Retro-sentimentalism?

The concept car pays homage to the original Sport quattro, but it's anything but retro. Its cabin is less upright, its smooth sides don't have the bulging wheelarches of the 1983 car, which looked as though it was wearing some of Ms Collins' shoulder pads, and it has a matt-black version of Audi's single-frame radiator grille either side of piercing headlamps rather than horizontal slats and square light units. Only the rear screen pillars have been copied.

The sills have been signed by Walter Rohrl and Christian Geistdorfer, who drove a Sport Quattro for Audi in the World Rally Championship in '84 and '85. The wheels are flush five-spoke 20-inch alloys rather than the white, dished 15-inch affairs of yesteryear.

Inside the cabin
The cabin has a simplicity that contrasts with the cluttered look of the old car. Its instruments are all-digital, there's an electronic handbrake and a version of Audi's MMI central control system, and its switches are small and neat but positioned on the outer edges of the instrument binnacle, just like those in the 1980 Quattro.