(First posted September 1, 2013) Summer of ’99, my significant other was traveling in Europe, I was at home working, and decided it was time for another car. Once again without a specific vehicle in mind; just knowing that the budget was more secure than before and I did not want a new car again, I spent a few weekends poking around all over the Bay Area…
Eventually I found it – A 1993 Audi S4. Two lady owners, 60k miles, stunning Emerald Green over Ecru (think Bone-colored) leather, turbocharged, quattro all-wheel drive, without any cosmetic flaws whatsoever. I drove it, was extremely impressed, went home, read all about it, drove it again, and eventually bought it for $22,000 even and took it home. (Note: All of the pictures in this article are of my actual car, mostly from towards the end of my ownership)
While I’d had new cars, and I’d had large cars, I had never had one that felt this solid. Conceived in the era where the Germans engineered and built it first and assigned the price tag afterwards, this car was a rock. Every input was rewarded with the right amount of resistance, the power was intoxicating, and the comfort and convenience level was superb.
The S4 first arrived in the U.S. for 1992 and replaced the one-year-only 200 Turbo 20v. Based on the Audi 100 (C4 generation) chassis, this was the top of the line, being compared to the M5 and the 500E at the time. (However, I can admit now that both those cars are possibly even a bit better as pure driver’s cars but neither had a turbo nor all-wheel-drive which made the S4 perfect for certain parts of the country.) The S4 was produced after Audi released the (not for North America) S2 (Audi 80/90 based), and produced the S1, which was the rally evolution version of the original Quattro (internal, never sold to the public). At the time the S-range denoted Audi’s top sports models (however soon thereafter the RS2 was released and later there were also S-plus versions available.)
Most people in the U.S. (including lots of Audi dealer personnel) usually think the first S4 was the A4 based sports model. No, this one was. After the Audi 100 was renamed the A6 for 1995, the S4 became the S6, leaving room for the new S4 version of the A4. (That will be the last mention of the “new S4” in this article, by the way.) Lots of fans call the old S4 the Ur-S4, Ur as in original, like they do with the Ur-Quattro). Anyway, the Ur-S4 was available in the rest of the world with two engines, one of them a 4.2 liter V8 and also the one that North America got, the 20-valve 2.2 liter turbo-5.
Putting out 227hp and 258lb/ft of torque with an overboost feature in the first two gears, this car was a rocket (for the early to mid 90’s at least). Add the grip of full time all-wheel-drive through 225/50-16’s, acceleration and handling in all weather conditions were no match for most other cars. A 5-speed manual was the only available gearbox. Add in tons of room for 4 or 5 people and their luggage and this was just an amazing car with a lot of room left for improvement by the enthusiast owner.
The outside differed from the normal 100 in several minor ways. The front fenders were actually wider than the standard items (larger flares), the front headlights had the fogs integrated into the lights as opposed to separate units under the bumper, and the front bumper was different with more air inlets for the intercooler.
Inside was amazing. Supremely comfortable Recaro seats with movable under-thigh bolster, wonderful leather, heated seats front AND back and nice real wood in 92’s and 94’s, the 93’s like mine got genuine carbon fiber trim, not the fake stuff you see everywhere now, a Bose sound system with optional trunk mounted CD changer (remember when that was cutting edge?) and a built in analog corded cell phone (also passe by the time I got the car). Everything was solid and well-made and felt like it would last forever.
Even though the changes to the car are very subtle, owners can spot them literally a mile away. One day I was driving on Highway 1 south of Santa Cruz when I noticed another one coming the other way, both of us moving fast in opposite fast lanes. We both flashed our lights at each other and later than evening on the S-Cars forum I posted that I had seen another car. Well, the other guy (also named Jim) saw the post and answered.
We became good friends, have traveled to Europe together on a three-man Car-Museum, Factory Tour, Frankfurt Auto Show and Nurburgring trip, speak regularly and our families are friendly now as well, as a matter of fact my daughter and I spent the night at their home this last summer on a road trip. Our wives joke that we are both total freaks for meeting how we did but that’s how things happen I suppose. (Update: Jim and I are planning another trip to Europe together for our 50th birthdays, which are within weeks of each other.)
My car had stickered for around $50k in 1993 at Anderson-Behel Audi (now Stevens Creek Audi) in San Jose, CA. It was pretty much dealer maintained until I bought it. Soon after I bought it, it was time for a new timing belt and front brakes. I looked all over and tried to find the best deal I could and ended up taking it to a small Audi enthusiast shop in Davis, CA, just over an hour away. The two owners welcomed the car and did a great job at a very good price. However, this was also pretty much the dawn of the internet age without which this car probably would have frustrated me and caused me to spend way more money than necessary.
