I live in a part of town that is dense with garages. I see the man who does my MOTs weekly, the man who’s painting up some bumpers of mine even more frequently. As such, it’s not a bad place to see interesting iron. Cars pass through, either needing work or because local employees are buying and selling vehicles that take their fancy.
Occasionally I’ll saunter through the area, looking for visitors. Last night, I decided to take a look. Most times I only find modified late 90s/early 2000s performance (often ‘performance’) cars. Fart-canned Subarus buzz past my windows every night, their boxer thrum still distinctive through my windows and walls. A homemade-tape-striped first generation Vauxhall Nova notchback is a frequent recurrence, but never parks anywhere photogenic. What I’m trying to say is, I don’t expect much.
Imagine my surprise on turning a corner and coming face to face with an original Audi Quattro. I took a few moments to react. My brain cycled my jaw a few times; up, down, up.
In truth, I was disappointed. I couldn’t do this car justice. The light was fading.
The Quattro has already had its story told many times over, and CurbsideClassic is a home for heroes yet unsung.
Gute Reise, noble steed.
Couldn’t do it justice? I love the pictures: the silver catches just enough light, and the highlights reflected from the strret lights are fab. Looks straightout of a magazine to me. Love it. Great find.
Sadly most pictures came out a blurry yellow mess. I do have wallpaper-sized versions of these shots if anyone is interested, though!
Finally someone with wallpaper sized originals! Too bad they’re Audi…
Thanks, and where can I find ’em?
Awesome find not many of these about now and usually parked indoors
I agree with Paul. The photography is perfect.
The Coupe Quattro is one more of those cars i have a strong desire to own knowing full well the financial hardships I’ll be subjected to..
You’d be surprised.
Much like the Mercedes of that era if you keep after them they can run a very long time. I have a friend with an 1989 Quattro Sedan with over 300k miles on the original drive-train. He buys parts online and does all of his own wrenching. The the high desert sun has taken its toll on the paint and the interior is beat up but it still runs.
A well preserved Quattro – the silver colour and original Ronal wheels really look good, and the decal on the door makes me think this may even be original paint.
I knew a fellow with a Coupe GT back in the early ’90s, and another couple of folks who had 5000s, but I don’t think I have ever even seen an Ur Quattro in the wild. Great catch!
I will confess to a brief love affair with this car in the mid eighties. The Coupe GT (as it was called in the US about 1984 or so really struck my fancy, but for two things. First, I could not wrap my mind around the five cylinder engine. An inline six might have pushed me over the edge. Second, it was a bit out of my price range, which included the VW GTI. Still, there was something about the look of the car that really drew me in for awhile. I have not seen one in years.
That’s no Coupe GT – That’s a quattro. Difference is a turbo, all-wheel drive and about twice the price at the time. Available in the US officially only from 1983-1986. A few 1982’s are here as well. Available in much of the rest of the world throught 1991, the last of them with basically the same 20V 5cylinder turbo engine as our 1991 Audi 200 engine that turned into the engine in the S4/S6 from 93-95.5. Interestingly enough the UK was the top market for these.
Thanks for the additional background. You can see that I am clearly outside of my area with these. With all of the things that make this one so much more rare and desirable, the find is so much more interesting. I guess the Quattro never registered much for me at the time because I was looking for my first new car and the Quattro was so far out of my range of possibilities that I sort of forgot it. Oops.
Go to youtube and type in Group B quattro. You will be amazed what you will see. Or type in Sport Quattro, which is the ultimate evolution of this thing. 12″ or so taken out of the wheelbase (to make it more agile in tight turns), 300hp (in 1984), body panels made mainly of Kevlar composite. 214 produced to homologate it for Group B rally which had to be sold to the public, maybe about 160 survive today. Some were hacked up during rallies for parts, the survivors mostly now live cherished, pampered lives. I got the chance to drive one outside of Paris a few years ago and it is one of the highlights of my driving career. When they were new they were apparently difficult to sell, now they easily command into the 6 figures.
I loved these cars at the time, as well as the basic Coupe GT. And I do remember CAR magazine having a love affair with them, so I’m not surprised the UK was the top market. I lusted after the quattro, but I had a friend with a Coupe GT – it was really the first “nice” car that any of my friends had, having started out driving with hand me downs and such. I drove it many times, and I districtly remember it having a very high quality feel, and I really liked the sound and feel of the 5 cyl engine.
That car still looks great today, and the pictures really do it justice.
One of my commuter cars a few years back was an ’89 Coupe GT with the 1.8 Golf GTI engine in nice metallic blue. It was quite fast, handled well, was very roomy and also got 40mpg in a heavy traffic commute. The driving position and seats were near perfect, and the interior build quality was very good. Okay, it also burned a bit of oil and wiring, and had rust in strange places, so its VW watercooled heritage was somewhat evident, but nonetheless, it was a cool car, and very well rounded (wedged?) Compared to its late 80s competition- Nissan 240, Celica, BMW 318, let alone a Mustang or Camaro, it was on a different planet. Its just a shame that the 1.8 never made it to the states, as it is far eaiser to work on and lacking the usual Audi timebombitude.
Audi’s Timebombitude – another word/phrase worthy of copyright here on CC. This joins Paul’s Great Brougham Epoch and Geozinger’s Cockroach of the Road. Consider me on the bandwagon.
“Audi timebombitude”
As mentioned above, I knew a fellow with a Coupe GT in the early ’90s. At one point the electrical system did something weird and both the AC and power windows quit working in the middle of Summer when the temperature was around 30 C. Luckily the manual sunroof still opened, otherwise the car would have been unusable…
I agree with the others, great pictures, did you do anything special with the settings?
I looks like its haning out in the alley wating for a brawl.
I never had an opinion of this vintage Audi, though I do seem to recall that were one of the only German makes that got bitten by the digital dash bug in the 80’s, at least on US market cars.
A little zoom on the camera, and a blue filter in photoshop to cool off the sodium lamp light.
One of my undying dream machines, sigh….
What a great find. I’ve never seen one of these in person. My aunt did have an ’86 4000 sedan though, it lasted a very long time. My uncle still sees it on the road every now and then.
And I have to echo the earlier comments – the photos are great!