Legendary Audi racer Frank Biela will be reunited with the A4 SuperTourer at Knockhill’s SuperTouring Festival.

Legendary Audi racer Frank Biela will be reunited with game-changing A4 SuperTourer at Knockhill’s SuperTouring Festival this weekend

• Audi race ace Frank Biela to be guest of honour at Scotland’s Knockhill Circuit for celebration of touring car racing on September 11
• Biela will reacquaint himself with all-conquering A4 quattro SuperTourer on the circuit where he won and set the fastest race lap for Audi in the BTCC twenty years ago
• Dominance of A4 quattro SuperTourer in 1996 season led to further weight penalties in 1997 and an eventual ban on all-wheel-drive from 1998
• Thoroughbred touring cars from the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties will go toe-to-toe in STCC finale during the weekend

Twenty years after he drove the governing body of the British Touring Car Championship to distraction with his all-conquering Audi A4 quattro SuperTourer, racing legend Frank Biela is to be reunited with the outlawed all-wheel-drive sidekick at this weekend‘s David Leslie SuperTouring Festival.

The 52-year-old, who can reflect on five Le Mans 24-hour wins and a host of Touring Car race victories in international championships, will be the guest of honour at  the evocative festival, which will bring legendary Touring Cars from across the decades to Scotland’s famous Knockhill Circuit.

At the Knockhill round of the 1996 BTCC, Biela recorded the fastest lap in his A4 quattro SuperTourer, and went on to win one of the two races staged that weekend. That year he contributed six further fastest lap times to the total of eight achieved by the A4 in the 26-race series, and took pole on no less than six occasions. Eight race wins secured the Drivers’ Championship title for his heroic efforts and, ably assisted by his team-mate John Bintcliffe, the Manufacturers’ Championship title for Audi.

Versus a field of front-wheel-driven competitors, the A4 SuperTouring with its game-changing Audi quattro all-wheel-drive technology undoubtedly held the trump card. In all, the A4 quattro SuperTouring entered seven national championships on three continents in 1996 – and won them all.  

As a result, the configuration that was believed to have facilitated the  virtual whitewash by Biela and Bintcliffe in the BTCC was taken to task by the championship organisers. They imposed various weight penalties on the car for the 1997 season, and this encumbrance meant that Biela initially struggled to make headway in the series that year. Midway through the race calendar, however, the weight penalty was halved, and Biela was again given his head, fighting back to take second place overall in the Drivers’ Championship, and helping Audi to achieve second place overall. In 1998, all-wheel drive was largely banished from European touring car competition.

Audi UK is proud to number an A4 quattro SuperTourer among the many cherished gems in its Heritage Fleet, and this car will be on static display at Knockhill, as will an Audi 80 GLE replica car in Stirling Moss colours which campaigned in the 1980 British Saloon Car Championship. Mr Biela will, however, have ample opportunity to take a blast down memory lane in the 296PS, 2.0-litre A4 thanks to a private owner who has kindly entrusted his ex-Audi Sport car to the German race ace for parade laps of the circuit.

Biela’s evocative sortie will be one highlight of what promises to be an exceptional spectacle for fans of Touring Car racing. The Historic Sports Car Club will also be staging the thrilling finale of its Super Touring Car Championship as part of the event, bringing thoroughbred Touring Cars from the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties back to the grid for classic bumper-to-bumper racing in the best traditions of this much-loved competition format.

The legacy and dominance of quattro in the SuperTouring championship and a multitude of other motorsport disciplines from the 1980s to the present day continues to drive unwavering demand for the legendary all-wheel drive system. 

Today, a quattro variant is available to order in every single one of the 13 Audi model silhouettes and a third of all Audi road cars sold in the UK are equipped with quattro all-wheel drive, comfortably ahead of the German premium competition.

Uber Rare Vauxhall barn Find reunites with previous owners family and returns to Vauxhall Motors Heritage Centre.

• 93-year-old 23/60 drives back to Luton to meet former owner’s family

A 1923 Vauxhall 23/60 made its first long journey after an 18-month mechanical restoration last weekend to be reunited with three generations of the previous owner’s family at Vauxhall Motors’ Heritage Centre in Luton.

Known as ‘Alice’, the vintage Vauxhall is now thought to be the most original of the c90 surviving 23/60s from a total production of 1,300 made at the famous Kimpton Road factory between 1922 and 1926.

Kay Lorenzato, whose late husband owned the car from the 1950s, was delighted to see it for the first time after its inaugural, post-resto drive from Leicestershire to last Sunday’s VBOA (Vauxhall Bedford Owners’ Association) meeting. Her husband, she said, would have been ‘proud to see Alice on the road again’ after he’d shared so many experiences with the car during the 1950s and ‘60s.

And Raymond Lorenzato certainly used the car extensively. A Grimsel Pass sticker on the windscreen and three tickets from a cinema in Lucerne found under the seat during restoration were evidence of just some of the European road trips he made in the ‘50s. The car also competed in various VSCC events, before being pushed into service as the Lorenzatos’ daily transport during the 1960s (including the harsh winter of 1962/63).

Alice was last seen in Luton in 1964 at a 30-98 Register meeting and was on the road for a further three years, before being retired to the family garage with a cracked block. Talking to Vauxhall staff at the VBOA meeting, Kay Lorenzato had fond memories of attending rallies in Alice with her husband in the early sixties – including one at Brooklands – and recalled how attached they both were to the car.

Well known restorer and vintage racer, Mark Walker, purchased Alice from Kay at a Bonhams Beaulieu auction and over the last year and a half has undertaken a full mechanical restoration. The block has been repaired and new high-compression pistons fitted, but wherever possible Mark has retained original components, with ‘conservation’ rather than ‘restoration’ being his mantra. And Alice’s appearance – which still shows the scars of a 93-year life – has carefully been preserved, with even the original leather trim being saved during the process.

‘In Alice, sixty mph at two-thousand rpm is still a comfortable and smooth cruising speed and the car keeps up well with modern traffic,’ said Walker. ‘Higher speeds are certainly possible, but with only rear brakes, probably not advisable! I intend to use the car as family transport and would love to recreate the trip over the Grimsel Pass one day.’