Description
This lot will be auctioned via Iconic Auctioneers, The Iconic Sale at Race Retro 2025 - Competition Cars on Saturday the 22nd of February, Stoneleigh Park, Stoneleigh Rd, Coventry, CV8 2LG. The Sport version of Audi's sensational Quattro was launched in the autumn of 1983, three years after the original's unveiling at the Geneva Salon had taken the motoring world by storm. It had a shortened wheelbase and was fitted with a new, lighter version of the five-cylinder engine boasting an aluminium block and a Twin-Cam 20-valve cylinder head, while anti-lock braking made its first appearance on a Quattro-equipped Audi. Running on Bosch HI-Jetronic fuel-injection, the extensively revised engine developed a claimed 306bhp and gave this quite remarkable road car a top speed of around 155mph. Audi built 214 examples of the Sport, though only 164 were actually sold to customers. We are delighted to be able to offer Keith Edward's legendary 800bhp-plus, SWB Audi S1. It was initially purchased by garage owner and rally driver Keith as a family road car but there were always lots of cars around and the Audi was eventually hardly used. Passionately interested in motorsport, Keith was staring at the car one day and considering selling it, but then he thought that it might be fun to prepare it for a bit of hill climbing at local club level. There simply is not space here to cover the next 30 years of the Quattro's history but a lot of it is available on some much-watched videos and magazine articles. Success at club level led to the car being developed further and further as Keith is a talented and innovative engineer, until it was so competition-focused that it was no longer practical to run it as a road-registered car. Developed and then developed some more over the years, there followed about ten years in the British Hillclimb Championship, a further four or five enjoying invitation events around Europe and finally the ultimate accolade, an invitation from Pikes Peak International Hill Climb to take part in 'The Race to the Clouds'. Keith has a legendary attention to detail and throughout the two decades of development, every nut, bolt, pipe and bracket was given consideration in terms of its weight, fitness for purpose and aesthetic merit with shaving tenths of a second the criteria. There came a point however, when the only way to make the car more competitive was to shorten the wheelbase, as had been done by the factory in late 1983 and Dialynx of Swindon, renowned Quattro specialists and builders of SWB cars and Sport Quattro 'Group B' replicas, were tasked with the job. The body was stripped of its panels, reduced in length by removing 320mm between the B and C posts and rebuilt using Kevlar-composite panels and mouldings (copied directly from Audi UK's own 'Group B' car), with most of the glass replaced by Perspex. Only the original roof and doors remained and even the doors were pared down to about 4lbs in weight. Shortly afterwards, the 10-valve engine was replaced by a 20-valve unit which was extensively modified by Dialynx. Details of these engine mods are academic as the engine has been further developed by Keith himself since then (current spec below). The car's adventures in Europe in this form are all documented in the enormous history file and on a number of YouTube videos. The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), also known as 'The Race to the Clouds', is an invitational automobile hill climb to the summit of Pikes Peak – America’s Mountain in Colorado - and is held on the last Sunday in June. From the start at 9, 400ft, the 12. 42 mile course has 156 bends and finishes at 14, 115ft, a climb of over 4, 700ft, not far short of a mile vertically. If you were in an unpressurised aeroplane at that height you would have been wearing an oxygen mask for some time, so setting up an internal combustion engine to run on reduced oxygen levels can be complex. The invitation to run the car at Pikes Peak is a major honour within the hill climb community and was proudly received by Keith. The Audi was shipped to Colorado Springs in both 2018 and 2019, however neither year was to bring fulfilment, with the car overheating in 2018 (subsequently sorted after testing at Blyton Park, pre-COVID) and despite good practice runs in 2019, the clouds closed in on Race Day and that was that. The full story is on YouTube. Whilst intending to return in 2020, COVID regulations, increasing costs and lack of time mean that Keith has sadly made the decision that after 30-plus years, having accomplished everything else, he and his beloved Audi will have to part ways. We understand that the Audi would be welcome again at Pikes Peak with Keith having received another invitation recently or, closer to home, would be welcome here in the UK at club level hill climbs, sprints or even Time Attack. UK-registered and road-legal (subject to a few sensitive modifications) it could be used on the road driving to events, but...
