Ten years ago Audi celebrated their 25 years of Quattro by giving the United States (Sorry Canada, the bumpers didn’t meet Canadian low-speed crash test standards) a special delivery of 250 B7 S4 special ‘25quattro’ editions. All painted in a typically German Avus Silver color, these cars got DTM inspired front and rear bumpers that wear non-functional brake ducting and finished off with an aero-style lower rear valance (with a red tow hook hiding below it) and a carbon fiber trunk spoiler with matching front splitter. The wheels are again DTM inspired with a 15 spoke design pattered after OZ Racing but ironically made by long Audi supplier Ronal. On the inside, your typical full Recaro setup is there with two-tone seats in jet-gray as well as some carbon fiber trim and ‘1 of 250’ shift knob. All said and done, Audi gave it’s fans a nice cosmetic package to different from the rest of the B7 S4s. Unfortunately, the 25quattro received no performance upgrades outside of some different exhaust tips to give you a slightly more aggressive sound, but the car did receive the revised more rearward biased drive system also found in the RS4. Being only 1 of 250, this 25quattro located in California might fulfill your appetite for a rare V8 Audi without stepping into RS4 territory.
Tag: Audi
Far less famous than its wide-hipped brother and mostly unknown to most U.S. customers, the B2 Audi Coupe was available with quattro all-wheel drive in other markets. It shared nearly all components with the sibling 4000 (90) quattro, including 4×108 wheel pattern and 256mm front brakes – items that were also on the U.S. spec front-drive GT. So, one would assume it would be pretty easy to “swap in a quattro”, as the internet posts usually start. Of course, those individuals who start the posts best be wearing flame-retardant clothing, as they are immediately inundated with responses that kindly (or not so) explain the difficulties inherent in this project. You see, everything aft of the firewall on the all-wheel drive floorplan is different than the two wheel drive units; indeed, as I’ve pointed out previously, even the two wheel drive floorpans were different between automatics and manuals. That means to recreate a rest of the world Coupe quattro, you need the floorpan from a 4000 quattro mated to a body of a Coupe GT. This, of course, makes no sense financially as the countless hours involved eliminate all but the DIYers – and even a fair chunk of those with the talent give up on the project. Yet, it apparently didn’t stop the builder of this rally car, who not only swapped the body, but went one step further and dropped in a turbocharged motor and the brakes and wheels from the big-brother Type 44 chassis. The result is a budget Ur-Quattro rally replica without the flare of the original…or, at least, it was a few years ago before it was parked:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1984 Audi Coupe GT on eBay
Comments closedI see B6 platform A4s all the time in DC, often driven by young people in their mid to late twenties. I tend to assume that many of them are hand-me-downs from wealthy parents who live in the affluent suburbs. When equipped with all-wheel drive, these cars make for competent year-round daily drivers ideal for the mid-Atlantic climate, and they still give off that expensive, German vibe even though by now they are relatively inexpensive to buy. But while the overall design remains attractive, I think the standard models can look a bit plain. If, like me, you prefer the sportier looks of the S4, but don’t want to deal with the possibility of the $8k timing chain job that afflicts the 4.2 V8 motor, the next best thing is a regular A4 equipped with the Ultrasport package. Available as a factory option, this added S4-style door blades, revised front and rear bumpers, sports suspension and 18″ multispoke “celebration” RS4-style wheels. So equipped, the ordinary looking A4 is instantly transformed into a sportier, more aggressively styled car. The USP package was available on both sedan and wagon models, and for today’s post I’ve written up one of each.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2005 Audi A4 1.8T Quattro Ultrasport on Craigslist
5 CommentsOn a recent visit to London, I stopped through the Audi showroom on 75 Piccadilly. Sitting front and center was an RS6 Avant, a beastly estate which has become quite a popular family conveyance for the monied classes in the Big Smoke. Somehow, over 550 horsepower seems a bit ludicrous in a town where you’ll be getting nowhere fast. But where did all this horsepower madness start? Well, right here with this car. The RS2 Avant. This special Audi was produced in the same factory that brought us that other GCFSB favorite, the Mercedes-Benz 500E/E500. This particular RS2 Avant for sale at 4Star Classics is a rare right-hand drive example, one of less than 200 so equipped.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995 Audi RS2 Avant at 4Star Classics
Comments closedMany enthusiasts – this author and, in general, all of the writers at GCFSB included – complain that cars have gotten too complex, too heavy, too isolating. An increasing reliance on computer controls to save poor driving skills and reign in huge horsepower certainly produces impressive numbers on the track. But, somehow the charts of ‘Ring lap times, superbike-embarassing 0-60 times and dyno numbers has taken an important aspect out of driving – the driver. However, at the same time that there has been an explosion of horsepower numbers and proliferation of computer controls, there has been a backlash of simple, enjoyable cars to drive. Models like the Elise proved you didn’t need a 10 cam, quad turbocharged V20 to go fast. Utilizing a relatively cheap and reliable inline-4 and adding lightness, the Elise takes the electronics out and relies on you paying attention to everything that is going on in the car to go fast – yet, fast it goes. Similar cars like the Ariel Atom, Opel Speedster/VX220, BAC Mono and, yes, even the Mazda Miata have followed the same recipe. But we’ve got one today I’m betting you probably have never heard of in the YES! Roadster Turbo. As the engineers from Lotus did, the team of Funke and Will from YES! took some proven parts from the Volkswagen and Audi catalogue and dropped them into the middle of an aluminum frame, added some spice and styling that channeled the Audi TT, Opel Speedster, Lotus Elise, the Spyker C8 and a little Lamborghini inspiration and produced one cool little package: