I am looking at buying an 83. The owner says it is a turbo and has been sitting for awhile. He cranked it and drove it and said all works. I have yet to see the car.

I am interested in using the car as an autox/road track car.

Will this be just one awful money pit?

Is the car easy or hard to work on and get access to things?

Help is greatly appreciated.

 

yes, sitting for awhile means larger $$ pit then the regular $$ pit Ur-q's are

 

If he simply called it an "Audi Turbo," then there's a remote chance it could be a Typ43 5000.

 

Owner says the car has 57k original miles and is driven just a bit here and there. He has replaced alot of stuff on the car. Car has aftermarket exhaust, brakes, coilovers, tranny, rear diff, wheels, brakes converted to vacuum system, and a/c converted to 134, and no rust. Says turbo was rebuilt, and exhaust manifold bolts replaced. Says car has been repainted and all dents fixed. He wants $6k for the car.

Just want to make sure it is an URq.

 

Urq was the only quattro in 83.

 

It is 2 door quattro.

 

Yes, they can be money pits. I have a stack of receipts from the previous owner of my car for over $20k in 6 years (I probably have double that now into it with the rebuild/update). That was all repairs, upgrades, maintenance, etc., no engine rebuilds, paint jobs or other high ticket items. Many parts are rare, expensive or NLA (that is a term that is getting more and more popular with these cars.) If it has been sitting for awhile, chances are that it will need some work. Many parts are interchangeable from other Audi vehicles of the same or newer vintage (like 4000qs), so it is good to learn about the cars.

Yes, they can be hard to work on, and the engine compartment is packed in pretty tight. Plan on doing the work yourself or find a mechanic that knows these cars. Most don't or don't want to learn and some hide when they see these cars coming. The '83 and older cars have troublesome electrical systems and unique suspensions. The '84 and up cars are better, but also more rare and more expensive.

Don't expect the car to be very competitive with newer stuff on the autox or track, unless you do a fair amount of work to the car. Remember, these cars first came out 25 years ago.

That said, there are a fair amount of ur quattro nuts like us, that wouldn't trade our cars for anything out there now. I'm not trying to scare you off or discourage you, but rather to fill you in on the realities of quattro ownership.

My recommendation is to buy the absolute best example that you can afford, and then plan on spending $2k to get it "right".

 

yes

 

reality bites : - P

 

It might be an early Calaway turbo'ed FWD Coupe.