Audi 80 troubleshooting

[Tom Nas]

Hi all,

As you might know, I am now driving a FWD Audi 80 of the type 89 
persuasion. It's an '87 1.8 with a carb and O2-sensorless cat. Good feature 
of this car is that, however badly-maintained it might have been (which I'm 
currently busy rectifying) it always starts 'on the button'- i.e at the 
first flick of the key.
Always? No- when it's stood for more than one day, it's almost impossible 
to start. It does start after a couple of minutes' cranking (new battery, 
luckily) and runs fine afterward.

What gives?
It's got a mechanical fuel pump- no priming, no failure. It's got a carb- 
no fuel pressure leakdown. It might need new plugs, plug wires, rotor, oil, 
oil filter etc. but when it runs, it runs as smoothly as I've ever heard an 
old 255k km carb engine run (i.e almost inaudible).

Any good ideas? This rather spoils my story of the 'perfect' $60 car, so 
I'd like to fix it...

Thanks a lot for your suggestions!

Tom
The Netherlands