For example, in the first week of ownership, all of a sudden the fuel would cut off whenever I hit 4000rpm’s. Late at night I found an S-car forum, posted a question and the site’s owner in Iowa gave me step by step instructions on how to easily locate and fix a small hose that had come off making the car think it had a boost issue. One 69cent hose clamp later and I was back in business after worrying about how much this would be costing me.
With a total of just over 3000 of these cars sold over the entire model run in the U.S. (not just the one year) and the cars no longer the focus of Audi North America and their dealer body, the enthusiast base on the internet became invaluable as it is today for almost any problem on any car. The internet and the available knowledge makes it realistic to now own almost any car, even those that would normally be beyond the reach of “normal” people and their budgets.
During my second year of ownership, I was really enjoying the car, loving my commute in any weather, and decided I needed to explore the car more. I joined the Quattro Club and attended a Driver’s Instructional Event at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, CA for a weekend. Wow, what a blast! First, a classroom discussion, then some parking lot exercises and then lots of track time with an instructor in the passenger seat.
It was a fantastic event, I met a ton of other Audi enthusiasts, and had a wonderful time. The first night in the hotel the evening before the event, I met a couple that had come out from Colorado in their S6 Avant, the 1995 wagon version of the car. By this time that car was my “unicorn” and I immediately struck up a conversation and we ended up hanging out all weekend and many years later I can say they were indirectly one of the main reasons for us deciding to relocate to Colorado.
Some of the things that became apparent during the track event that had been noticeable before but never to the same extent was how much power was lost once the engine and turbo became heat-soaked, the brakes were really rather marginal for such a large and powerful car and the suspension was a bit soft as well as riding fairly high. Well, back to the internet! In the mid-90’s, with Porsche’s help, Audi developed the RS2, which was a modified Audi S2 Avant (wagon) that was actually assembled at Porsche’s factory. Since the S2 and the S4 shared the same engine, most things that were changed to make the RS2 immediately translated to the S4 and were available on the aftermarket, albeit at a hefty price.
Using my uncle in Germany and sending him part numbers, I sourced an RS2 Turbo and Exhaust Manifold from his village Audi dealer and then had him ship them to me for a total cost of less than half of what it would have cost over here. I added a chip from MTM (Motoren-Technik-Mayer), which was founded by one of the Audi engineers that had developed the engine in the first place, then added a set of contemporary Porsche 993 Turbo brake rotors and calipers (Big Reds), along with a set of Eibach Sport Springs and Bilstein Sport shocks. Thus equipped I was ready for the next driving event at Laguna Seca which was just as good as the one at Sears Point but I was able to learn in the first day when it rained that even if you start to spin at 60mph in turn 4 and even if you get completely perpendicular to the track, as long as you give it full lock (not just a “dab” of oppo) and keep the throttle buried to the floor the car will recover. Did I mention this was a lot of fun?
The turbo and exhaust manifold I swapped myself in my garage. With the help of the forums, I figured out the full parts list of nuts, bolts, washers, gaskets etc. and did the swap over a weekend. Really it was just a matter of working methodically and keeping track of everything, the engine bay in a C4-chassis Audi has a lot of room for even large hands and fingers. Later I would swap engine mounts, figure out why the engine had developed a slight miss (with coil on plug ignition a matter of swapping parts around and eventually realizing it was the Power Stage Output device that was defective) as well as various other maintenance and repair procedures. Basically by the time I was into it for a few years I was able (and not afraid) to tackle pretty much any job on the car.
People say Audis are expensive to fix and unreliable and they certainly can be if you arrive from a Honda set-and-forget mentality. Back in the day there was also no good way to figure out an issue, with the internet it has become simple. The fact of the matter is that the driver involvement level makes up for a lot of the maintenance shortcomings, at least on the more interesting models. A base A6 with front wheel drive? Yeah, I don’t really see the point either, to be honest. The trouble these days is that a lot of the parts have so much electronic componentry that it is not feasible to fix something anymore.
One particular example is the power steering pump on almost every S4 that over time develops a weeping X-plug on top. Most any Audi repair facility and pretty much any dealer will tell most owners that they need a whole new pump. Anyone who has been around these cars and can pose a question on an Audi forum knows that you can take a ½” screwdriver bit, grind off 1/16” from the end, use an impact hammer on the X-plug to free it and then order a new plug with O-ring for $8. Takes about 5 minutes, saves hundreds of dollars and solves the issue completely. I still have my socket and a spare X-plug somewhere in my toolchest just in case…After our first child was born any issues that I could not or did not want to handle myself I took to my longtime mechanics Griffin Motorwerke in Berkeley that always did a thorough and honest job on the car when needed.
