At the tender age of 10, I made a solemn promise to myself that my first car would be an Audi ur-quattro, just like the one I watched rally ace Hannu Mikkola slip-sliding through forests and fields of ice on TV in the early ‘80s. The offbeat warble of the five-cylinder engine, those flared arches and angular proportions: I was hooked.

Santa came through for me just a couple of years later. Finished in Alpine White and complete with full rally livery, my inaugural quattro was a thing of rare drama and aggression. Fast, too, considering it was powered by Ni-CAD battery and in 1:12 scale.

It was to be another decade before I would get my hands on the real thing: a 1986 ur-quattro 10v. An insurance write-off bought for just $3000, its restoration monopolised a large chunk of my spare time and cash throughout my mid-twenties. Like all good things, especially ones with turbocharged engines and over-confident drivers, the quattro came to an end. Not a pleasant one, either – this time it stayed written off for good, leaving an Audi-shaped hole in my life in the process....

More details:http://www.fourtitude.com/news/publi...cle_2757.shtml

Photo Gallery: http://www.fourtitude.com/gallery/ga...7%20S3%20(UK)#