After the demise of Group B rallying, Audi had to find a different market to promote their Quattro all wheel drive system that kickstarted a revolution in the rally world. Instead of overstaying their welcome in the World Rally Championship, Audi decided to focus their efforts on circuit racing. More specifically, the Trans Am and IMSA road racing championships in the United States.

Quattro had become a household name in mainland Europe but was still relatively obscure over in the United States. That all changed with the Audi 90 Quattro IMSA GTO. Despite not being the first all wheel drive Audi to dominate the American racing scene, that honour goes to the Audi 200 Quattro Trans-Am, it undoubtedly became the most popular one. Thanks to the relatively loose regulations of IMSA, Audi had to opportunity to unleash their engineering expertise.

The resulting car became a dominant force in the 1989 championship. Its 2.2L turbocharged 5 cylinder engine, capable of producing an immense 720 horsepower, proved more than worthy enough of competing with the regular American V8 powered competition.

After a dominant performance all season long, driver Hans Joachim Stuck became champion. Audi didn't win the constructors championship as they didn't compete in the long distance races at Sebring and Daytona. Despite this, IMSA followed in the footsteps of Trans Am and banned all wheel drive cars. Audi wasn't all to bothered about this however as every American that followed the IMSA series now had the word Quattro permanently engraved in their mind.

A few years later, Audi Sport South Africa was tired of dominating the Wesbank Modified Saloon series in their adopted Audi 200 Quattro Trans Am, now called the 500 Turbo, and wanted to continue racing with the 90 Quattro IMSA GTO instead. The Wesbank series was an equally forgiving series like IMSA, but did require all cars competing had to be sold in South Africa. The problem was that nobody in South Africa could buy an Audi 90 as it simply wasn't sold there.

To solve this problem Audi Sport South Africa received one 90 Quattro IMSA GTO and transformed it into the first Audi S4 GTO. The car now resembled the body of the new C4 generation Audi S4. A car that was available for the South African market.

The new car proved to be even faster than the 90 and easier to drive. After an easy win in its debut race, The team decided to commit to a full two car assault on the series in 1993. A second S4 GTO was made and together with its identical brother it dominated the Wesbank series. In 1994 the cars received some weight and boost penalties to give other competitors and chance and by 1995 the cars became obsolete as the Wesbank Modified Saloon Series adopted an entire new set of regulations. One without all wheel drive.

This is to most people the end of the GTO saga. The S4 GTO with chassis number 001 was sold off and competed in a few small scale races until it finally retired in 1998. You can still see it in action today at various historic motorsport events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The second S4 GTO however seems to have been lost or forgotten by the entire motorsport community. The legacy of the remaining S4 GTO seems to be one great mystery, until now.

In 1995, Finnish rally and touring car driver Risto Buri managed to get a hold of the car thanks to his connections with Audi after driving for the manufacturer in many rally events. He already found a buyer too, touring car racing colleague Pertti Kuismanen. Pertti ended up paying only 1.5 million Finnish Marks or 225.000 US Dollars for the car.

The car was shipped over from South Africa to Audi's headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, without the engine, drivetrain and gearbox. This was done to save costs as if the car had been shipped in its entirety, the toll costs would have been gigantic. Luckily for Pertti, Audi had plenty of parts bins that could be raided.

When the car was pieced together again it featured a wide variety of "new" parts. The suspension and brakes came from the 1991-1992 generation Audi V8 DTM car while the gearbox is from the 1990 DTM car. Kuismanen didn't end up using the 2.2L engine from the S4 GTO as that was left in South Africa, instead he managed to get his hands on a mechanically identical unit from the earlier 90 Quattro IMSA GTO.

Kuismanen entered his new car in the Finnish Super Saloon series as the Audi 100 GTO C4 Extreme and faced almost no opposition at all. In the 1996 season he won 11 out of 13 races after qualifying on pole every single time.

After the dominating showcase in Finland, Kuismanen entered the car in the German Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy and proceeded to win the 1997 and 1998 championships despite the car losing 200 horsepower thanks to some restrictor plates issued by the officials

By the end of 1998 the 100 GTO C4 Extreme had won 35 out 41 races it entered. It was clear that a new challenge was needed. Kuismanen found it in Belgium's main endurance racing championship: Belcar. The car had been a sprint racer for its entire life and now needed to be modified to be able to survive the Belcar calendar consisting of seven 2 hour long races and one 24H event.

