry out some recommissioning work on this Audi prior to driving it on the road.

The final hurrah

Being one of the ultimate-spec Group B Audi Sport quattros, the type that Walter Röhrl used to claim victory on the 1985 Sanremo Rally, this has the improved 52:48 front-rear weight distribution of these later cars.

The body also gained this now-legendary aerodynamics package.

Extra underbonnet urge

The later engines were reworked, too, to give more flexibility.

What’s more, they helped the quattro S1 to get from 0-62mph in a mere 2.6 secs.

We are the champions

Audi of course took Hannu Mikkola to the 1983 World Rally Championship drivers’ title with the quattro A1/A2, Stig Blomqvist champion the following year in the quattro A2/Sport quattro.

And perhaps more importantly for the marque, it claimed the manufacturers’ crown in both 1982 and 1984.

Over and out

But following Joaquim Santos’ crash in 1986, driving a Ford RS200 in Portugal, Audi withdrew from rallying.

Not from all competition, though.

The peak of success

Audi and its Sport quattros still went to Pikes Peak hillclimb in Colorado.

Michèle Mouton and Bobby Unser took wins there for Audi in 1985 and 1986 respectively, and in 1987 it was Walter Röhrl in an extreme version of the S1 who won in record time. 

Emotional memories

After this car’s brief competitive foray, the paperwork it was auctioned with details its sale to Olivier Quesnel: “I then went to Ingolstadt, and there in the courtyard were several competition cars under covers and, in the middle, the quattro S1 reserved for me, with no cover and the sign ‘Welcome Olivier’! It was quite moving.”

The sales agreement was signed on 22 February 1989, the invoice dated 9 March 1989.

Moving on

And now this example of the much-loved Group B era Audi has moved on to a new keeper.

With a detailed history file and having been carefully preserved, this is a special example – and now a record breaker in the auction house.

Another record

But there was more from this rally car collection, six others crossing the block last Friday.

And this 1985 Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 Evolution 2 also made history, selling for €977,440 against a pre-sale estimate of €600-800,000, a model record which received a round of applause at Artcurial Motorcars’ sale.

A second-place finish on the 1985 Tour de Corse, with Bruno Saby and Jean-François Fauchille, which was also the model’s debut, was an impressive start – and it was restored to the spec used in that event.

A drop of Martini

Also beating its estimate – which in this case was €600-800,000 – was this ’86 Martini-liveried Lancia Delta S4, a works car first campaigned by Miki Biasion. However his excellent second-place on the Memorial Bettega was a poorly timed debut, coming in December 1986, the year Group B was outlawed.

When Hervé Poulain’s gavel fell in Paris it was at €810,560.

Farewell to the Ford

Meanwhile, when this 1986 Ford RS200 crossed the block, it fell bang in the middle of its €250-400,000 estimate, changing hands for €381,440.

This particular car was the most successful of its breed, taken to a third-place finish in February 1986 on the World Rally Championship’s Swedish Rally by Kalle Grundel and Benny Melander.

A new home for this 037

The French museum’s 1985 Lancia 037, in Evo 2 configuration, was predicted to achieve €500-800,000 and sold for €548,320.

This car joined the collection from Italian specialist Volta where it had regained its famous livery, and is an eye-catching example of a model that was the marque’s only Group B champion.

Maximum result

And there was another new record.

This ex-Carlos Sainz ’85 Renault 5 Maxi Turbo was the subject of an intense bidding battle at Friday’s Artcurial auction.

The hammer fell at €667,520, over its €400-600,000 estimate, making this the most expensive Renault 5 ever sold.

A colourful champion

And also from the collection in Lohéac was this 1985 MG Metro 6R4, the car that in 1986 took the French Rally Championship title, driven by future World Rally Champion Didier Auriol, with Bernard Occelli his co-driver.

On Friday, it sold for €244,360, shy of its €280-360,000 pre-sale estimate.

Many millions

In all, the Artcurial Motorcars sale on 5 February 2021 in the French capital saw €18.3m change hands, but this Audi Sport quattro S1 becoming the most expensive rally car ever sold at auction wasn’t the only tale.

The 1972 Le Mans-winning Matra MS 670 achieved a €6,907,200 sale price, becoming the most expensive Matra to be sold in an auction.

You can read the auction’s full results here.