When was the last time you saw an Audi 90 on the road? More to the point, have you ever seen one with a V8 conversion like today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe contender? That’ll be wicked wild as long as its price doesn’t prove to be something you can’t see paying.
The seller of yesterday’s imported - and extremely RHD - 1990 Saab 900 SE claimed in his ad that he would only sell the car to a Saab lover. All his price got however was haters, and the car fell in a pretty substantial 84% Crack Pipe loss. Maybe if it had been a turbo, maybe if it had the Crown Jewels secreted away in the boot, it would have been different. As it sat, most of you weren’t having anything to do with it.
Okay, in comparison to that Saab today’s car is; the same year; comes from a different country; has twice the amount of suck-squish-bang-fart; and is less than half the price. Let’s see how that works out.
Here we have a 1990 Audi 90 that has had its 20V five-pot engine replaced with a 3.6-litre V8 from - of all things - an Audi V8. Man, Audi rocked the literal naming convention in the ‘90s. That switcharoo makes it a bit of a sleeper, and seeing as it’s of course a Quattro, it should be able to nap through all kinds of inclement weather too.
While in the V8 the V8 was supposed to be good for about 240-bhp. As with any replanting, its possible that the 32-valve mill now puts out less, or perhaps more than in its old home. Here it’s backed up by a 5-speed manual, supposedly out of an earlier 4000 which comes with a locking center diff.
The present owner did not build it, but he says in the ad that he thinks that there’s a build thread out there... somewhere. That would be here. If you want even more of the car’s history here’s another thread from a later owner.
Now it’s with someone who doesn’t seem to interested in documenting his activities with the car outside of the Craigslist ad offering it up for sale. There you’ll see that it rolls on fresh Hankooks wrapped around Cabrio wheels. The pearl-white paint looks okay in the pics, with only a few areas where the bumpers have gotten into some fights and show some resulting scars.
The interior is all wood and leather and Cadillac climate control. Plus, there’s the typical Audi gauges intended for the eyes your knees naturally have. The whole thing also looks like it could use a good cleaning in there, but other than that it seems okay.
Mechanically? Well, who knows. The ad notes that the seller ‘believes’ both the car and engine to have less than 200K on them. We all need something to believe in, so we’ll let him have that unless evidence to the contrary arises.
You can breeze through the two threads on the car to decide for yourself if the work done to make this 90 a sort of German hot rod, or you could just say eff it and go straight to the price tag for this heart-transplanted beast.
That price is $2,300 which of course is well under what it would cost to recreate it, if you could find another B3 and orphan V8 (the engine not the car). What do you think, is that price worth rolling the dice? Or, is this conversion priced to make even Uncle Ben embarrassed?
You decide!
Seattle Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Dr. Dave for the hookup!
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