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Rare 1985 Audi Quattro Is Today's Bring a Trailer Pick

1985 audi quattro
Rare 1985 Audi Quattro Found on BaTBring a Trailer
  • Here's the car that kicked off Audi's all-wheel-drive legacy.

  • With a turbocharged inline-five and two locking differentials, the Ur-Quattro defined all-weather performance.

  • This one has just 56K miles and is ready for its next would-be rally-hero owner.

Winter is coming, and that means it's almost time to pack up your classics and tuck them away carefully for the long hibernation until spring. No more fun weekend drives, just sitting at home watching videos of people in California enjoy their year-round canyon-carving, and wallowing in the automotive equivalent of seasonal affective disorder. Well forget that.

Instead, it's time to hit the snow in the original all-wheel-drive rally hero. This low-mileage 1985 Audi Quattro up for auction on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos) packs a turbocharged inline-five and the all-weather grip of all-wheel drive. Paging Mr. Röhrl to the white courtesy phone: Your winter sled is here. Time to get sideways.

1985 audi quattro side
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This first generation of Quattro is known as the Ur-Quattro, "Ur"being German for "Original." The word also literally translates to primeval, so it's a bit like saying this car is a machine blessed by the elder gods of rallying.

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Audi's all-wheel-drive story began with a plucky little military-spec Volkswagen Iltis outperforming pretty much everything during winter testing. Chassis engineer Jörg Bensinger reasoned that all-wheel-drive ability to provide increased grip in poor conditions wasn't just a boon for trucks and off-roaders, but could create a new kind of performance vehicle.

1985 audi quattro rear
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The result was the Ur-Quattro, which debuted in Europe in 1980. It reached North America in 1983, selling a little over 600 vehicles over a five-year period. This example is one of just 73 delivered for the 1985 model year, and it's extra rare in its white-on-black color combination. It has a center and rear locking differentials, a five-speed manual gearbox, and a turbocharged 2.1-liter inline-five.

In the early 1980s, rally driver heroes like Michèle Mouton, Stig Blomqvist, and Walter Röhrl drove the racing versions of Audi Quattros to victory after victory. Sliding through the exposed gravel corners of Pikes Peak in her S1 Quattro the very same year this car was built, Mouton shattered the course record.

1985 audi quattro engine
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U.S.-spec versions are a little less powerful than the Euro ones, with about 160 horsepower from that 2.1-liter engine. Happily for collectibility, this one hasn't been fiddled with, and is in as-delivered condition apart from a custom exhaust.

This last is easily excusable because the sound of an Audi five-cylinder engine at full wail is the kind of thing to raise your hackles. It's a fantastic sound, and combined with the feel of turbocharged boost and full-time all-wheel-drive grip is just the thing for fulfilling your WRC fantasies.

1985 audi quattro interior
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With just 56K miles on the odometer and a recent service history that includes changing out the timing belt and water pump along with various hoses, this Ur-Quattro is ready for when the snow flies. True, it's not exactly a winter beater, but imagine the feeling of waking up early on a Sunday before the snowplows have been out, and warming up that inline-five for some winter wonderland fun.

The auction ends on October 14.

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