This Spotless Audi Sport Quattro Could Draw Seven Figures At Auction

With Radwood and the rise of older millennials with money, the market for cars from the 1980s and 1990s is red hot. Even so, some cars have always been insanely expensive. TheAudi Sport Quattro is on that list，but another one has popped up on RM Sotheby's and its estimated auction price is something else. The auction house estimates the 1984 Sport Quattro's final price will land somewhere between €750,000 and €1,000,000 (around $790,000 to $1,053,000) when it crosses the block in Monaco later this month. Even the most expensive of today's Audis, like theRS6 Avant，can't compete with this car.

The Audi Sport Quattro built its name as a road-going homologation of a potent all-wheel-drive rally car, and its unique design, rarity, and heritage have all added to its desirability for collectors. The road cars followed their Group B Rally racing counterparts very closely, as Audi based the consumer model on the race car rather than the other way around. As such, the Sport Quattro is one of the most desirable cars from the 1980s. It's just too bad that Audi'supcoming Formula 1 entrywon't yield a road-going car.

The Quattro's 2.133-liter five-cylinder engine produced 302 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque when new. It also makes one of the most iconic sounds in all of motorsport, as the awkward five-cylinder screams like a lazy V10 when driven hard. The cars ran in the 3.0-liter class in FIA Group B racing and were allowed to compete with all-wheel drive, even though others, such as the Lancia 037, were rear-drive only.

Group B homologation regulationsrequired that 200 road-going examples of each racecar be built for sale. RM Sotheby's says that just 164 units were built, but that number could be higher or lower, depending on where you look. What is clear is that there are very few Sport Quattros left and even fewer with this car's mileage and condition, so this is one rare bird.