1986 Audi Quattro S1 E2 – Classified of the Week

Who doesn’t love the Audi Quattro? Only the most jaded of non-believers won’t be on board with just how special this rally legend is. It’s a crucially important car in the history of motorsport and perhaps one of the most recognisable racing cars to ever compete, whether that be on a rally stage or in any other format for that matter. It’s up there with the likes of the Rothmans Porsche 956 of Le Mans fame, the black and gold John Player Special Lotus F1 car and the Volvo 850 T5 Estate from the BTCC for pure out and out fame. But it wasn’t just the livery of the Audi Quattro S1 E2 that made the car so memorable. It quite literally changed the game.

We’ve featured the Quattro numerous times in our magazine here at Car & Classic. From birthday celebrations to the inclusion in our list of banging five-cylinder engines to an article detailing its homologation status so we won’t go over old ground here. This is Classified of the Week and today we want to talk about one specific version of this iconic automobile and that’s this 1986 Audi Quattro S1 E2.

For those of you au fait with ’80s rallying (and if you’re not then you need to immediately brush up on your motorsport history because you’re in for a treat) you’ll be very aware that the Finns, historically, are pretty damn good at thrashing souped-up rally cars around a forest stage. Or gravel stage. Or any stage. You’ll remember the likes of Juha Kankkunen, Tommi Mäkinen and Ari Vatanen, the latter of which we featured in our Pike’s Peak piece for his incredible work in the film “Climb Dance”, winning everything. It must be something in the water over there because F1 stars Mika Häkkinen, Valtteri Bottas and fan favourite Kimi Räikkönen have historically racked up the wins too, but we digress.

The reason we bring up Finland as a nation of motor racing greats is because this particular Audi Quattro S1 E2 is rally legend Hannu Mikola’s. Well, kind of. You see the car is actually made up from numerous pieces, each belonging to various S1 E2 models driven by famous rally greats. There’s Mikkola`s rear differential, six-speed gearbox, mirrors, rear screen and various panels, Walter Röhrl’s bonnet and dash and Michèle Mouton’s turbo, to name a few. This is Lego for grown-ups, the rally version.

Only 20 factory cars were built and of those 20 S1 E2 Quattros, just 15 are known to exist which makes this an incredibly special opportunity. Combine that with the fact that the car is made up of so many significant parts, built to the original 250 page Audi Sport build spec, and you have a once in a lifetime occurrence. This isn’t merely a case of bolting on a beaten up old bonnet from a crashed ex-rally car that’s been laid up at the back of a yard for thirty-odd years and calling it a day. This S1 E2 is dripping with historical significance with each part having its own story to tell creating an incredibly rich tapestry of motrosport lore.

Whether the car is worth the £1,000,000 price tag is up for debate but it cannot be denied that this is a fantastic piece of not only Audi’s history, but that of rallying and indeed the automotive landscape as a whole. You can read all about the car on the listing, as well as pore over 21 images of the thing. There’s also the option to make an offer but we doubt anything under £850K is going to cut it. Whichever way you look at it this Audi Quattro S1 E2 is certainly a talking point and an especially interesting one at that.