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Trevor,
The 'Group S' car that has been shown was one of two or three built away from Ingolstadt and, apparently, without the knowledge of the Audi management. It has only 12km on the clock (I know because I had a good poke around it and a photo of it is in the feature). I doubt it was ever tested, so it's actually a bit of a fancy red herring.
At the same time, Audi developed and tested a mid-engined version of the short-wheelbase Sport Quattro, using the Desna facility in Czechoslovakia. But during its first run with Walter Rohrl behind the wheel in Austria it was photographed and it was destroyed shortly afterwards. There is a photo of it in Desna in the article, though.
Both projects were official Audi Sport projects - although in the case of the 'Group S prototype' it was conducted in so much secrecy that not even Ferdinand Piech knew much about it! Both cars, incidentally, were fitted with the regular Sport Quattro engine, so they're not strictly Group S.
The article is in the May issue of Motor Sport, which I believe goes on sale in the next week or 10 days. Much more detail in there, including the thoughts of Rohrl.
Regarding Skoda and SEAT, I don't believe SEAT was working on a Group S car but a few years ago I was lucky enough to see an underground storage facility in the foundations of the old Skoda factory and there were several interesting-looking rally prototypes lying under dust sheets...
Toyota built at least two MR2 prototypes as well - one is in Cologne and one's in Tokyo, I believe. And didn't Mitsubishi try a four-wheel drive Starion Turbo around 1984/1985? That's another lost toy...
Hope this helps,
Regards,
John
Last edited by John McIlroy; 10 Apr 2005 at 22:35.
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