A look back at the top 10 posts on our blog from the past year. What German enthusiast autos are you looking for in 2023?…
2 CommentsCategory: Audi
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the introduction of Audi’s supercar-scaring R8. It really was a bit of a leap for the company which typically mastered unsteer-laden sedans to jump into a mid-engine, rear-biased all-out sports car, but when they put their mind to it they sure did an impressive job. The design built off existing themes in Audi’s show car history such as the Spyder and Avus concepts of the 90s, but the real foundation work was laid with the twin-turbo Lamborghini V10-powered LeMans quattro show car in 2003. Of course, such a crazy concept would never come to fruition, right?
Fast forward only three years later and the road-ready and newly coined “R8†was brought to the market. Architecture was heavily borrowed from existing models within the company’s umbrella; the basic platform was shared with the Audi-owned Lamborghini Gallardo, while the initial engine came from the RS4 in the form of the 4.2 liter, all-aluminum FSI V8. At 414 horsepower, it might not have given a 599GTB driver much concern, but it surely gave the crew heading into Porsche dealers pause.
From the get-go, journalists swooned over the performance and dynamics of the R8. It was lauded as one of the best packages you could buy – even Clarkson liked it! Even before the mega-V10 model rolled out for the 2009 model year, the 4.2 offered blistering performance in a budget (for the market) package. 0-60 was gone in 4.6 second, the standing quarter in 12.5 and it’d do nearly 190 mph flat-out – at least, that’s what Audi claimed. Car and Driver eclipsed the 60 mark in 4.0 seconds in theirs. At around $120,000 new with some options, the R8 was more dear than any Audi had ever hit market.
But there was something even more odd and unique that this car did, or rather, didn’t do, and it’s one of the main reasons I don’t often write them up. It didn’t fall in value. If you bought a well-equipped, V10-engined S8 in 2007, you’d shell out about the same money – $110,000. Today? Less than 20 grand. But the R8 was the first modern Audi not to fall victim to depreciation. Lower mile examples of the early models are still asking over $70,000 – sometimes well over $80,000. Today’s car has the more valuable gated manual gearbox and is in my favorite color on these – Jet Blue Metallic. Let’s check it out:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2008 Audi R8 on eBay
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Defying the odds and most aspects of common sense, a group of fans out there still loves, maintains, and drives Audis from the 1980s and 1990s. Why is this so outrageous? Well, first off, there just aren’t many left. Audi never really broke many sales records here in the US. When we look at this car’s model year, Audi sold about 18,000 cars in total – helped in no small margin by the early launch of the A4. Between 1991 and 1994, Audi averaged only about 13,000 cars per year. Only a very small portion of those were the highest-performance variants with the 2.2-liter 20V turbo inline-5.
As a result, while these cars have cult status among fans, most people still have no clue what they are – as witnessed by the description of this particular 1995.5 S6, which may be one of the strangest I’ve ever come across…
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995.5 Audi S6 on eBay
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Back in July, I took a look at a pair of Audi 4000Ss, the easy-to-forget lightweight brother of the 4000 quattro and Coupe GT:
The S package actually rolled out the year before with the pre-facelift model, though, and Audi steadily increased the appeal with the Type 81 four-door with the GTI-sourced 1.8L engine, a close-ratio 5-speed, alloy wheels, and a chin spoiler. Although these cars didn’t have the visual appeal of the GT, the rally-inspired drivetrain of the quattro, or the thrum of the 5-pot, they were nonetheless attractive cars that were fun and economical – and it helped that they were also several grand cheaper than their more illustrious counterparts. Today’s example is probably one of the nicer ones left:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1984 Audi 4000S on eBay
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This is an interesting follow-up on the 135i. For that car, I loved the condition; I wish mine was close to that nice and had 100k less miles than it does. But I’d much rather have the spec that my car is; manual, red interior, non-M Sport (so light headliner) – it really makes the car feel more special.
Where am I going with this? Well, for a bit over 20 years I’ve wanted an S8. Like the 135i, it’s not a perfect car, but it does a lot of things really well and is (in the grand scheme) pretty affordable as a “dream” car. Today’s example also has already had a manual swap to deal with one of the larger long-term issues of S8 ownership; the weak gearbox. Is the result perfection? Like the 135i…no; but it is compelling. Let’s take a look: