This 500bhp, Group B-inspired Audi S1 must be built

There was an era when big wings, big turbos, big speed and big risk ruled rallying. It was called Group B, and it was completely and utterly bunkered.

However, this unrestricted period of madness was short-lived. Ditched in 1986 after just four years, due to a series of high-profile accidents, the world hasn’t seen anything like it since.

Until now. Sort of.

Because, if you weren't around in the Eighties and want a bit of modern day Group B fever, German Audi tuner MTM has now cooked up a retro-themed rally-thing for the Bieber era.

Using the new Audi S1 as a baseplate, and the old Audi S1 as inspiration, MTM’s design is still very much at the ‘back of a bar-mat’ stage.

But we’re told it’s mechanically entirely feasible, with American designer Roland Hall already busy rustling up a digital render.

Fitted with wide arches, big wings and many, many nostrils and slits, the beefed S1 looks the part and suitably Group B. Especially in a throwback retro livery.

But it’s underneath that things get potentially interesting, with MTM claiming the S1’s 2.0-litre TFSI engine could be pumped up to an authentically brutish 421bhp, and fitted with a smash-through sequential box.

With more to come, potentially. MTM once made a 201mph A1 fitted with a 493bhp 2.5-litre Audi engine: if you want it, they’ll shove that in this S1. If you’re going full-on Group B, you may as well go the whole hog, right?

“I could manufacture a small production batch if I could find ten enthusiasts who were prepared to pay around €120,000 [about £85k],” said MTM boss Roland Meyer. “There would be full certification for road use as an added incentive.”

A road-legal modern day Group B bruiser from which to impersonate Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist and Walter Röhrl? Where do we sign?