Group A Coupe quattro

[Cornholio]

Just added a load more stuff to my GrpA CQ page. I split off the results and created a seperate page for it. I will have a load more to come in a few weeks too.....

Enjoy

http://www.kvquattro.com/groupArally.html

[Martc]

Interesting set of pictures

Does anyone know why Audi did not create a group A Ur instead of going down the Coupe Quattro route?

They had a group A 200TQ. I would have thought the UR would have been more of a match to the machinary of the time in terms of size and power to weight etc if a group A car had been developed....?

[Cornholio]

They had to build 2500 examples for Group A homologation. Plus the turbo cars had to run with restrictors on them, and a limit of 300bhp.

I've just added another page

http://www.kvquattro.com/groupArallyGallery.html

[Martc]

Originally Posted by cornholio

They had to build 2500 examples for Group A homologation. Plus the turbo cars had to run with restrictors on them, and a limit of 300bhp.

I've just added another page

http://www.kvquattro.com/groupArallyGallery.html

By that time there would have been 2500 examples of the WR built by then surely? Plus 300bhp vs 200bhp in effectively the same sheel would seem more obvious.

The 200TQ to me always seems to have been an odd choice - perhaps a marketing one?

[Cornholio]

I wouldn't claim to an expert on the rules of this. The 80q, CQ, and 200q were all homologated for Group A rallying. There were probably more Group A than Group 4 / B Audi rally cars.....

[Booty]

When Group B was banned in the summer of 86, Britain managed to continue with a few of the cars through to the 'last proper' rally of the Year, the Lombard RAC. In 1987 they were ancient history. If you look at the statistics, Audi had struggled to remain competitive throught 85 and 86. The cars were monsters and were very hard to drive against the very light, and extremely fast cars that came 'straight out of the box' like the Peugeot and the Delta. Audi had always tried to keep the quattro looking like a quattro for marketing purposes and were continually trying to update it and uprate it by power increases, lightening and shortening, whereas the Pug and Delta and the Lancia 037 only really bore a passing resemblence to the rodd cars they were based on. So when it all came to an abrupt halt, Audi had nothing to compete with other than the Cq and the 200. The 200 which was a group A car could only have certain 'embellishments' like the Cq could, also being a group A car. James has hinted at what those were on his excellent site. It's hard to say of our beloved Audi's but there time had come, been and gone. They were simply not competitive any more. It's easy to wear rose tinted specs as we all do on this forum but they were overtaken by the likes of the Superb Lancia Delta Intergrale and the Sierra Cosworth. But one things for sure, we'll miss em for ever.

[Martc]

Originally Posted by Booty

When Group B was banned in the summer of 86, Britain managed to continue with a few of the cars through to the 'last proper' rally of the Year, the Lombard RAC. In 1987 they were ancient history. If you look at the statistics, Audi had struggled to remain competitive throught 85 and 86. The cars were monsters and were very hard to drive against the very light, and extremely fast cars that came 'straight out of the box' like the Peugeot and the Delta. Audi had always tried to keep the quattro looking like a quattro for marketing purposes and were continually trying to update it and uprate it by power increases, lightening and shortening, whereas the Pug and Delta and the Lancia 037 only really bore a passing resemblence to the rodd cars they were based on. So when it all came to an abrupt halt, Audi had nothing to compete with other than the Cq and the 200. The 200 which was a group A car could only have certain 'embellishments' like the Cq could, also being a group A car. James has hinted at what those were on his excellent site. It's hard to say of our beloved Audi's but there time had come, been and gone. They were simply not competitive any more. It's easy to wear rose tinted specs as we all do on this forum but they were overtaken by the likes of the Superb Lancia Delta Intergrale and the Sierra Cosworth. But one things for sure, we'll miss em for ever.

You are right that the Group B Quattro was getting long in the tooth by 86, they were working on the mid engined replacement at that time. Thats motorsport progress....

The weird thing to me is that for the group A change Audi then goes and puts an even more uncompetetive car in its place being the CQ and also homoligates the 200TQ?

My question is why did Audi not homoligate the UR to Group A spec for 1987, at the end of the day its the same underlying chassis / suspension so it would have been a more powerful car than the Cq in group A spec.

[Isimmo]

The ur quattro was in trouble with the demise of Group 4 really, it never quite enjoyed the same level of dominance in Group B, not when the T16 and S4 turned up.

[Booty]

In essence, as Isimmo says, Audi had their pants pulled down by Peugeot and Lancia and had no where else to go.