About a year later my Colorado friends from my first driving event at Sears Point mentioned that the Quattro Club in Denver organizes an Ice-Driving event at the Steamboat Springs facility run by Bridgestone. The Club rents the track for several days and as long as you are a Club member you may join. So I paid the fee, bought a set of Bridgestone Blizzaks and drove to Colorado in the middle of February. I got a speeding ticket just 30 miles from home (not a good start to a 1200 mile trip) and then when in Utah eventually realized that my windshield washer fluid had frozen solid and cracked the tubing.
The problem is in California they sell fluid with a higher freezing point than they do in the mountain states. In Glenwood Canyon I stopped at an Audi dealer, explained the situation and they just handed me 12 feet of tubing at no charge. After I got to my friends’ house and was able to thaw the car I replaced the damaged sections, drained the bad fluid and refilled with the local brew…
Anyway, the event. In a word, wow! Two tracks, each about a mile long, carved out of the high meadows in Steamboat Springs with snow walls all around. On top of that was a skidpad made of ice, but not just a circle, it was also on an incline so the car’s attitude changed every time you went around.
Driving the tracks was amazing, you’d find yourself coming around a turn like a rally driver (they’d teach you the “Swedish Flick”), you’d step on the throttle and then realize that while the car was still somewhat sideways and all four wheels were spinning and throwing snow and ice chips all over the place, you’d be in 5th gear with the speedo showing 125mph, but in reality you were maybe doing 45 mph. And too soon there’d be another corner and you’d be sawing at the wheel trying to slow down and get the car adjusted right for the next corner.
At first the track’s big F-350 SuperDuty had a lot of work to do pulling people out of the snow banks but by the next day most people had figured it out and were having a huge amount of fun while learning a lot about their car in a very safe environment.
My girlfriend-now-wife flew in the next day and we had a few days of good skiing. When it was time to go I took her to the Eagle airport near Vail around lunchtime for her 3pm flight and then I started driving back home. Well, I drove through the night (this time getting a matching speeding ticket to the one I got on the trip out, but in Nevada this time), had a great time going over the Sierra Nevadas in a snowstorm in the wee hours and pulled into the garage at 5am. Due to flight delays my girlfriend had gotten in only a few hours earlier!
By this time the car was really fitting me like a glove, the engine, brakes and suspension were as I wanted them and it was just a great mile-muncher. After the modifications I tested it using a G-Tech and plotting it against a friend’s stock versions of the car and we figured it was putting out around 340hp and 380lb/ft of torque, but still very everyday driveable. I drove it to LA for the annual auto show down there and my friend Don flew in from Chicago. We had a great time at the show and then afterward while getting gas realized that the station offered 100-octane unleaded at an astonishingly high $4/gallon (to us then, how I long for those days now!).
So we took the plunge and filled up the most expensive tank of fuel I’d ever paid for in the U.S. Wow, how that changed the car even more! Driving home that night over the Grapevine it was cold and misty, virtually ideal conditions for a turbocharged car. With the 100-octane it was just an absolute beast. I was pulling out to switch lanes and pass cars and at first totally misjudging my acceleration to the point that I was finding myself getting way too close to people as I was moving over.
I really loved this car. I owned it for four years which is the longest I had owned a car to that date and still is one of the longest ownership periods of any car I’ve had. I sold it after finding my automotive unicorn, the deal with my now-wife was I could not have both, I’d have to sell this one. So I took all the modifications off the car, returned it to stock, and sold it with almost 115,000 miles for $12,500 to a man from Reno who met me in Sacramento.
I still periodically check the Reno Craigslist for S4’s and whenever I run across a green one with Ecru interior look closely to make sure it is not mine. If I found it again I would probably buy it back, it was just that great of a car. There are a ton more stories and memories about this car, but this post has already run way over its normal length…Thanks for riding along with me down memory lane at high speed!
What a great write-up on a great car! While I have no personal experience with Audis, I definitely like this car. Especially like that style of Recaro seats.
While I am a huge fan of Volvo and Saab seats these really were the best seats I’ve ever had. Absolutely perfect comfort and plenty of support. A lot of people used these cars on the track and it was extremely rare to see anyone swap out the seats (as opposed to most other cars that get tracked). The biggest issue is that eventually the driver side seat-heater would fail, for which a well documented if time-consuming fix was out there.
Even the headrests were great with the hole in the middle, they did not get in the way when backing up like most others. The back seats also got the full size headrests just like the front, which is a rare thing indeed.
Jim, you may not believe me when I tell you this but I had the exact same car as you. color, interior, trim, everything. my favorite car ever. I bought it in July of 1998 and absolutely loved it. everyday I regret the day I traded it in. what a great car. I would love if you had more pictures of yours and were willing to share them, just looking at that car brings back some great days for me. thanks
Jim Klein,
I recently purchased a 92 S4 with 82K miles. Do you have any idea’s about sourcing new parts for this car?
Jim OConnor
Congratulations on buying the best Audi ever built! Seriously, it is. The ’92s are especially cool with the ABS on/off switch but all the C4 chassis S-cars are amazing and so receptive to fairly easy engine modifications with a very DIY-able setup.
I strongly advise you to check out S-cars.org and get hooked up with Darin over there. Darin is the guy that helped me in the middle of the night with my boost issue, he ended up buying my friend Jim’s pearl ’93 and still has it almost 20 years later.
Between Darin and the rest of the S-cars.org guys (there’s a mailing list and/or forum or Darin can point you to the best current ones), those guys have seen it all, taken it all apart, put it all back together and are an invaluable resource.
Best of luck and enjoy that car!
Thanks Jim, I agree that this is the best car Audi has ever produced. I drove a 1994 from 1998 through 2003, added 160,000 miles to the 17,000 miles that were on it when I purchased an untitled, dealer driven car. It took me 5 minutes to regret selling that beautiful green S4, well my favorite all time car is now back in my garage.
Are there any reasonable estimates of how many URS4’s are left on the road?
Jim
I’ll bet Darin would have a decent idea. I come across a couple in my local junkyards every year, and there’s a guy in my town that seems to part a couple more out every year here as well so they are dwindling, that’s for sure. I’ll bet most have well over 200k on them now and any little fender bender will total them – at which point the engine is usually harvested to drop into a CQ or a 4kq or another S4…
I should have kept mine too, I only sold it in favor of a 95.5 S6 Avant (also written up here) that ended up subjectively not being the same for me, although it was objectively fabulous as well and exactly what I thought I had wanted.
You had your first one pretty much the same time I had my first, also green, funny that. I wonder if we’ve communicated before on the audifans list/forum or the s-car list… There was a huge contingent of owners in Colorado (where I am now) and another big group on the East Coast (NJ/CT/NY area) and a few of us out in CA at the time.
Jim,
I’ve driven a few examples of the Ur-S4 and have had a lot of fun in them. And you’re right, the construction was/is very solid.
Note – my mother had a 1993 Volvo 940 at the same time you had your S4. Your car makes my mom’s car look like a Ford Model T in comparison – the 940 (non-turbo, unfortunately) was so simple to work on in comparison. I actually learned a lot about working on old Volvos from that car.
I can really feel your passion for this car Jim. It’s great when cars can make us feel this way.
I love your S4 btw. The C4 is probably my favorite Audi of all time. The body is sleek, with a long hood, low roofline, and an expansive greenhouse. The car looks like its speeding when in park. Not to mention that yours was dark green. I really miss that color on cars. I don’t know when the last time I saw a new emerald green car.
Before I drove, (this would have been around 2007-2008) I sometimes used to walk home from high school and pass a parked C4 100 (non S4) in the same green as yours. It was the best part of my day.
The integrated fog lights look cool. I never knew about that.
Brendan – Here’s another fact hat you may not have known but I know you will like and start to look for… Older quattro’s (until the mid90’s I believe) had as part of the rear window heater element the “quattro” script incorporated into the lower part of it. So on a frosty day you’d hit the button, and as it would start to defrost, you’d see the quattro logo first and then the whole thing would defrost. Very cool and subtle thing. All old 4000q, 5000q, 80q, 90q, 100q, 200q and the V8 had this. Google “quattro defroster” and you’ll see a few examples. It was a great way to see if people just stuck the badges on or if they had a real quattro back in the day.
Mine was Emerald Green which had a fair amount of blue in it (like an emerald, right?) The regular 100 was also available in Hunter Green which was a darker metallic green, with much more black in it. A very nice color as well, a lot of the 100 wagons came in that color.
That defroster is incredible! Thanks for the info!
+1
Brendan, or anyone else, want a 1993 100cs quattro? Pearl white, 156k mile, I am second owner. In Eugene OR. I have had several Audi cars, 4000q, 4000 coupe, 100q Avant. Fun quirky car and for $700.
Hey Steve, I think by a random chance I may have acquired your old car.
A gorgeous car and a fantastic write-up.
I looked at a 1990 Audi V8 when I was shopping for my first car in 1999, it was priced right, but I was TERRIFIED at what it would cost to get repaired, especially in Oklahoma. It was a beautiful car in silver over dark blue leather, but I think I would have regretted it. I still have never seen another old V8 on the road since. I still love the older Audi’s.
Thanks, this article really helps me appreciate these S4s. Do these have the off-kilter steering wheel?
I think it was was possibly very slightly off-center but not to a degree where it was any kind of issue or noticeable. I don’t recall exactly which tells me that either it was fine or effectively a non-issue. With every comment I read a million different little memories are coming flooding back now. The post could have been twice as long as it already is (and it’s already over twice a long as most of the one prior to this one), but that’s sort of the point of the comments section as well, to be able to answer questions and expound on details such as this (assuming, of course, that the author recollection is complete!)
You’ve made me fall in love with these cars all over; I was beginning to forget how much pull they had for me at the time. This was really Audi’s golden era, when they were taking on MBZ and BMW with such passion and dedication.
You’ve also created some pangs of regret for not taking part in some of the structured driving environments (track, ice) that you did. I just know I would have loved that.
And your ability to master this car mechanically is very instructive. It’s so easy to fall back on stereotypical assumptions about certain expensive and complex cars like Audis, or older Jags. With a bit of ability, dedication and the web, they can be kept running without turning into bottomless money pits.
Paul, You and Ed really should take that little M-coupe of his (if he still has it) and do one of the driving events they have up there. The ones I am talking about would be sponsored by the local BMW Club and probably held at that old airfield up in Portland. It’ll be half a day of classroom and instruction and then lapping with an instructor in the car with probably a dozen others on the course at the same time. Very safe and controlled and not a bunch of hoons out there. There are PLENTY of people your age doing this, the more expensive the cars, the more likely to actually be older anyway.
It can also be a different club, like Audi or Porsche. They all welcome different marques and the instructors are normal people that have different cars. The nice thing is that if you are in a BMW at an Audi event you will usually get the instructor that also has a BMW in his garage which makes it easier for everyone. A weekend is usually around $350-$400. Sometime you look at the details and think wow, for that I think I should be doing 100’s of laps, the reality is that a 10-15 lap session quickly becomes sensory overload, you get tired quickly and you and the car need a break.
If nothing else, you guys should figure out when the next one is, just go and watch and talk to the organizers. And you do not need a powerful car or great tires either, in fact sometime one of the organizers will take a cheap rental car out in a run group and humble a few people in very expensive machinery. The first one that I did, my Colorado friends that I met actually did the whole thing on snow tires since there was a blizzard when the left Denver. One of the Porsche guys was laughing at them but the instructors had no problem with it and pointed out that they’d actually learn more about car control on a squirmy set of snows than on sticky rubber which was one of their goals anyway. It’s easy to drive fast on great tires in nice weather, harder when one of the factors changes, i.e. snow tires on a non-snowy day (like it is for months here in CO) or when you are caught out on performance tires in rain/snow.
And yes, I cannot emphasize enough that the web has become the great equalizer for reputationally “difficult” cars. These days there is a video for any procedure, dozens of people will tell you the best place to get a factory part for less, and it is easier to buy, sell, and maintain anything. What’s really funny is I have a friend who owns a general repair shop, he takes anything that comes in the door and has shared with me that many of their repairs involve first spending 10 minutes on google and then the tech will often have the laptop next to him while repairing something for the first time, Exactly as you’d do it assuming you had the spare time.
Yes I drive a French money pit of unreliability according to most people except its not, its easy to repair finding parts used can be a challenge but once found some backyard bogan engineering has seen my little beast repaired and up and running easier than a Corolla.
These Audi are quite cheap here used mostly due to age mileage and scare tactics Though you do need to be careful about where they sold new, Singapore imports are best avoided unless being stripped for parts ex Japan German vehicles are ok though they wont have been serviced since new,
I’d buy one if the price was right these are much better driving cars than the much hyped BMW or tanklike Benz as you discovered.
Magnificent write-up that brought back great memories of owning the same car in the same color during a similar time period, from 1999 to 2006. Mine was a 1995.5 S6, fundamentally the same car aside from replacing the manual differential lock control with an automatic “electronic differential lock” system that was really just four wheel traction control and represented a step down in my opinion.
I agree with all of your observations, and would like to add that these years were probably the most thoroughly debugged and reliable cars that Audi has produced. The electrical system weaknesses and other reliability issues of the 5000/100 cars had all been addressed over the course of a decade of real-world customer use, so these cars hit the sweet spot of being technologically sophisticated and proven at the same time. I also wish that I still had mine, as it had all of the performance potential that anyone could want and was spacious and supremely comfortable at the same time, making it an ideal sport sedan. I sold mine only because I had inherited an almost new Toyota Avalon after my father passed away, and its comfort and extreme reliability filled my everyday car needs and allowed me to indulge my childhood dream of buying an old Porsche 911. Of course, now the Avalon and 911 both are gone, and I would take back the S6 before either of them.
The manual diff lock on the 92-94’s and some early 95’s was a button near the handbrake that would lock the rear diff up to a speed of 15mph IIRC, this would help in VERY low traction conditions or actually getting stuck. At the ice-driving school the year I was there there were about 7 or 8 other S-cars, several of them had made a mod wherein you’d add a coupler to the diff wire under the back seat. Unplugging it would still let you lock the diff but would remove the automatic decoupler “feature”, meaning you could keep the rear diff locked at higher speed. I wonder if you were on S-cars.org and the quattro-list when I was there, we may have spoken previously…
It is very likely that we “spoke” on the Web during our periods of S-car ownership. I occasionally posted on s-cars.org and more frequently on the S4/S6 message board at audiworld.org, during my purchase process in 1999 and over the years when diagnosing and addressing various mechanical problems, mostly from 2004 to 2006. I cannot remember my username, but it was probably derived closely from my name.
Those two online forums were great resources with a lot of helpful and friendly people, much like this website. I think that the somewhat obscure stature of the S4/S6 and the rarity of the cars meant that buyers were real enthusiasts who had no interest in online posturing and trash talking. I had far worse experiences with some message boards dedicated to other makes and models.
Re: the manual diff lock switch, I remember it from a 4000S Quattro owned by a friend and from the S4s that I test drove. I remember it locking the rear diff on one setting and the rear and center diffs on the other setting, at low speeds only. The manual switch and the driver control that it allowed always seemed to be the right setup in a performance car, for the same reason that a manual transmission seems better than an automatic.
Yep, I was on Audiworld a lot as well as S-cars.org, mainly just as “Jim” – back when there were not so many people you could still get and use a simple username…And you are right, compared to some other boards it was very civil with mature people. In the end, Darin, who started S-Cars.org actually bought my buddy’s car (the guy I met on the freeway)…The internet world is fairly small after all.
Hi Jim, long time no see! Just happened to re-stumble across this post again today while doing some research and thought you might like to know that Jim B’s UrS4 is still in my hands. It now has 163k miles and remains in very nice condition.
It was technically my father that purchased the car from Jim and I just adopted it from my father in May of 2017 when he purchased a ’13 S6. I also still have my Tornado Red ’93. 🙂
Jim B’s 1993 UrS4 today
And the Tornado Red one…
Darin, I just saw this when we reposted the article today. Thanks for letting me know about Jim B’s car, I sent him a note…It looks great as does the red one you’ve had all along!
For everyone else, Darin is the mystery internet guy in Iowa that I mentioned helped me in my first week of ownership to diagnose and correct my boost issue in the middle of the night. We’ve still never met in person, but maybe one day we can get around to correcting that…He’s also the founder and curator of S-Cars.org which was THE site to be on if you owned one of these cars for help with issues, suggestions for improvement, sources for parts and repair instructions, and lots of good cameraderie in general. I probably miss all that as much if not more than I miss the car itself.
Having seen UR Quattro being driven in anger by Michelle Mouton on forrestry stages these cars hold quite an interest very very immpressive back in the day, A replica I saw at a show is on the cohort somewhere.
Great story and pictures.
Of all modern cars, say post 1990, I like this breed best. The wolves in sheep’s clothing, sedans with high performance engines and excellent handling. In full factory trim, no optional West Coast Customs vulgarity. These Audis, the Volvo 850 R, Mercedes E-class AMG and BMW 5-series M.
If I ever hit the jackpot a new MB E-class AMG or Audi RS6 Avant would be my new daily driver. And a whole bunch of late sixties big-block Detroit muscles would be my non-daily drivers.
Same here. I love it that most people would have no idea a car like this is anything special compared to regular Audi 100, and I think all the other cars on your list are pretty great as well. I like a lot of stuff from the 60s for the same reason – you could equip them exactly like this. Sure, there were SS-this and GT-that models, but you could also get all of that same hardware through the order form at the dealership and have it look like a nondescript sedan on the outside.
I think most people confuse cars like these with sleepers and that’s not really what they’re about. I wouldn’t pull the E55 badge off an E-Class nor the 427 badge off an Impala. The point of them isn’t tricking some guy in a Corvette into getting embarrassed at a stop light – it’s having an enjoyable, fast car without making a big fuss about it to the rest of the world.
Yep, I’m with you on the understated aspect. To regular people the S4/M5/E55 of this generation did not scream “look at me” to the world. Slightly more purposeful looks usually done for a good reason, and backed up with the goods.
