1980's Audi Quattro
David Sutton and his team moved away from Ford and the Escort Mk2 after winning the 1981 World Rally Championship with Ari Vatenan, as it became clear Ford weren't in a position to offer a competitive car for the 1982 season. His attentions then turned to securing a deal to run Audi Quattro's in the British rally Championship and later world championship events.
During the early 1980's Gartrac worked with David Sutton again with the Audi 80 coupe and later produced three works Audi Quattro A2 body shells which were sent over from Ingolstadt in Germany. Audi usually produced everything in Germany, so this was quite unusual at the time.
1980s Audi Quattro
1980s Audi Quattro
The Audi Bodyshell's were quite straightforward, care had to be taken to make sure all the bracketry was absolutely right and the roll cage was fitted correctly for ultimate safety. The work had to meet with German standards, which Gartrac went to great lengths to achieve.
Although the works involvement had ended with Ford, this was a extremely busy period for Gartrac, working for other manufacturers such as Audi, GM, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Austin Rover to name but a few.
Looking back it was hard to imagine how all this work was achieved as Gartrac were still heavily involved in producing and supplying parts for customer Escort's and developing their own projects such as the G3,G6 and G4 Mk3 Escort's.