RallySport Magazine October 2016

everything else that I thought I’d need.
It was all packed into a container and
sent to Australia.”
When it arrived in Coffs Harbour the
car sat in Mal’s shed for 12 months
while he researched and recovered
from the financial burden of purchasing
it. Then, over two years, the rebuild
progressed until the car finally made its
first public appearance at Rally Australia
in 2014.
“All 17 of the works
cars were different,
so what actually is a
true replica?”
As you’d expect with a car as rare
and as special as an S1 Quattro,
the build wasn’t straightforward.
“The big question was, how far we
chase the replica side of things,” Mal
explains.
“All 17 of the works cars were
different, so what actually is a true
replica? No two cars were the same.
“For example, the works cars ran
big sliding bottom ball joints and
aluminium legs. Most of that stuff is
unobtainable now, and if you could buy
it, the price would be astronomical and
you’d never be game to put the car in
the forest.”
Having said all that, the replica is
about as close to a factory S1 as you’ll
get, although detuned significantly to
what the cars in the mid-1980s were.
It runs the Audi 5 cylinder 20-valve
turbo engine with Audi gearbox and
diffs, and all Audi control arms and
cross members.
“There are subtle differences,” Mal
says. “The works cars ran a castor bar
brace arrangement on the bottom
The attention to detail on the S1 replica is
impressive, and it looks like the original.
The Quattro S1 replica
as it was purchased
from the UK.
OCTOBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 23