# Audi Group S Prototype: The Little-Known Mid-Engine Audi Rally Car with Cloak & Dagger History



## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

If you've been through Audi's Museum Mobile then maybe you've spotted the above car rather anonymously sitting on the rotating paternoster of concept cars and prototypes. I've spotted it any number of times and my general understanding was that it was a mid-engine replacement for Audi's rallying Sport quattros. And while this is true, that only begins to tell the car's story.

Known simply as the Group S Prototype because it never really had a name and because it was being developed for competition in Group S rallying... a then-new level of rallying that may have made the legendary Group B spec look like it was for sissies.

A scan of a John Mcilroy article from an unknown magazine was originally posted over on S2forum.com back in 2005 and just this week re-posted over on the IEDEI blog that is a regular read of ours for obvious reasons.










The story is a bit cloak and dagger and, just as we love these things to be, tells us a lot of details about Audi we never really knew. Here are a few quick highlights...

- 1000 hp mid-engine Audi rallyin prototype
- Original Audi vs. Peugeot battle, though that one in rallying circa the mid 1980s
- Secret testing behind the iron curtain to avoid pesky press and photographers
- Super secret mid-engine Sport quattro prototypes
- Walter Rohrl caught by the police on German public roads in a prototype
- A VERY rare example of Ferdinand Piech losing a power struggle
- Forced dismantling of known existing examples save this lone version in Audi Tradition's hands
- Rumors of a secret car that remains in parts unknown

If you're looking to spend 10 minutes learning a lot more about the rally era at Audi that you likely never knew before... look no further and click the link below.

* Full Story *


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