This Audi S4 GTO is a legendary five‑pot's last hurrah

This monstrous engine first saw action in the famous Quattro rally cars we all know and love, where the chirp of those turbos and the aural surge first found fame. We aren’t here to go on about Quattros, though. This is the story of the five-pot’s last hurrah. The Quattro’s bouncing, boundary-less, bewinged circuit-faring descendent. This is the 1992 Audi S4 GTO. Yes, one of those utterly bonkers IMSA/Trans Am-esque monstrosities of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, whose aesthetics might lead you to believe someone had stuck Audi saloon car lights onto a fridge that had been hit multiple times with an axe. The S4 isn’t quite IMSA, though, but the breeding is evidently there. 

The Audi 90 IMSA GTOs and 200 Trans Ams were the saving grace of the then-homeless five-cylinder turbo AWD drivetrain. With the demise of Group B, and Audi’s distance from rallying following some uninspiring results with the 200, this incredible powerhouse was all dolled up with nowhere to go. Audi repurposed the 200 – Quattro powertrain and all – for circuit racing in the states. As was becoming convention with this engine, it absolutely dominated, and America echoed to the howl of these monstrous machines. Things got even more batty in IMSA, where the 90s were essentially silhouettes with the bombastic powertrain churning out all the twist it could muster, with a flutter of the wastegate, a bang of flame and a puff of fumes by the gearshift. They dominated again.

Market penetration via motorsport was going well for Audi. Next stop: South Africa and the Wesbank series. Here pretty much anything went. The legendary powerplant could really stretch its muscles, but it could only be in a car sold in the South African market. Out with the 200 Trans Ams and 90 GTOs, in with the new S4 GTO. Hans Stuck, Terry Moss and Chris Aberdein to show everyone what puff these bruisers have left in them.

Puff that would shortly be rendered antiquated with the introduction of the all-V8 formula. As of 1994, Audi’s legendary five-banger was finally snuffed out, with the S4 GTO being its swansong. 

The S4 GTO that was in attendance at FOS was the Stuck/Aberdein car and is one of two ever built. The entourage clambering over it, polishing, tweaking, keeping it up to snuff were clearly enamoured and astonished in equal parts with this gloriously crude thing. Ask one of the critical reviews of this most quintessential of Audi formulas of the day, quoting horror stories of understeer, and he scoffs, saying if you can’t drive around it, if you can’t drive with it, you can’t drive. We’re inclined to agree. It’s all about working to the car’s strengths and around its weaknesses, as opposed to trying to employ some fantasy of a universal technique. Get that snail on song, make sure you’re trigger-happy on brakes: Slow in, fast out, though we had no intention of telling Aberdein how to drive his car as he was reunited with it at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard.

Following retirement, this car went into the caring ownership of an American Audi collector for many years before being acquired by its current owner. The guys preparing it said that Chris was probably going to hold back a bit. Watching it go up the Hill later in the Festival, (and as our video will no doubt prove) he was giving it more than enough toe to keep the crowd’s jaws nice and slack. What’s more, the guys let on that, following getting their eye in this year, they might be back for a more serious assault on the Hill in future. We believe them…

This car is utterly fantastical. Though appearing from a distance to be a saloon car, it's every bit the wolf in sheep’s clothing once you get up close. Where on the right-hand side you’ll see a conventional rear “door” window, on the left is an enormous chasm in which you’ll find – if you look deep enough – a stonking great intercooler. These things are just laughably awe-inspiring: Hodge-podge hack jobs as much as they are utter titans of their class. It’s a glorious dichotomy and very in keeping with the envelope-pushing vibe of 2017’s FOS. It was a pleasure to be acquainted with this last bastion of the old-guard Audi five-pot monster and to get to know the guys tasked with its care. We hope it comes back to turn up the boost on the Hill next year.

Photography by Tom Shaxson