If you’re into Audi history, then you’re going to want to find a way to get to the Techno Classica vintage-car show in Essen, Germany, this week. Short notice, we know, but Audi is bringing several ultra-cool cars from its long history, including the 1991 Quattro Spyder and polished-aluminum Avus concepts, the Audi Group S rally race car, a 1924 Slaby-Beringer, a 1929 Framo TV 300 three-wheeler, and a 1941 DKW F 9, as well as several motorcycles.

Naturally, the mid-engine (and bright orange) Quattro Spyder and the Avus concept are expected to turn many heads. Both are worthy of such neck abuse, what with the Quattro Spyder’s neatly styled aluminum body and impressively light curb weight of around 2400 pounds, as well as the Avus’s 503-hp W-12 engine?presaging the W-12 that later would power cars such as the Audi A8 and Volkswagen Phaeton?and mirror-finish body. Even so, the Group S race car (pictured below) is equally compelling; designed for Group S competition set to begin in the 1987 rally season, Audi’s Group S ride never raced after the FIA dismantled Group B in 1986 and cancelled Group S. The older models in the grouping, the Slaby-Beringer and the Framo TV 300, are pretty cool, too, in their own zany way. The Framo features a single powered front wheel, looking like a flatbed truck with a motorcycle front end, and the Slaby-Beringer is powered by a single-cylinder DKW engine. Need more reason to shout “Essen or bust!”&q...