Buffum has managed to purchase back his first A1 rally car, which is the one featured in this article. The car as it stands today is an Audi Sport prepped car which was used one time by Michelle Mouton in the Portuguese Rally. Mouton actually drove the car to victory in that event with co-driver Fabrizia Pons. After the event, Buffum's crew from Libra Racing went to Germany to retrieve the car which had some body damage – not from a crash – but from the crew jumping on the roof and hood celebrating the victory! It was recently repainted to the match – right down to the last details - its appearance in Portugal.
Powered by a 2144cc turbocharged and intercooled 5 cylinder with 2 valves per cylinder, and breathing through a small inlet restrictor these cars produced somewhere around 300 hp all with CONSIDERABLE lag. Buffum commented that “you'd floor it, whip out a deck of cards and wait for the boost to hit." While quite a contrast from today’s small turbo cars, these rally cars were nonetheless blindingly fast when on boost.
The car is a combination of tough as nails off-road construction and sophisticated racing technology. The unit body is fully seam welded (street car unit bodies are spot welded, crimped, and glued, but not seam welded which is hugely labor intensive, but makes the unit VERY strong). HUGE aluminum skid plates protect the vital underside bits. There is generous ground clearance, a very sophisticated suspension and a reinforced passenger compartment which, interestingly, would not be legal in today's competition since it is made from aluminum and is bolted rather than welded to the car.
In traditional rally car fashion, there are relays, fuses, gauges, map pockets, etc in the interior. We can say with first hand knowledge that the seats are in fact very comfortable! There is no hand brake like the newer cars have for quick J turns, but there is a manual front/rear proportioning valve for the brakes.
The car makes use of a fair bit of composite materials. The fuel cell, air cleaner, and some hard boost pipes, among other bits, are made from carbon fiber. Even the cam belt cover and radiator fan shroud are composite!
Readers will also notice that the boost hoses are connected with silicone sleeves, which are augmented by metal hooks. These engines were equipped with no bypass or blow off valve of any kind to feed the charge air around the throttle. When the driver lifted off of the throttle all of the pressurized air would slam into the closed throttle plate, and then pulse back towards the turbocharger building up incredible pressure inside the lines after the cold side of the turbo. The result was oftentimes broken turbochargers and boost hoses coming apart.
Audi also made use of dry sump oiling and a remote reservoir in the trunk (along with a gargantuan radiator style oil cooler mounted atop the trunk lid under the wing). This is somewhat typical of the time, as oiling technology had not yet caught up with the incredible pressures and heat these turbo engines were capable of producing.
Anybody who can recall Audi’s rally racing glory days (or those who have come to appreciate the achievements via videos, pictures and stories) always wonder whether Audi would ever return to rally racing. According to Buffum it is highly unlikely. He considers today’s factory cars to be too big, too nice and ultimately too fragile. Back when quattro first came out it was purpose built for racing with use in street cars being a secondary goal. Audi was not really a luxury or sports car builder in those days; the cars were tough and relatively simple. The same certainly can not be said for today's Audis.
It's lucky for us then, that there are folks like John Buffum who keep the history of Audi and rally racing alive, and keep alive these amazing machines of the recent past.
Meeting Buffum was a very special thing for me given given my life long passion for Audi and for rally racing. Growing up, I knew who Buffum was and I followed his career as feasible in those dark days before internet and satellite TV. It was remarkable to chat with him about “the old days” a little, though I was trying hard not to annoy him with every silly question. Buffum was very gracious and humble, chatting about other drivers he rallied against, the Pikes Peak events, European rallies, and the American championships as if they were just casual drives. You'd never know in a quick chat just what he had accomplished during his storied racing career.
We'd like to extend very special thanks to John Buffum for taking the time to talk and show us his car and to Joe Nocito of Axis Motorsport who initially arranged the meeting.
Sources of information used for this article include John's bio on the Libra Racing web site and John's book, In Like a Lamb, Out Like a Lion.
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