The car was given a new body, that of the Audi 80, reducing its extravagant looks. Thanks to a new and updated electronic control unit the car was ready for the 21st century and made it possible for the car to be electronically limited to 600 horsepower. Much less than when the car occasionally ran on full boost pressure in its sprint racing career, reaching power levels far above the original 720 horsepower.

Together with Austrian Can-Am racer Karl Hasenbichler, Kuismanen entered the new and improved car in the 1999 season as the Audi 80 Competition. Belcar's class system works with penalties for turbocharged cars, if a car has forced induction it will get a 1.7 times multiplier added to its engine size. With the Audi still running the powerful 2.2L turbo 5 cylinder, this meant it sat in T1, the +3000cc engine touring car class.

The first race at Zolder was an immediate warning sign for the competition. The 80 Competition qualified first in T1 and 5th overall. The outstanding qualifying lap placed it right in the middle of the GT field at the front of the grid. Its endurance racing debut was cut short however as the car retired on the warm-up lap. Instead a different T1 Audi upset the GT field as the modified Audi A4 Super Touring of Jean-Francois Hemroulle and Tim Verbergt finished second overall.

The full race debut happened at the second round at Spa. The car dominated the Qualifying round setting a time 1.5 seconds faster then the A4. Kuismanen/Hasenbichler finished first in T1 and just fell short of the overall podium.

The lighter, more nimble Audi A4 was the only Touring car capable of putting up a fight against the 80 The lighter, more nimble Audi A4 was the only Touring car capable of putting up a fight against the 80

By the third race of the season the 80 was given an upgraded aero package featuring front canards from the 100 GTO C4 Extreme and a giant wing. Qualifying was again a one man show as Kuismanen put the car 3rd on the grid overall. During the race the 80 continued to annoy the GT field only to retire due to engine problems.

The following race was back at Spa, The improved downforce brought the top speed down slightly but the car was still in a league of its own. It dominated the T1 class yet again in qualifying and the race. The GT field got a lucky break as the 80 finished just 7th overall.

The 5th round at spa saw many cars suffer under an excruciatingly hot summer sun including the 80. Cooling problems slowed the car down giving the A4 a chance to beat the 80 in the race. All sights were set on the next and biggest race of the season, the Zolder 24 hours.

For the race a third driver was needed and non other than rallycross legend Matti Alamäki joined Kuismanen and Hasenbichler for the 24H race. While the A4 of Hemroulle/Verbergt had the best qualifying result yet, P2 overall, The 80 had its worst. Electrical problems troubled the car relegating it to P12.

Despite the electrical gremlins all race long, the Scandinavian drivers soldiered on. A short stop to the pits to fit a new alternator belt seemed to have fixed the issues. The team was set on finishing the 24H race in their ex sprint racer but just 3 hours before the end the steering rack broke. Instead, the other Audi of Hemroulle/Verbergt stole the show as it won the race overall.

The 7th round at Spa saw another impressive qualifying session as the 80 started 4th on the grid but transmission problems resulted in another DNF. The final round was more of the same as the engine stopped working during the race.

The 1999 season was filled with ups and downs. The car either performed really well or failed to make it to the finish line, With just 2 points finishes giving a total score of 76, the team ended their first season as 18th in the Tourism championship.

The following 2000 season was spent taming the former sprint racing beast even more, with better end results. 5 wins in T1 class but 3 DNF's placed it 4th in the Touring championship and 7th in the overall championship.

By 2001 Kuismanen had perfected the car into a giant slayer once again. It Dominated the first half of the season with 2 overall wins and 2 more podium finishes. The latter half was less impressive with some 8th, 11th and 6th place finishes but that didn't matter. Thanks to the car's outstanding performance it managed to win the overall championship ahead of all the GT cars. Kuismanen still sees this achievement as the best in his entire career.

The Audi 80 Competition was a sprint racing monster tamed for endurance racing. It took some time for it to adjust to this new form of racing but it was worth the trouble. In the middle of the 2002 season Kuismanen finally retired the car and permanently switched to racing a Viper instead. The saga of Audi's enormously powerful and all conquering 5 cylinder engine, originally meant for the IMSA series, finally came to a close.

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Watch footage of the 100 GTO C4 Extreme/80 Competition here

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