It’s not very often that you see dedicated hillclimb cars in a drag strip, but the following Audi Quattro S1 E2 was recently taken to Santa Pod Raceway and let loose.
The classic Quattro is one of the most famous hillclimb and rally event cars ever created, and this particular example is even more special.
It all started back in the 1980s, when a man by the name of David Rowe gathered the front end of an Audi 80 and the back of a Coupe Quattro and proceeded to mate the two together over a custom roll cage and a chassis which was seam-welded front to back.
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Under its lightweight skin is a 2.5-liter turbocharged five-cylinder from a TT RS that has been comprehensively modified and includes everything from forged pistons to I-beam rods and custom cams. There is also a bespoke stainless steel exhaust system, custom inlet manifold, and an 82 mm Bosch drive-by-wire throttle body. As for the turbocharger, it comes from Precision and is ceramic coated. All up, the car pumps out roughly 800 hp.
Rally and hillclimb cars like these are well known for being absolutely brutal off the line, thanks largely to their short gear ratios and all-wheel drive. This means the car is exceptionally quick down the drag strip, recording a time of 10.51-seconds at 136 mph (218 km/h) in its sole run. Mind you, this was achieved on medium boost; which, of course, begs the question how faster it could have been…