Autoart’s Pikes Peak racer a mountaintop experience …

Imagine, if you can, driving up a winding 12.42-mile long mountain road, mostly gravel and dirt with no guardrails and sheer drops sometimes thousands of feet straight down to certain death, should you slip over the edge.

Then imagine doing it for time and with a 600 horsepower rally car capable of more than 120 mph in a burst.

That’s what German rally ace Walter Röhrl faced in his one and only attempt at racing in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in 1987 aboard an Audi Sport quattro S1. He won, and set a new record.

Now Autoart brings us a stunning 1:18 scale replica of that iconic Audi.

The History

Audi won the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb three straight years, 1985 to 1987, with three different drivers, Michele Mouton (first woman winner), Bobby Unser (all-time champ) and Walter Röhrl (2-time world rally champ). By 1986 Audi had won several world rally championships with its all-wheel-drive quattro (always lowercase) models so pulled out of the competition for Group B racers.

So the hill climb was Audi’s last hurrah with the Audi Sport Quattro S1 rocketing up Pikes Peak in Colorado, climbing 4,720 feet through those 156 corners with its 2.1-liter five-cylinder engine pounding out about 600 horses. Of course power drops at elevation, so the Audi “only” had 450 horses available as it neared the top on July 11, 1987. However, a special circulating air system helped boost the Audi’s air pressure for its giant turbocharger to improve its response in the thin mountain air.

Röhrl had been the world rally champ in 1980 and 1982 and he used all his skills to break Bobby Unser’s year-old record by 22 seconds, with a run of 10 minutes 47.85 seconds. The record now is 7:57 minutes, set in a VW ID R by Romain Dumas in 2018.

Röhrl’s comments well after the event? “All I can say is that it was great to take part. It was crazy, but often it is in fact the crazy things which are the best in life. It was the very pinnacle of what can be done with a rally car.”

The Model

This beautiful white wing-laden rally car model by Autoart is a near pinnacle exercise in fine detail, much as was the original. There’s a giant two-tier wing on the tail and another mounted on the massive chin spoiler at its nose.

Beyond the wings is the silky paint job with traditional Audi rust red, brown and black trim down the sides and up to the rear wing’s tip, plus same color racing stripes from hood to tail only broken by the insertion of a giant black No. 1.

There are eight fine white mesh screens in the hood, which features a brown and white Audi logo at its center and two molded-in hood pins at the front corners. The clear headlights feature Bosch logos spread across their faces and that chin spoiler has massive Michelin logos on either side of the racing stripes. The grille is flat black plastic with the four white Audi rings at its center.

Under the hood is a well-detailed engine with a monster air intake tube leading to the turbo on the 5-cylinder power plant that lays sideways in the engine bay. There’s wiring and plumbing plus faux sheet metal plating to cover and protect the left side of the compartment. A thick white support bar extends from shock tower to shock tower. The hood is easy to raise and pose open as its white hinges are well-made to reflect the originals.

Down the car’s sides are flared fenders with aero tunnels atop the front wheel wells and skirting that includes air deflectors in front of those wheels. A flat rocker panel rests below both opening doors with “quattro” printed in black. The driver’s door includes a vented streamlined mirror and there’s a notch in each door that makes them easy to open for display.

The rear side window is trimmed in black and the flared fenders in back include black plastic screening that would allow air into the wheel wells for brake cooling as the Audi charged up Pikes Peak.

Big decals on each door include a red/white/blue and black Pikes Peak Auto Hill Climb logo, the No. 1, an Audi logo and Röhrl’s name, which also is painted in script above the door with a small German flag representing his homeland.

The roof is sculpted with a giant air tunnel leading to the rear hatch, which includes hinges on top attaching to the blackened rear window, just in front of that oversized two-tier spoiler.

A rear-end cover is removable to show the gas filler and twin fans for additional cooling. Tiny rear lights have black mesh screens over them and the Audi includes white mesh screening under the trunk opening, and a white metal protective shield below that.

One disappointment, albeit minor, is the treaded tires are not branded Michelin, as were on the original racer. These are generic with white racing wheels that look a bit too much like plastic, although they do include five silver wheel nuts at their core. Plus there are giant disc brakes behind all four wheels.

Inside the car is Spartan, but racy. There’s a black racing seat with Recaro proudly displayed in white on the headrest, and highly detailed red cloth seat harnesses. Of course the Audi is full of white cabin supports to protect the driver should this rally racer roll onto its roof.

A black bare-bones dash, basically a panel for readouts, backs up the four-spoke steering wheel and the panel extends down to the transmission hump in the center and includes a few buttons and switches. There’s a white fire extinguisher on the floor just to the right of a serious looking black-knobbed gear shift lever, plus a couple of silver pipes with periodic black wrapping extend from under the dash along the passenger’s side compartment out the back to the trunk area where those fans are located. Outside the passenger’s door and below the flat rocker panel are three exhaust openings too.

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Overall another stellar effort from Autoart as it continues to crank out historically meaningful racers along with its long list of exotics of every ilk and color.  

Vital Stats: Audi Sport Quattro S1 (Pikes Peak, 1987)

Maker: Autoart
Scale: 1/18
Stock No.: 88700

MSRP: $265

Link: Autoartmodels.com