A Tuning Shop Is Recreating Audi's Lost Mid-Engine Quattro Prototype

Only diehard Audi fans know about the Quattro RS001, a mid-engine prototype rally car that was built in secret and destroyed by then-Audi boss Ferdinand Piech. Only one was made, and a mid-engine version of Audi’s iconic Group B rally car was never spoken of again. However, Australian tuning company EPSmotorsport is building the car that Audi wouldn’t, and it’s almost ready.

What makes the RS001 so special? In 1984, the head of Audi Sport, Roland Gumpert, wanted to improve on the iconic Audi Sport Quattro’s inherent flaws by building a mid-engine version. When Piech turned the idea down, Gumpert went ahead and built a prototype anyway, in secret, and even had Audi Sport driver Walter Rohrl test it in then-Czechoslovakia. Rohrl apparently loved it, as it addressed all of the front-engine Quattro’s handling issues.

However, when spy photographers snapped a few photos of the car testing and published them in a magazine, Audi bosses found out, and Piech was furious. The lone prototype was confiscated and crushed. So what could’ve been the most exciting rally car of its era never made it past the testing phase, and the world was robbed of its greatness.

That’s where EPSmotorsport comes in. They started with a ’90s Audi Coupe Quattro, completely stripped the body off, and made an entire tubular Chromoly chassis for it. Then, a carbon fiber body was built to match the original. A small model of the RS001 was bought from Germany, scanned, and scaled up so they could make it as accurate as possible, despite the only prototype ever built having been destroyed in the 1980s.

As far as suspension goes, EPS’ “Audi Group S RS001” uses rear upper and lower control arms from an Audi R8 and KW-made custom adjustable race dampers. It also packs Alcon racing brakes, with a sliding adjustable pedal box, Rotiform ROC-H wheels, and a period-correct dashboard with the same VDO gauges that the original Quattro rally cars had.

After almost a year’s worth of work, the car is nearly complete; EPS just finished dyno testing and tuning the engine. Since the original rally car used a five-cylinder, that’s what EPS is using, too. It’s a heavily tuned, 2.5-liter turbocharged mill from modern Audi RS cars, and the final tune is rated at 723 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque. While there isn’t an official curb weight for it yet, EPS weighed it without the front end on and saw around 2,160 pounds, with almost eight gallons of fuel. So, all put back together and full of fluids, it could realistically be under 2,500 pounds.

You don’t have to be an Audi nerd to love this build. It’s a love letter to the renegade spirit of rally racing from that era, and it’s being built with incredible care, attention to detail, and top-shelf parts. EPSmotorsport is documenting the entire journey, one that will hopefully end with the car being driven at Pikes Peak.