Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Audi Coupe GT has one notable flaw: its digital dash presently won’t light up your life. Let’s see if its otherwise tidy appearance might still make paying its price a bright idea.
Okay two words: gull-wing-doors… One… Two… Thr… Alright, whatever.
Yesterday’s 1975 Bricklin SV1 was a project. It needed a lot of work just to make it not a chore to get into, much less roadworthy. Ah but those gullwing doors. Those are the magical portals of the automotive world, and carry the romanticism of the classic Mercedes 300SL, as well as the sleek back to the futurism of the DeLorean DMC-12. Rolling while they’re open also makes you look like the Karate Kid doing the “Crane Kick.” Badass.
Not even the allure of gull wings could overcome the rest of that Bricklin’s woes however, and even at less than five grand it was deemed Crack Pipe-worthy by 58 percent of you.
Today we’re going to step away from the projects to a car that, while not perfect, does seem to come close, a laudable achievement owing to this 1987 Audi Coupe GT’s age and its inherent old Audi-ness.
You all know the Ur-Quattro, Audi’s original Group B dominator, but many of you might have forgotten that that car had a demur little sister that shared much of the more aggressive car’s looks, but not its AWD nor its performance. The front-wheel drive Coupe GT still proved to be a strikingly handsome and engaging tourismo all on its own.
This ’87 benefits from being a post-restyle car, which gains it flush-mounted bumpers, a revised nose and a big spoiler out back. The body on this classic coupe looks to be in decent shape, with shiny arrest-me red paint and only a missing reflector evident as a noteworthy flaw.
Underneath that lies a 2,226-cc five-cylinder that offered 110-bhp from the factory. A five-speed manual backs that up and the seller claims that the car “runs strong” and is “fun to drive.” What he doesn’t mention is how many miles are on the car, and you won’t be able to tell when driving it either because its digital dash has given up the ghost.
The rest of the two-tone white over black interior looks to be in amazing shape for its age. The dash is remarkably un-cracked and the seats looks barely sat-in. The only major issue here—aside from the donnie darko dash—is the peeling at the top of the driver’s side door card. That’s an unfortunate bit of ugliness, but easily masked with some matte black duct tape until a new card can be dealt.
That dash is a pretty big monkey in the wrench, however the seller is offering an entire other car for an additional grand, and that 4000S quattro offers not just an analog dash that might be adaptable, but a ton of other interchangeable parts as well. Alternatively, you could simply train yourself to be an Audi Coupe GT digital dash technician.
Old Audis are pretty rare because they tended to fall apart as they got old and were not worth the cost of humpty-dumptying them back together. At $3,200 this one might actually be worth it. And, with another car for parts at just a grand more you could keep this one on the road AND piss off your annoying neighbors by keeping a derelict car in the driveway. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
Or does it? Do you think this Audi with its instrument panel issues could pull that $3,200 asking? Or, is that out of bounds for a GT with an out of order dashboard?
You decide!
Charlotte NC Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Kevin P. King for the hookup!
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