Michelle Mouton Reunites With Her 1985 Pikes Peak Hillclimb Winning Audi Sport Quattro

Michelle Mouton, one of the most successful andthe electronic gearbox and turbocharger. The Hillclimb
best-known female rally drivers of all time, will openitself was very difficult as it’s very fast and quite
Race Retro at the International Historic Motorsportsnarrow with no markers and sheer drops off the
Show at Stoneleigh Park near Coventry on Saturday,side—the event’s ‘Race to the Clouds’ title
March 24, 2007 and will make a rare visit to Britainis very true—and I think it was probably the toughest
next weekend to be reunited with her 1985 Pikes Peakchallenge in my career.”
Hillclimb winning Audi Sport Quattro.She also added, “There had been problems in
The 55 year-old French lady driver still remains to betesting which meant I wasn’t allowed to drive my
the only woman to win a round of the World Rallycar to the start, mechanics instead pushing me to the
Championship, sweeping the Audi to a record time ofline, which made me mad and very determined. I really
11 minutes 25.39 seconds in Colorado. The World Rallywanted to win, so I pushed very hard—sometimes
held in Colorado was a 12.42 mile course that featuredalmost too hard.”
over 150 corners and climbed almost 5,000 ft. inIt was in the year 1981 in Sweden that Hannu Mikkola
elevation.scored Audi’s first World Rally Championship while
According to Michelle Mouton, “I was very pleasedMouton won the San Remo Rally later that year and
to win the race for myself—it was the first outrightclaim the first World Rally Championship for a lady
victory ever scored by a woman – and proud fordriver. The Audi Quattro was also the first car with the
Audi as it was the first time a Europeanfour-wheel-drive and turbocharged engine to compete
manufacturer’s rally car had won—it wasin the World Rally Championship.
something very special to beat the Americans on theirA year after, in 1982, Mouton achieved an outright
home ‘soil’.”WRC wins in Portugal, Greece--- wherein the
The famous 1985 Pikes Peak near 500 bhp AudiAcropolis Rally was held-- and also in Brazil where she
Sport Quattro after 22 years was restored to itswas able to win a second place in the Driver’s
original glory not really by following the VolkswagenWRC and contested 50 WRCs between 1974 to
repair manuals that goes with the Quattro but through1986. Audi won the Manufacturers’ World
the relentless effort of the rally Quattro specialist JohnChampionship in 1982 and 1984. Hannu Mikkola and Stig
Hanlon. According to Hanlon, “The car has beenBlomqvist both win the Drivers’ titles with Audi for
stripped back to a bare metal body shell and fullyyears 1983 and 1984 respectively.
rebuilt over the last nine weeks. Every component hasJohn Hanlon purchased the Audi last March from a
been re-furbished to Audi Sport specification and weprivate collector in America, aside from Mouton the
have imported the original BBS split rim wheels whichAudi Sport Quattro was also driven by Walter Rohrl
the car competed on at Pikes Peak in 1985. The carfor the 1985 Corsica WRC and afterwards was taken
will be in its authentic livery and technical specificationhold by John Buffum who has successfully
at Stoneleigh. The fact that this actual car competed incampaigned in North America.
the very last Group B WRC round (1986 OlympusAt present Audi is leading the way in creating the
Rally) is a huge factor of its appeal.”technology in diesel-engined sportscars in endurance
Mouton said, “I was used to driving this Audi but theracing and made history last year when it won the Le
problem was the altitude. It starts at almost 9,500 ftMans 24 Hours with its diesel Audi R10 TDI.
above sea level ands we had to make adjustments to