Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
I love this car so much that I want to bust through that fake brick wall like the Kool-Aid Man. This car being a 1995 Audi RS2 Avant in what looks like Ragusa Green Metallic. Outside of the legendary RS Blue Pearl, this is my favorite color on the RS2 because it is very clearly green, but at night and in shadows can pass as black. All that is great, but I’m afraid the RS2 train is only gaining speed and I’m not going to be able to catch it.
I’m always curious as to what the right-hand drive “discount” is. The reality is that unless you live in one of the 75 countries (I bet that is more than you thought) that utilizes right-hand drive vehicles, owning one is a real value killer. I know this first hand as I have a right-hand drive vehicle in my small collection and while it is fun driving it, I know that compared to an identical left-hand drive example, the value is less. I think that even holds true on some of the more desirable models and that seems to be the case with today’s car.
This 2001 Audi RS4 Avant up for sale in London is one of the 500 or so produced in right-hand drive specification. To be honest, unless you live in the UK, Japan, South Africa, Australia, or New Zealand, owning this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. (Those 70 or so countries are not places you’d want to own an RS4 Avant.) However, this is a right-hand-drive car in a right-hand-drive country. Why is it so much less expensive?
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?…
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Why would anyone even contemplate paying over $70,000 for a 27-year-old, complicated, and turbocharged Audi wagon? Because of the badge that adorns the front – the magical ‘Renn’ added to the S2 badge, along with the legendary name Porsche scripted below. That meant that this relatively unassuming Audi 80 quattro Avant had been produced in Zuffenhausen on the 959 production line rather than Ingolstadt or Neckarsulm and had added a healthy dose of even more “Sport†to the small chassis. Ostensibly, though the Sport Quattro was the first RS vehicle, the RS2 was the first to wear the badge which has become synonymous with Audi’s speed department. For many Audi aficionados, though the RS vehicles have become much faster and more luxurious, just as the with W124 500E and the E30 M3 Audi has never made a car better in its overall execution than the original. Not that it was slow by any means; Porsche’s massaging of the ADU inline-5 resulted in 311 horsepower – even more than the Sport Quattro had from essentially a very similar motor.
So despite being much heavier than the Sport had been, the RS2 wasn’t much slower; sub-5 seconds to 60 and a top speed north of 160 mph. Along the way, it was capable of bullying everything outside of a supercar; yet this car also established the move from Audi’s 2-door halo vehicle to a long line of fast five doors. Porsche also upgraded the brakes and wheels with Brembo units and 17″ Cup wheels creating a signature look, and tacked on 911 mirrors for good measure.This car was legendary from the start, and the upgrades to the motors and wheels spawned an entire generation of enthusiasts to turn up their inline-5s stateside. Now that these cars are legal for importation, though, it’s possible to find the forbidden fruit already imported:
Back before Thanksgiving, a slightly crusty 200 20V quattro Avant popped up in the Northeast:
It sold for relatively short money, though it also clearly needed a fair amount of work. But, as I said, these are fan favorite cars – so when another turns up in short order, it’s still worth taking a look. Today’s Lago Blue Metallic example has black sport seats, the correct BBS wheels, and European headlights thrown in, too boot!
