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Here’s an interesting comparison for you! While the 1989 944 Turbo was the last year for the model in the US as the normally aspirated S2 and later 968 took the reigns, in other parts of the world the forced-induction models carried on – and lost their top. That’s right, in Europe you could get a 944 Turbo Cabriolet! They’re quite rare to see – just 625 were produced only in the 1991 model year, and this number represents about 1/10th the amount of 944 S2 cabriolets. Today’s car is pretty slick and already has been imported – but it’s also not very cheap. So, for comparison’s sake, I thought it would be interesting to see the 968 Coupe that the same seller is also offering – also a rare car in its own right, since just 649 were imported for the year. Let’s start with the Turbo:
The Type 44 Audi was an impressive advance for German automobiles, a huge leap forward for Audi in a new marketplace – but also nearly the cause of its demise. It was an aerodynamic, futuristic sedan when both BMW and Mercedes-Benz seemed to be producing cars stuck in the 1970s. It was the blueprint for most modern luxury sedans from not only German companies, but many of the advances were copied by the Japanese, Italians and Americans for their large sedans. Yet, by 1990 Audi nearly pulled out of the American market thanks to some creative journalism from 60 Minutes, who in their effort to prove Audi was at fault for some unintended acceleration cases nearly killed off the company entirely. In part as a result of their efforts, it’s become quite rare to find clean examples of them today – but it’s also because they were such good, long-lived and solidly built machines that few have lower miles today. While I recent featured a few 20V turbocharged examples in the 20V Turbo comparison, today we’ll look at a few of the lesser appreciated examples, starting with a clean 5000CS quattro Avant in Canada: