Post '86 Group A Audis

[Jack4688]

Can anyone fill in the blanks for me?

I'm curious as to Audi's choice of cars for their Group A rally exploits after the banning of Group B cars.

As far as I can tell, alongside the Group B Sport quattro they had Group A B2 80s/90s - I'm not sure if these cars were factory built or just associated with a regional division of Audi.

1984:


So in 1987 Audi returned to rallying after a few months off with a new Group A machine - which can only be described as a BEAST! An executive saloon, hurtling through forests and snowy Alpine roads is ridiculous, but according to David Llewellin (in 1988) it was faster than the Coupe quattro.

1987 200 quattro:


However this car was not adopted by Audi Sport UK until 1988 to replace the Group A Coupe quattro used in '87 I've seen videos that state the Coupe quattro had a disadvantage over the Sierra Cosworth (this is in The British championship) by being naturally aspirated instead of turbocharged.

Car from 1987:


There were also experiments with the B3 90, perhaps as a works effort as this car's livery would suggest:


And here's Jimmy McRae in a 90 in Audi colours:


But going back to the Coupe quattro, here is my question: why didn't Audi just make the RR quattro their Group A machine? It surely would have been a match for the Sierras in Britain and the Deltas in WRC being four wheel drive, turbocharged and not a huge executive barge! Were there not enough made to meet homologation requirements? Was it a marketing thing?

Gratuitous period shot of an RR

[Rusty]

AFAIK, they were focussing on racing in the US at the time, so it was probrably an attempt to avoid big budget racing in a genre they had very publicly left in 86.

[Jack4688]

Good point, but if I was Audi I'd put the same amount of time and effort into developing a better base car.