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Last week’s 10K Friday Colorful Carriers was a bit of a letdown; sure, the colors were great, but the only manual was the B6 V8 S4 Avant, and while it was a cool package there was no denying the trepidation with which I’d approach that particular package. To remedy that issue, this week I’m again focusing on some haulers capable of hauling; we’ve lost the color pallet but all of these Avants are turbocharged and manual, just the way most like it. So, this time around, which is the pick of the litter?
Yesterday, we posted a throwback video to the 1992 Audi S4 review by the television show Motorweek. For me, it was interesting to watch as they went through both the highlights and some of the faults of the now legendary car. One thing they mentioned towards the end really struck me; the original run of 250 1992 units had completely sold out, and they were taking orders for 1993. Mind you, this was at a time where Audi nearly pulled out of the market; to me, this makes the success of the C4 chassis all the more poignant. If the A4 revitalized Audi, it was really the C4 in its varying guises that kept both the fire ignited amongst enthusiasts and simultaneously kept Audi’s small foothold in the marketplace – in particular, the C4 A6 2.8 Avant was a particularly successful and popular car. But today we’re talking about the model everyone really wants, the S4; following up on my Sprint Blue double post from yesterday, here’s a pair of 1993 S4s in Audi’s signature color until the end of the 20V run; Pearlescent White Metallic. It adorned nearly every variant of quattro from the original right through the S8, but it’s most notable between the 5000CS quattro, 200 20V models and the S4. Which of these pearls would you take home?
In my recent “Gimmie Five” 10K Friday, I charted some of the developments of the venerable Audi powerplant. Though the Eurovan would continue using I-5s in some applications, ostensibly 1997 would see the end of the line for the original configuration with the discontinuation of the S6 even if it’s returned in spirit in the new 07k turbocharged 5 seen in the TTRS and RS3. Those cars are the successors of the original small turbocharged Audis; the Quattro and the S2 coupe and Avant, and while we briefly got the 10V Quattro, none of the later small turbocharged variants came to the U.S.. For enthusiasts that were unwilling to wait for either the new models to launch or the European models to become legally eligible for importation, a popular pursuit has been to recreate the turbocharged package in the small chassis. Adding the turbocharged motor in 20V form instantly transformed the B3 and B4 into performance machines, and with plenty of tunability in the package it was possible to create a really serious package. That tuning has been taken to another level by an entire generation of new electronic fuel injection management which exploits the longevity and stout construction of the inline-5 and makes absolute monsters. Sure, it was impressive that Audi produced versions that managed the best part of 1,000 horsepower in certain tune in the 1980s – but that, of course, was a major manufacturer with near unlimited budget. What’s more impressive is that small tuning firms subsequently have been able not only to match but to exceed those power levels, with companies like 034 Motorsport and Dahlback Racing making 1,100 – 1,200 plus horsepower variants on their own. Even though the B3 chassis is fairly heavy, if you can turn up that boost to high levels you’ve got yourself a rocketship – and this S2 replica certainly has the right ingredients for that recipe:
It’s always with a bit of sadness that one of your friends posts a long love affair for sale. It’s understandable; people change priorities or move on, but when you know the amount of time and effort that has gone into a car you can’t help but hope that the next owner will appreciate even a small percentage of what it took. I’ve known Scott from Coventry Motor Car for nearly 20 years; writing that, it’s hard for me to believe or quantify. I still remember driving into a the parking lot of Mystic Aquarium to meet the stranger who had posted some Audi 90 Sport quattro wheels for sale – there in the lot was a gorgeous pearl white 90. That car, and a few others that Scott has owned along the way, have passed on, and his current project is now on the block. I must say, whatever the car that he has been working on through the years, the presentation has always been top notch – and it’s easy to see the attention to detail looking through the photos of this stunning Avant. Proving age is just a number, Scott’s work restoring this Avant to pristine shape has resulted in one of the best all around examples we’ve seen for sale in recent memory:
Today’s 10K Friday is something a bit unique; instead of a normal comparison between similarly valued cars, I’m going to chart the development of the venerable Audi inline-5. While, due to a dearth of examples, we won’t go back to the very early days of the I5 in the U.S., I’ve rounded up some of the more notable configurations that the engine appeared in the U.S.. Since, save some exceptions like the legendary Quattro and RS2, nearly every used Audi with this motor fits the under $10,000 limit (or comes close to it), that gives us the opportunity to see Audi’s continual technical changes to the inline-5. Though not as memorable as BMW’s inline-6 or Porsche’s flat-6, this motor was extremely important to the company nonetheless and was a character-defining attribute of Audis for nearly 20 years. So, let’s see how they kept it relevant from the 1970s into the 1990s:
