Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
There were a lot of reasons to be skeptical about the most recent B3 Coupe Quattro I posted:
In fairness, though, they were nice cars and quite competent, and though they’re not my personal favorite Audi, they have quite a few fans for a good reason. I felt we needed to resurrect our respect for the model, and wouldn’t you know that a worthy example turned up right away?
2021 can’t close without me taking a look at an Audi S8. The last one I took a look at was just over a year ago, and it was a doozy:
Since then I’ve looked at both LWB and SWB A8s recently, but no S8s. Well, as luck would have it, a 2002 popped up for sale. It’s fairly common Light Silver Metallic outside, but inside we’ve got the optional partial Alcantara seats. It looks to be in good and mostly original condition, so let’s take a peek:
“It’s a great car, but it’s a pain in the a**.”
This is a phrase that summarizes many different makes and models, for which the owners toil countless hours over labors of love only to have a car that (effectively) only they themselves are really interested in. Sure, you might think it’s cool too, and maybe you want to drive it, or take a picture with it. But do you really want to own it?
In the case of the Audi Coupe Quattro, the answer is probably no. At least that’s true for the bulk of them. Listen, I’m a huge Audi fan. And I have owned my fair share of them, too. But easy-to-live-with they are not. We make all sorts of excuses for how wonderful they are, and certainly you can make them very fun. But the reality is that most older examples were forlorn for at least some period of time, most have lived a pretty hard life, and most will leave you cursing the “Audi Gods” with frozen bolts, NLA parts, and a complete lack of functional equipment.
Now that I’ve really sold the Audi experience, let’s take a look at today’s subject:
Back before Thanksgiving, a slightly crusty 200 20V quattro Avant popped up in the Northeast:
It sold for relatively short money, though it also clearly needed a fair amount of work. But, as I said, these are fan favorite cars – so when another turns up in short order, it’s still worth taking a look. Today’s Lago Blue Metallic example has black sport seats, the correct BBS wheels, and European headlights thrown in, too boot!
Back in October, I took a look at a refreshed and S8-tributed D2 A8L.
Truth told, by love of the D2 focuses mostly on the S8, but I have a weird crush on early models in general. First off there was the wacky 3.7 front-drive model that only lived for two model years and amazingly had less power than the smaller displacement 1990 V8 quattro with the 3.6. It seems as though barely any of those sold new between 1997 and 1999, and it’s hard to believe any survive today. Of course, it was also an early pre-facelift S8 that appeared in Ronin, as well – another reason to love them. Just 2,481 A8s were sold in the US in 1999, broken up between the 3.7 and the model we’re looking at today: and standard A8 4.2 quattro. It is perhaps one of the best examples left in the wild – and it’s just a good reminder of how handsome and understated the original design was.
