Re: European Quattro Coupes

[Eliot Lim <eliot@lanmola.engr.washington.edu>]

> >The first major revision to the Quattro Turbo Coupe was the introduction of
> >the 20-valve engine (S4 engine), Torsen diffs and ABS, available in Europe
> >only at $55k US.

well, allow me to nitpick a little.. the first 20 valve turbo is
slightly different from the S4..  the s4 has direct-coil ignition as
well as the overboost feature, giving an additional 20 or 30 lb ft of
torque for a maximum of 15 seconds on full throttle a la Lancia Delta
Integrale.  the max. torque and max. power is also up a tad.  (the
max. torque figure quoted for the s4 is not in overboost mode) the 20
valve on the coupe S2 was detuned slightly because the regular coupe
gearbox that they used could not handle all that torque.  the coupe s2
still produces the same amount of hp, but only with
higher-than-premium octane fuel.  sneaky, eh? :-)

the original quattro koop got abs in 1986 but still retained
conventional locking diffs.  like the 5000cstq of that year, locking
the diffs meant no abs.  the european version of the 10v turbo
produced an uncatalysed 200 bhp vs. a cleansed 160 for the us models.

in 1988, the entire line of cars got torsen diffs.  for *the* quattro,
the 10 valve turbo still produced 200 bhp but had higher compression,
a much fatter torque curve and produced max torque at 3K, 500 rpms
lower.  there was also an increase in overall acceleration.

in 1990, the fantastic 20 valve turbo (only available with catalyst)
made its appearance in the 200q as well as the koop.  the koop s2
appeared shortly after with slightly less torque.  performance car did
a comparison test between the old and new 20v turbo koops.  they liked
the original better.  after all, the s2 had the dreaded servotronic
steering.

the original quattro koop finally ceased production in 1991, 10 years
after it first appeared.  *sob*

> I have read here on the Quattro list that Audi continued selling the original
> Quattro Coupe in Europe after it was discontinued in the U.S.  How long was it
> sold there before they changed to the new Quattro Coupe.  We got the new one
> in '90-'91 I believe, but with out the Turbo.  I've read that the '86 European
> Quattro had the Torsen diffs and the full time ABS, but when did the European
> Quattro get the 20v engine?


eliot


p.s. sorry for the deliberate spelling errors, but i was brought up to
pronounce it as "coopeh"