Who needs an exotic sportscar when you can have these ?
Heck, I couldn’t even leave my village in a Ferrari without scratching the front spoiler and ruining the bottom on our speed bumps. And after that I’ll have to drive through “farmers’ territory”…not good, not good at all for a delicate piece of machinery.
Reminds me of an ex-farmer here who sold farm land and wanted a new car.
It had to be German, fast and practical. (easy entry and exit for his mom)
He went to the BMW dealership, wearing his “daily outfit”, wooden shoes included. Let’s say the BMW dealer wasn’t interested….But the Audi dealer sure was ! He came home with a brand new RS6 Avant. It fulfilled al his car wishes.
Don’t remember ever reading anything so glowing about a high mile Audi. When one comes on BaT for sale most comments seem to be about service nightmares with little praise for the vehicle’s dynamics. I drove an A4-based S4 once and hated the heavy feeling compared to a regular A4, which was sublime.
A dentist in our area had a green/ecru Ur-S4 for the longest time. My eye would always go to that red emblem in the grille and the front flares. Loved the 100 after Audi widened the track and got rid of the flat top rear wheel opening (I hate skirts on anything). The problem with these S4s though is that the basic shape dated back to the early 80s for most folks. I was such a huge fan of the greenhouse it didn’t matter to me and the interior still looks fresh except for maybe the steering wheel and low placement of the A/C vents.
Enjoyed reading that Jim, thanks.
Great write up – makes me want to go watch “Ronin”!
I remember going to test drive a similar S4 around the turn of the century with a friend who is a big Audi enthusiast. These cars give me the impression they were made the way the designers wanted them made, rather than being watered down with input from focus groups.
Yeah, that S8 in Ronin is just sublime! I still watch it probably once a year – if you haven’t done so, watch the version with John Frankenheimer’s commentary on the DVD, it is extremely interesting hearing him talk about the car scenes and how they were all shot. I was secretly very happy that S8 was the same color scheme as my S4…
The places they picked are all great as well, through happy coincidence we’ve been to many of them over the last 10 years or so – Les Beaux are magnificent cave dwellings (the part where they drive through in the VW Golf after DeNiro gets shot), Arles is a great little town where Van Gogh did most of his painting (the town with the bullring where DeNiro actually gets shot), and we somehow stumbled on the little cafe that is the opening scene near the Sacre Coeur in Paris amongst a couple of other places. And of course a lot of the other Paris areas at the beginning and end of the film.
What a nice color on that Audi. I am sure it was a total blast to drive. Around my way, you see more of the old 80’s-90’s Audis in the local junk yards then on the roads because it takes a bit more fuller wallet to keep one running(unless you are not afraid to get dirty and turn wrenches.
Not to change topics but in some of those pics there looks like a 1990’s Toyota truck with a aluminum bed cap. That is the first truck that looks good with one made of alum
Fabulous writeup, Jim. Though this is not a car in my normal area of interest, your passionate re-telling got me all excited about it. It is also nice to hear the contrary view on older Audis, where a guy with some intelligence and persistence can keep the old girl running for a fraction of what Dr. McCheckbook would have to pay at the Audi dealer.
An office partner (his wife, actually) had a 94 or so A6 sedan, and it was then that I understood the Audi’s pull on people. It was a beautifully built car that was supremely solid and comfortable. Unfortunately, neither he nor his wife were your kind of aficionado, and the car cost them a fortune to keep on the road until they finally sold it – to the repair shop when another high-dollar “maintenance” item was called for.
It is a wonderful thing when a guy finds “his” car, and this Audi was plainly yours. Thanks so much for sharing this one.
I wanted to elaborate on my reply to Johannes Dutch up above last night, but fell asleep before I got the chance… so here goes:
Love everything about it – great story, car, writing, pictures, everything… I even like the neighborhood in the background! Maybe I’m just a product of my environment, since I was young and impressionable (and an avid reader of C&D) when this and similarly understated European hotrods started taking over the world, but as far as I’m concerned, this is very close to perfection – for all the reasons Jim laid out for us.
When it comes to cars (and most other things I’m into), I’ve got a pretty wide range of interests. I do like bold styling and admire beautifully simple, dependable engineering; I appreciate all the wild color, chrome and tailfins of the past, love things that are both enormous and tiny, have no allegiance or religion when it comes to continent or company of origin… but if I had to narrow everything I like down to the best of the best, this would be one of my interpretations of the most ideal way to marry form and function. A car that does everything well, but keeps the driving experience holy above all else.
