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1991 Audi 200 20V quattro

1991 Audi 200 20V quattro

Published January 22, 2023 by Carter

The Type 44 Audi was on its way out of production (in the West, at least) in 1991, but it went out with a bang. The big news was finally the release of the 20V Turbo motor into the lineup for the US market. A development of the motor utilized in the Sport Quattro and then the RR Quattro in Europe and later S2, Audi also popped the 3B turbocharged inline-5 package in the 200. As an added bonus, it was available in both sedan form and the innovative Avant wagon. Producing 217 horsepower and a bit more torque, the 200 20V was capable of 0-60 runs in the mid-6 second range if you were quick with your shifts. But this wasnâ€™t a bracket racer â€“ the 200 was a luxury car through and through, with a well-appointed cabin full of the things youâ€™d expect â€“ Zebrano wood trim, electric powered and heated leather seats front and rear, and a high-quality Bose stereo. Unusual for a luxury car of the time, but underscoring the Germanâ€™s feelings towards driving, were the number of driver-oriented items. The dashboard was full of gauges, and unlike the V8 and 200 Turbo, the 20V was manual only. Next to the shift lever was the manual rear differential lock, though as with all the second-generation quattro drivetrains, the electronic lock disengaged at 15 m.p.h. automatically. The center differential was a Torsen unit capable of varying power as well. And the brakes were unconventional floating-rotor designs, intended to help haul the heavy 200 down from triple-digit Autobahn speed with ease. Unlike the normal 200, the fenders on the 20V were flared slightly to accommodate BBS forged wheels, 15Ã—7.5â€³ all around and shared with the ’91-up V8 quattro. It sounded like a recipe for success and was a well-regarded car when new even if the unconventional manual/turbo-5 setup lacked some grunt compared to the V8s of the day. Truth be told, though, “success” in Audi’s sales numbers in the early 90s was relative; somewhere around 1,200 or so of these 20Vs were sold in the US. This one looks pretty slick, so let’s take a peek:

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10K Friday 20V Turbo Edition: S6 v. 200 20V v. S2 v. S2 Avant v. S4 v. 200 20V Avant

Published August 29, 2014 by Carter

Most of my 10K posts have been a balance between finding examples of cars that just squeak under the 10K limit (sometimes, a little liberally) but aren’t complete wrecks. Typically, they’re examples of cars that you just don’t often think of as being cheap or don’t typically see fitting into a budget. But, it’s always a bit of a compromise – seldom are they exactly the cars that I’d buy. More often than not, when it comes to these comparisons I’d spend a little bit extra to get a better example of the car I wrote up than the budget one. Any number of enthusiasts will tell you why; a higher priced but better maintained car is almost always a more sound investment than a lower priced, questionable history example. There are, however, some cars that fall in general well below our self-imposed 10K cap. Most notably, when comparing packages and what one gets for a moderate investment, it’s hard to argue with the early 1990s Audis. Though Audis reputation was, in many ways, in the toilet at this point of history, arguably this is when they reached their zenith of design, performance and build quality. Certainly, newer Audis are more quiet, faster and have gorgeous interiors – however, they also have a reputation for being overly complicated, expensive to fix and often on the IR list with dashboards lit up as if we were a few months closer to Christmas.

But in the mid to late 1980s, Audi spent millions of dollars developing their turbo technology and the inline-5 motor into a world-beating engine. They raced several different race series with this flexible platform, dominating with their quattro technology. Simultaneously, Audi developed two new chassis to hold the 20V power plant – the B3/4 90 chassis and the C4 100 both would receive versions of the 20V Turbo, along with the last run of Quattros in the form of the RR. Both of these chassis were painstakingly designed to not only take on the competition from Munich and Stuttgart, but indeed to best them. This was a time when Audi was alone at offering all-wheel drive turbocharged performance sedans, coupes and wagons in the luxury market – something we’ve since come to associate with most major manufacturers. Despite the innovation, good looks, notorious long-lived reliability and performance potential of these cars, though, most of them remain the most affordable of their contemporaries. I’ve lined up a group of most of the 20V applications here – which would be your choice? Let’s start with the S6: