IN-NP 50 Rally Car Project

  We were looking for a project to celebrate 25 years of

  the legendary Audi quattro. We finally decided to recreate

  the first car to compete in a World Championship event

  the renowned IN NP 50.The car made it's debut on

  January 24th 1981. The venue was the opening round

  at Monte Carlo. The changeable conditions revealed the

  cars potential, shocking the rest of the field with it's pace.

  By the end of the second stage it was 2m 47s ahead of the

  rest of the two wheel driven field.

 By the time they entered Monaco after six stages Mikkola had a six minute advantage

 over his rivals.

 Several alternator belt failures dropped him 13 minutes. Mikkola subsequently made a

 are mistake and hit a low bridge parapet knocking off a wheel. The car struggled back

 to service and the Audi team made repairs.

 Mikkola was once again catching the leaders when he suffered brake failure, probably

 due to the previous incident, at nearly 100 mph. Luckily the car was on an uphill section

 when it finally came to rest against a rock face.

  Despite this disappointing conclusion

  to their first event, Mikkola had lead

  the first 10 stages and set more

  fastest times than the eventual winner.

  The rally world was now waiting for

  Audi's first championship not

  debating if it would ever happen.

  The Build

  We needed to see a real works car so that we get the details on our quattro exactly

   right. We have to thank David Sutton and John O'Connor at Historic Motorsport for

   the loan of LYV 4 X. This car was an original car which competed successfully in the

   British Championship and RAC Rally. The car is probably the most photographed

   rally car of all time. It was driven by Stig Blomquist, Malcolm Wilson and Chris Lord.

   It took us the best part of three months to photograph and analyse every detail.

   Our car started life with a rust free 1981 shell from Bahrain. The car was stripped

   and painted in Audi Sport colours. All of the decals were recreated by our sign writer.

   If you would like a set please e-mail us for details!

   The body shell was modified. We fitted

   our fibre glass bumpers. Note how the

   lights are all on separate brackets and

   the roll cage is identical in layout to the

   original.

   We recreated the original cage in steel

   for obvious reasons.

    The engine and gearbox installed.

    Note front grill is slightly proud.

    Different location for alternator.

   We fabricated an aluminium

   dashboard as per the original

   rally quattro. We then set about

   sourcing the various VDO gauges

   used in the original.

  Layout of gauges as per the

  original car.

Note the 1997 Audi 80 switches and Volkswagen Beetle light switches used.                                                 

Clearly the works Audi team had access to all of the groups production

facilities.

  Our next thank you has to go to Tim Clarke for creating a custom loom for

  the car. Without his help this task would have been nigh on impossible.

 The final result as you can see is exactly as per the original. The interior door

 trim was made for us by Mrs Malinda White, mother of Jeff our Head Technician.

 As you can see she did a fantastic job!

    The car was fitted with new Recaro

    seats which are very close to the

    the original. We also found watching

    a recently released DVD of the event

    that the car was fitted with blue seat belts

    not red!

   The boot of the quattro was a major junction

   for all the fluids in the car. Note that the car

   was equipped with two fuel pumps, and a

   dry sump catchment tank which also supplies

   the boot mounted oil cooler.

The aluminium fuel tank was custom fabricated shown here waiting to be installed.

                       The tank just fits into the available space.

 The finished article, complete with battery, filters, spare wheel holder and

  braided hoses.

   Oil cooler fitted with new raised

   boot spoiler. We have A2 spoilers

   for sale (slightly taller than the

   one shown).

   We can supply oil cooler to match.

   Final stages including installation

   of period Carrello lights. Thanks to

   Peter Noad, Audi Driver and

   Volkswagen Driver journalist for

   donating these.

Note at various times on the Monte Carlo event, the car appeared on both 8" Ronal

wheels in 'Sparkle' silver not the normal Zermatt and Fuch forged 7" magnesium

wheels.

The wheels shown are original well worn 'works' wheels.

                                     The car now resides in our reception.

  This car has been featured in a number of articles. It is also set to appear in the

  new Total Audi Magazine and Audi Driver. It is also eligible to appear at the

  Slowly Sideways events. It was at the 2005 Rally Car Day at Castle Combe

  and is set to make appearances at future events.