Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
I’ve spent a lot of time diving into the V8 quattro, both literally and figuratively, so I won’t rehash what makes the model special (or exceptionally scary to own) – but if you’re unfamiliar, you can check out my post on a Pearlescent one from January:
The Lang and short of it is that if you see one marked ‘Project’, you really better have your eyes wide open going in. And without much further ado, that’s what we have here – a project 1990 Audi V8 quattro in California. So why look at it?
Let’s head back to some rarities we never received in the U.S.. Now, the V8 quattro did come here, as did (briefly) a manual version. However, U.S. manuals were not only few in number, they were solely 5-speed and hooked only to the lower-output PT 3.6 from the late ’89-90s and a few ’91s. By the time the revised ABH 4.2 launched, Audi had dumped the manual option for North America; if you wanted to row your own in a fast quattro, your option was the S4.
In Europe, though, the S4 could also be mated to a 4.2 V8. And instead of 5-speeds, those cars got the 6-speed manual gearbox. That combination would go on to be the highlight reel of the S6, S6 Plus and early S8s, too. But a few select V8 quattros with the 276 horsepower 4.2 got that 6-cog manual, and our reader John spotted a very clean example:
