Skip to main content

Hear the Exceptional Story of this Quattro S1

Replicas are very like replicants in that they both cause some serious existential quandries. Namely, how much does authenticity really matter? Movies like Blade Runner confront this question and effectively answers it by suggesting that authenticity takes a back seat to narrative and fear of death when it comes to value.

That being the case, this replica Audi Quattro S1 E2 is as good as it gets.

Volker Gehrt’s story starts as so many others do: with a toy car. A gift from his wife, Gehrt kept a model of the Group B beast on his desk, playing with it occasionally, idly dreaming of a day when he could drive one.

And that’s when Roland Gumpert entered his life. When they first met, Gehrt had no idea about Gumpert’s role in the creation of the car, but the two became fast friends.

As time went on Gehrt developed a plan to build a replica for himself and to his surprise, Gumpert loved the idea. Not only that, but the former Audi man suggested that they rebuild the lost San Remo car from 1985.

The car was driven to victory by rally legend Walter Rohrl at that race and it seems that as a result, he took an interest in Gehrt’s project. The driver stopped by the garage to take a look at the car and, as Gehrt tells it, got goosebumps because of how faithful it was to the source material. Before leaving, Rohrl signed the car.

While, of course, this replica isn’t as important as the lost Quattro it seeks to emulate (if it ever popped back up on the market) it’s hard to say that this replica is valueless. Partly that’s because of what Gehrt chose to emulate (we all want a Quattro), but also because of how good his story is.

With its ties to the men who built and raced it, the loss of this car would be felt almost as dearly as the loss of a real Quattro S1 (unlike a Fierorari). Like Roy Batty, this Quattro has seen things you people wouldn’t believe. And if Ghert crashed it all of those moments would be lost in time, like tears in rain.

The post Hear the Exceptional Story of this Quattro S1 appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2nBl1AT
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

Macau Gets Messy with 16-Car Pileup

The Macau Grand Prix is always good for an accident or two or 16— you may remember Audi’s race ending crash last year —and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. It didn’t take long for things to get messy on the tight road circuit. On the opening lap of the qualifying race a 16-car pileup caused the race to be suspended. Things kicked off when Daniel Juncadella hit a wall on the exit of Police bend, one of the tightest parts of the already tight circuit. The following car of Raffaele Marciello was able to avoid the carnage, but Laurens Vanthoor, who was in the upside-down Audi that ended the race last year, could not avoid Juncadella and together they blocked up the road pretty much completely. “I couldn’t see him [Juncadella] at first. Then I saw the car standing still,” Vanthoor told Motorsport. “I tried to brake but it was just understeering and I couldn’t do anything. There’s room for one car there and you’re blind.” Fourteen more cars would eventually crash into the corner c
Post a Comment
Read more

The First of its Kind: Integrated Engineering Releases Highly-Anticipated IE450T MK6 Golf R Turbo Kit

After two long years of development, the team at Integrated Engineering has finally announced the release of their IE450T kit for the MK6 Golf R. With their turbo kit bolted on right out of the box, the sport AWD hatch is transformed into a 450bhp monster, with hardly any noticeable increase in spool time. In fact, 435 ft-lbs of torque are achieved at all four wheels, at a mere 3300rpm! By now you are probably asking yourself how this is even possible on a 2.0L engine that made nearly half that power from the factory. By employing true twin-scroll technology into the cast turbo manifold and pairing it with a state-of-the-art BorgWarner EFR turbocharger, IE was able to keep spool time at a minimum and bring the fastest-spooling big turbo setup to the market. “We wanted to offer a kit that would dramatically increase the power output without making the car lose its amazing street-friendly drivability,” mentioned one of the IE engineers. We are told the IE450T leaves the car driving jus
Post a Comment
Read more