It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve just passed 1,000 posts on this site, yet when I click on my history here that seems to be what the computer indicates. During my time here, I’ve been fortunate to be afforded the opportunity to shed some light on some cars that I think would probably go unnoticed by many. In some cases, that could be a good thing arguably, but in particular I hope that I’ve helped to raise some awareness of some Audi models that go unappreciated. To me, while they may not be the fastest or flashiest cars that have ever come out of Germany there is an enduring appeal to the 1980s Audis; a time when the company definitely stood apart from its countrymen. So, to unofficially commemorate my 1,000th post, I couldn’t let Coupe Week go without an homage to one of my favorite Audis – the Coupe GT. In period, it was judged by many to be one of the best GT cars available – but as I’ve said previously, in the public sphere there seems to be at times collective amnesia regarding 1980s Audis, which are lumped in with earlier models and claimed to have excessive electrical and running problems. Having owned six of them over the past few decades, I can say with a fair bit of confidence that reputation is unwarranted. My 1986 Coupe GT has tackled everything I’ve thrown at it; long road trips, treks to work through blizzards, and many, many trips to the track. Those track adventures have been a continuous attempt to pass every car I can if for no reason other than to show drivers that the supposedly nose-heavy, understeering one-wheel drive wonder is, in fact, quite a competent driver (which, incidentally, just passed their self-proclaimed ‘ultimate driving machine’). But while I could sing the praises of the GT for long enough to put all of you to sleep, finding a good one today is hard – very, very hard. Compared to the multitudes of W201 and E30 models that we see daily, good clean B2 Audis are virtually non-existent in the U.S., so to find a nice example often requires looking to the Fatherland where there tends to be a greater appreciation for Audi’s models. This particular example stood out to me; in rare Flamingo Metallic paint, this is one of the last Audi Coupe GTs ever produced:
