Sometimes it’s not what a car is that I find interesting, but where. From Porsche 924s that appear at random second-hand dealers in the ‘hood to a S-Class Mercedes-Benz trade in at a Nissan dealer, a fish out of water always is worth a head scratching double take. Finding a 2001 Audi S8 for sale isn’t a hugely unusual event, though their numbers are beginning to thin. That it would be selected in a rare color also isn’t massively abnormal, though today’s Melange Metallic example is a very infrequently seen color. On top of the color is the very low mileage, as few of the S8s you’ll come across today have much less than 100,000 miles on them – never mind only half that amount, as this one does. But to see this mint condition oddity residing in a sea of Ford F150s at a dealer named “Truck and Van Country” is…well, strange. This dealer has ONE foreign car in its inventory, and that one foreign car is the best condition Audi S8 I’ve seen in a long time:
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We have 15 years of archives. Links older than a year may have been updated to point to similar cars available to bid on eBay.Tag: Quattro
Back in February I took a look at a very rare and somewhat obscure end to the B4 Audi lineup, the Sport 90 quattro. The A4 that replaced it would become wildly successful, but really it was the underpinnings of the updated 90 that carried the dynamics of the A4. With a stout V6 under the hood and old-school mechanical all-wheel drive, these well built 90s have remained very attractive alternatives in the marketplace. I originally took a look at this car back in February, but the owner contacted us to feature the car and I was more than happy to as I really have a soft spot for these 90s.
Due respect to the E30 ix crowd, if you were to consider the 325ixs that we’ve posted and not consider this 90 quattro, you’ve got a few screws loose. The 90 quattro was long derided as underpowered compared to the competition, but in ’93 that was at least partially rectified with the addition of the 2.8 V6 motor. Though the power output wasn’t outrageous at 172, it was a robust and torquey motor that was easier to run around town than the peaky 7A 20V. Change from the B3 to B4 chassis also included substantial revisions outside, giving the 90 a new lease on life. They were well built, well engineered cars and have stood the test of time very well. Unlike their E30 ix competition, the B4 quattros were manual only. On their way out (to be replaced by the mechanically similar A4), the 90 got a special package in the “Sport 90”. Renamed from the previous 90CS models, externally there was only a subtle change to body-color side molding on the Sport models. Available in either front drive or quattro configuration, the latter included Jacquard quattro-script cloth that helped to set it apart from the regular 90s: