One driver’s love for the Audi that Stirling Moss hated

“[My father] bought a Series 1 Audi 80 in 1974 when I was six. We went to Brands Hatch in 1978 when the European Touring Cars were out and there was an Audi 80 racing. Bergmeister became my hero. I saw the Audi 80 racing again at Brands Hatch 1980 in the BSCC when the cars came first, second, and third in class. I’ve got a picture of me in front of the team’s transporter as a 12-year-old, and here we are with the car 46 years later. I love the era.”

Foyle followed the marque into rallying in the 1980s, to BTCC in the ’90s and on to Le Mans at the turn of the millennium. When Audi won the British Touring Car Championship in 1996, he attended every single round and he didn’t miss a Le Mans 24 Hours when his favourite marque was there.

His first foray into racing was with an Audi stablemate, a Volkswagen Polo G40 in the 1992 single-make Championship, before quitting circuit racing to take up occasional sprinting. The 83^rd Members’ Meeting marked his return to racing, in his accurate tribute to the Audi 80 he watched Stirling Moss drive at Brands Hatch in 1980.

Foyle recalls the 80’s performance in period: “In 1980, there were ten rounds of the Championship and the Audi 80 won the 1,600 class in five of them. Richard Lloyd won two and Tony Lanfranchi was brought in to help Richard try to win the Championship in a battle with Chris Hodgetts. And then Lanfranchi did the last four races and won three of them, which was really fantastic.” 

The car was run by Richard Lloyd’s GTi Engineering, before TWR Racing took over for 1981 when Martin Brundle, a TWR protégé, was added to the driver line-up. “TWR were getting a winning car, but it never became a TWR legend like the Rovers or the Jaguars or some of the other things,” said Foyle.

He set about building his tribute to the Moss in around 2003. Audi never sold the 80 in two-door form in the UK, so he travelled to Ingolstadt to source a suitable base car and called in to watch the Nürburgring 24 Hours during the drive home. Just like those racers in period, Foyle’s car has been converted to right-hand-drive, but retains the windscreen wiper configuration suited to its original guise. There was a special dispensation in the rules to allow the battery to be relocated inside the car to make space for the brake servo.

Another nod to originality is the cut down rubber trim around the back window. This harks back to a 1980s test session where GTI Engineering believed reducing the lip would result in a 2mph advantage on the long straights. The Akai livery is painted rather than being vinyl adhesives, which is the visual accuracy that backs up its authentic construction. “The car was built professionally by a touring car team, so it’s a properly seam-welded, perfect car. It was dipped and blasted. It is absolutely as period correct as it could be.”

Once complete, the 80 spent many years as a show car. “Maybe it was lack of time, money, other things that stopped me from ever racing it,” Foyle reflected, but as soon as the Win Percy Trophy was announced as a new fixture in 2025, he knew the car’s destiny. To compete, Foyle’s been busily upgrading the safety-critical components such as seatbelts, fuel cell and fire extinguishers to meet regulations. 

He has also been going to and fro to Germany so that KWL Motorsport could prepare the engine. “People think I’m crazy because I’ve taken the car back there three times but I don’t want anyone else to tune it,” he stated. KWL founder Rolf Krogel was friends with Bergmeister, which is a link that Foyle values.

One thing that does follow the Audi 80 racing car around is that Stirling Moss famously disliked it. The 1980 and ’81 British Saloon Car Championship seasons were the former Formula 1 driver’s return to regular motorsport after his crash in the Glover Trophy at Goodwood in 1962 (although he had made some one-off appearances in the interim).

There’s an argument, however, that it was the formula he disliked rather than the car itself. “I think he didn’t really gel with the car because he’d never raced front-wheel-drive and he’d never raced on slicks,” suggested Foyle. “He liked to drift a car, which this doesn’t do. He also didn’t like the ungentlemanly contact in tin-tops.”

Even so, Moss was complimentary about Foyle’s recreation when he saw it. “He was very gracious and he actually said that the car is very nice. And I said, ‘I know you didn’t really like the car’.” 

It was Susie Moss’ follow-up comment that has really stuck with Foyle, however. “Lady Moss whispered to me, ‘Andy, I love your car.’ I said, ‘Lady Moss, honestly, you don’t have to. I thought she was embarrassed because everybody knows [Moss] hated it. I said to her, ‘Honestly, it’s fine. I love the car, you don’t have to.’ Then she replied, ‘The reason I love the car is that Stirling and I got married in 1980 and it’s the first time I ever saw a race.” The emotion came through Foyle’s voice at the memory of the encounter.

The 2026 Win Percy Trophy was Foyle’s big aim, but he did enter the 80 into a race at Silverstone last year to prove it. He ended up finishing first among the 1,600cc cars, but knew he would be down on top speed among the competition at Goodwood.

In Sunday’s Part 2 Foyle sadly failed to finish, but the Audi 80 classified 24^th overall thanks to the performance of his VIP partner, Emanuele Pirro, who came 16^th in Part 1. Knowing they would be up against it, Foyle instead focused on the positives. “We’re lacking top speed, we knew that, but what a privilege to share the car with a five-time Le Mans winner for Audi,” he said. “For me, it’s a dream.”

The 84^th Members' Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport takes place on the 10^th & 11^th April 2027. Tickets are on sale now for GRRC Members and Fellows. If you haven’t already, you can  join the Fellowship today.

Photography by Pete Summers, Joe Harding, Jordan Butters and Tom Baigent.