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I was sure I had seen this car before. Tornado Red and Brazil Brown Kensington Velour? Check, but there are quite a few 4000 quattros that fit that description. But a 1985 model narrows the pool slightly, though numerically Audi reports selling more 4000 quattros at nearly 5,000 in 1985 than any other model year. Pacific Northwest and under 120,000 miles? And in very good survivor condition? Yes, surely this is the car that I wrote up in February, 2014.
But I was wrong. It’s not the same car. It’s another that is in even better condition with less reported miles. Does lightning strike twice? The air sure feels pretty electric around me as I poured over the details of this 1985:
It’s been quite a while since we looked at a nice C4 Audi, and this S6 fits the bill well. Presented in the more infrequently seen Cashmere Gray Pearl with Platinum leather, it’s a nice original example of what was Audi’s top-tier sedan in 1995. The ‘95.5 changes were pretty minor and there were some rolling alterations to the model; closed headrests and a switch to radio versus the earlier infrared central locking are some of the few visual clues, but also some early run S6s came with the forged Fuchs alloys found on the earlier S4 rather than the later Speedline-made Avus wheels seen here. Other changes were minor overall but significant to enthusiasts – good was the wider and reinforced first gear, but gone was the option to lock the rear differential as Audi began its run of electronic differential locking. For most that won’t matter though, and what we have here is a pretty tidy example of an increasingly hard to find car:
In general I like to reserve the Motorsports Monday posts for actual track-flavored cars, but occasionally one comes along that is worth a look even if it’s more of a poseur than pole position. Of course calling any original Quattro a poseur isn’t particularly fair. Out of the box these cars were effectively Group A race cars with some luxury goods fit to them. But the owner of this particular Quattro took the next step in their “restoration” of this 1984 car, modifying the boxflared wonder to look like its fire-spitting WRC brethren. Does it pull it off?
The 1984 Audi 4000S quattro is a bit of a unique beast. Though it appeared for all intents and purposes identical to the 4000S Limited Edition from the same year, underneath the two shared little in common. Indeed, when you lifted the covers much more of the quattro model was shared with its bigger brother, the exotic Quattro – the so called “Ur-Quattro” by fans. Herein lies part of where things get confusing in Audi history, since the actual development mules for the boxflared rally wonder utilized the 4000 (née 80). You could make a pretty convincing argument that the small sedan was the original, but that’s neither here or there at this point and is generally semantics (though, it’s occasionally nice to splash the waters of reality on enthusiast’s ill-informed fires of unshakable belief). Whoever was technically first, there’s no denying that the 4000/80 model brought the idea of permanent all-wheel drive to a much more affordable market of rally-bred enthusiasts who eagerly snapped up the roughly 4,500 examples of the first year model. Radical looking changes came for the 1985 model year with a thorough refresh, and there are those who love both generations with equal aplomb. Admittedly, I’m a fan of the post 85 models, sometimes referred to the as the “sloped grill” cars. But you don’t have to go far to find fans of the more square ’84 model. One reader of ours tasked me with the goal a few years back of keeping an eye out for a clean ’84. Easy, right? Not so fast…
The shining Tornado Red 1987 4000CS quattro I took a look at back in early February has appeared on eBay this week. The seller has not changed the price – $4,750 – from the earlier advertisement, but has added some more information including maintenance and modifications. Unfortunately, those disclosures also include that the car was totaled at one point. Previously the owner had stated it was simply repainted – not unusual for the single-stage red from Volkswagen/Audi if it was not maintained. While this car looks pretty nice, do you think the branded title hurts the value or does it simply not matter on this old warhorse?
The below post originally appeared on our site February 11, 2016:
