I have been obsessing over this car for the past couple months... The Clarkson top 100 cars on Autoblog sparked my obsession again.

Anyone here ever owned one? Driving impression? I am a mainly reffering to the 20v SOHC turbo engine. Styling reminds me a lot of the E30 M3 with those rear fender flairs. The germans really know how to style a car. If I had the time for a project car, this would be the ticket. I have attached a picture for those who don't want to do a google search.

-Brian

 

never driven one, but the chance to own one in Colorado and drive it up Pikes Peak would be very hard to resist if the opportunity presented itself.

 

Exactly! Driven pikes peak with the MINI. Was with my mom(scared the hell out of her since the top is dirt switchbacks with no gaurd rails... and I was moving). Some how I don't think it would be the same in the quattro . Then there is my delemma... Do I cage it and race it? or actually enjoy the car everday. The MINI is seeming to go the way of racecar only. Gotta love the looks of people wondering why my MINI is spitting flames though.

Anyone else?

-Brian

 

I owned a very nice one just a couple of years ago.

It's not as quick as you would think, unless you start putting a lot of money into it, and mine was a euro-spec 225-hp engine. The engine and tranny were pretty much bulletproof. The 4WD was crude by today's standards, and took some practice to get along with.

It felt heavy somehow - not as agile as a Mini by a long shot, and not even as nimble as my recollection of a 4KQ of the time.

The interior quality is pretty weak, by today's standards. Most of the interior bits were taken from the VWs of it's time. The inaccessible/unusable back seat is annoying, since the trunk is tiny with no pass-thru. Replacement interior parts are getting tough to come by. Many exterior parts are not available.

Bottom line is that it was a nice high-end VW 25 years ago, but nowadays, cars a lot better, and I found it disappointing - I only kept it for a couple of years.

 

one of my favorite cars from the 80s. especially love the short wheelbase version. very group b style, Michelle Mouton days.

 

I have a weird taste for cars, and I too developed a taste for old Audis. I researched and asked around about them, I am pretty glad I didn't go after them too hard.

Think about these points:
Where are you going to get parts? A 20 year old car, and its parts are starting to get pretty hard to find. Just hope the car has A BIG following.
Who is gonna fix it? Audi is a totally different company now, and there is a good chance that when it breaks, even the people who made it can't fix it for you.

I don't want to burst your bubble, but I had a bunch of chances to buy exotic cars that I came so close to buying, but decided against it because of these issues. As much fun as it would be, it wouldn't be worth fixing more than you drive it.

I almost bought a Alfa Romeo Spider, a Maserati, a Unimog, a 1930 Buick and a whole bunch of cool cars I can't remember but I can honestly say that I would be spending more time fixing them than driving them, and I wouldn't want that.

Do whatever you like though, don't listen to me!

Medic

 

The scarcity in parts is always a worry, but if a lot of the parts are from a VW then they will exist. As for fixing it, that will be done by me of coarse. I feel the whole point in getting a older or classic car is for the owner to tinker with it and repair it when needed. I am in Colorado, which has a HUGE Audi following(I guess cause people think they need AWD to get down the block) so I am sure there is someone who knows a few things. Also, there is always the internet. It is a cult car, so there will be some people in the world who know and talk about them and can find parts.

Now, would this be a practical car? Probably not. But neither is a MINI that wont pass inspection and is so load you need ear plugs to take it on a road trip. Praticality is not something that passes through the mind of a 19 year old . I like things that are quarky! In my opinion, Miller Motorsports park is not as much fun as Pueblo. One is a brand new multi million dollar facility while the other is po-dunk track/drag strip in the middle of the Colorado dessert. Pueblo has pavment changes in the middle of turns, cracks, tumble weed flying across the track, and almost no facilities. But its more fun.

I would have guessed it didn't handle like the MINI. Not many cars do. It does weight around 3000 lbs, and probably has a soft suspension. As for the interior, I was kind of attracted by it. It reminded me of the old Volvo 740 wagon I used to drive.

-Brian

 

I wonder how ur mini spits flames

 

Dont know, Ask Waylen. He has been behind me on the track many times .

-Brian

 

Brian, I've owned two. I've hillclimbed, autocrossed and driven in track events with these for over 10+ years. PM me for all the details of driving impressions, snow, ice, tires, maintenance, website links, registry details, parts connections, etc. Yes, huge following in Colorado and I can dial you in with who to talk to. They are very special Audi quattros indeed.



My ex-1983 ur-quattro #568. Lime Rock Park 1996 entering the esses.


My ex-über rare 1984 ur-quattro #919 (one of only 64 imported into the USA). Home in Vermont. I built an 'A2' style factory Audi Sport rallye grille for it. Both of my urqs had the 10v turbo engine. I currently sport a 1995 //S6 with the 20v turbo and it is my ninth Audi quattro I've owned to date.

'ur' stands for original in German and quattro is always spelled with a lowercase 'q'.

 

Brian, ur-quattros make wonderful project Audis if you have time and $,$$$.

Here are some fine examples of very, very fast ur-quattros to keep your obsession alive...

 

Here's the fount of all knowledge quattro: http://www.audifans.com/

Sign up for the quattro list and check out the webring - there are still a lot of enthusiasts, even though almost everyone who ever wanted to own one has done so by now...

Enjoy!

 

Thanks for the link Rick. I've been on Audifans.com since 1991. Here is my shameless plug (ouch ) I designed the Audifans.com logo, and the Audi ur-quattro registry logo around ten years ago. There have been several T-Shirts, and posters that I've designed over the years also for many of the Audi quattro club events. Fun stuff. Everyone over on Audifans is really great.

One of my many memorable quattro moments and highlight was in Sept 2004 out at the National event at Brainerd (BIR) with a 155mph+ stint in the passenger seat of Steve Beddor's 450hp Audi sport quattro on race tires - OMG. Also, Randy Pobst and Paul Choinere were guest drivers and 'Randy just HAD to take' a DE students father's spankin' new 911GT3 out for hot laps. It turned into the 'Randy Drift Show'. The father was puckered and glued to the seat so I heard! I met up with fellow Vermont'ers from Libra Racing (John Buffum's shop here in Colchester) and we brought out John's Audi S2 quattro that John came out of retirement in 1996 to drive and win the Camino del Inca Rallye of Peru with. This is the same S2 that Paul rallied for years in. We mounted up track tires, filled it with race fuel and let 'er rip. The short gear set meant that Paul was shifting into fifth gear just after turn 10 at BIR and was bouncing off redline all the way down the 1/4 plus mile long straight!


Audi S2 at Brainerd, MN Video

 

I guess I'm still obsessed with ur-quattros, here's another MUST watch movie.


Audi sport quattro S1 with Stig Bloomquist testing[/URL] This sport quattro S1 sound is AWESOME.

This is from the French Audi forum gurus this last spring on the Col du Turin, Audi Sport crew fired up a sport quattro S1 and handed the reins to Stig Bloomquist. Blown back in time, I'm sure Stig was feeling good about the whole test session. He sure is a great guy when I met him back in 2000 at the shop. I was laying down rallye car vinyl and he was hangin' out laying down some Vermont beers. He drove Carl Merrill's Cosworth as a tribute.