One of the most exciting and fearsome cars in the history of world rallying, the Audi quattro S1 Group B, will thrill spectators at the Historic Leyburn Sprints on 23-24 August.
The all-wheel drive rally quattros of the 1980s were among the most powerful and sophisticated rally cars of all time and in the hands of drivers such as Michele Mouton and Walter Röhl wrote the legend of Group B that remains powerful today.
The quattro S1 will be driven at Leyburn by renowned Queensland ace Stewart Reid.
Many people will have seen Reid in action at country shows around Australia in his days as a member of the Holden Precision Driving Team and he promises another spectacular performance when he puts the Audi around Leyburn’s one kilometre street course for the first time.
The car is a near-perfect replica of originals that now are worth millions of dollars. It ran at the recent Scouts Rally in South Australia and earlier this year was driven on demonstration runs in Canberra by none other than Finnish rally legend Ari Vatanan.
It is owned by Tasmanian rally identity Dave Thompson, who allows Reid to care for some of his extensive historic rally car collection in his Brisbane workshop.
Thompson also will make an appearance with his black Ford Falcon XY GT HO rally car, in which he has a reputation for crowd-pleasing rally slides.
Race Director Mike Collins says the quatrro’s appearance will be a big attraction for Leyburn spectators.
“Movies have been made about Group B cars. They are remembered
for their fire-spitting exhausts and the huge wings needed to keep up to 650 horsepower in control – and now we’ll a magnfiicent example here in Leyburn.
“With all-wheel drive, huge horsepower and rally gear, the quattro should explode off the start line, especially with a highly-skilled driver like Stewart at the wheel.”
The Historic Leyburn Sprints have accepted entries for almost 200 classic, historic and performance cars spanning nine decades of motoring. Competition starts at 8am each day.
Off-track attractions include the new Retro Caravan Show Off all weekend and Sunday’s Shannons Show ‘n’ Shine.
Comments