I also love all that expensive, whizz-bang complicated stuff that drives people nuts, and – like Jim – have found that oftentimes, all it takes is a good factory service manual and internet forum registration to unravel all the mystery hiding under the hood. These are not flimsy vehicles, they just need way more attention and ability to think outside the box than a Toyota.
Anyway, lemme wrap it up cuz I could ramble on here for awhile too…
A couple specific things I really like about this: the 20V 5-cyl turbo engine is so ridiculously cool, wish it had carried on beyond this platform. The interior is one of the best of all time (I’m happy to say goodbye to blue or red fabric if I can have this, which doesn’t look good in those colors), and lastly, Audi has really just killed it non-stop since the whole “unintended acceleration” fiasco. I know lots of people will probably disagree with me, but I don’t think any other brand has hit the mark even half as often as Audi from this car through to the current day when it comes to styling.
Keep up the extremely good work writing here, Jim. I find myself looking forward to this COAL series the same way I look forward to Breaking Bad or Mad Men every Sunday!
Sean thank you for the very nice words, I appreciate it! The neighborhood is Oakland, CA, in the lower hills off 580 near the Grand Lake Theater. It’s still coming around…we moved away years ago but still have good friends in the area.
This platform was indeed the end of the 5cyl 20V turbo for Audi. This engine (engine code AAN, which superseded the 3B engine in the 1991 200 20V Quattro) is still a favorite for transplanting into other Audi’s of the era. It can reliably be tuned for huge numbers and sounds fantastic.
Audi’s rebirth really was 1996 with the release of the A4, which really started a different generation of Audi buyer. I find that a lot of Audi fans liked their 80’s product and “grew up” with the early quattro’s and the 5-cylinder models with these early S-models being the culmination thereof and a whole different set of people started with the A4 and went on from there. Not a huge amount of overlap between the two groups, IMO. I do like that Audi is beginning to embrace their heritage more in their advertising but am not thrilled that this does not extend to being able to still get any part for any older car unlike with MB or BMW (at a cost of course). Many parts for the early cars (especially the Ur-Quattro which really put Audi on the map) have become NLA. Meanwhile you can order and build a BMW 2002 from scratch from the parts catalog… Anyway, thanks for reading, there are many more to come. I realize that my taste in cars is different from a large part of the readership but at least it is varied and hopefully sheds a bit of light on some cars that are perhaps not often seen in some parts of the country (and others are admittedly completely ubiquitous).
Perhaps the most important mission the Ur-S4 accomplished was that the car finally brought a much, much, much needed enthusiast vibe into US Audi dealer showrooms. One has to remember that Jaguar was outselling Audi in the USA back in those days! It took incredibly big balls to pull this off at the time, someone in Auburn Hills must have made the presentation of their lives, in order to convince Audi brass to bring this car to the states. In some ways, the C4 was the last train in the station for Audi in this country, and I have zero doubt that Herr Piech made sure that his top lieutenants brought out the magnifying glass and the stethoscopes to check over each S4 very carefully before they were loaded for transport. If this car flopped here we probably never get to see AudiSport flourish as it truly has. The V8 probably would’ve remained the top of the line Audi stateside, eventually becoming the A8 as we now know it..
Guess what? It all frickin worked out even better than they could have possibly imagined. Who else worked at a Porsche/Audi dealer during this time? One night, we took out the S4 and raced it against a 968 Cab and a 964 Tip back in the industrial park behind the dealership. One guess which car had the quickest launch?!?
Of course, Piech hit several big homers during his career, but I imagine that this one filled an especially warm place in his heart until his dying day. Remember, folks, Porsche’s lights were almost completely out at this time (Piech threw them the RS2 bone to book some engineering revenue, FFS!).
As mechanically sound, and as well executed as the car is still considered, can you possibly imagine how it felt to be among the first ones to ever turn its key? If you haven’t done so already, you owe it to yourself to put one of these cars up on a hoist and check out all of that beefy engineering from underneath. I could go on and on about this car and its chassis.
Oh, and does anyone else remember Senna’s daily frickin driver at his untimely passing? An S6 Avant! Enough said!!!
Great car and great write-up, these cars are great long lasting cars, back when the German cars were really built to last. I remember meeting guys who owned Porsches back in the day, this was the car they bought for every day use, it was the perfect partner car. Now today Porsche tries to sell their own sedans and SUVs, and Audi sells their own sports cars, and to me it dilutes the brands.
Great car and write up. I love Audi…I had a ’79 BROWN 5000 that I loved although I felt like an abused spouse with all the garage visits. But damn I loved that woman.
Jim is right – don’t jump in the game if you can’t handle the results…..
This is a legendary road monster in terms of handling and acceleration.Its a heavy car overpowered by its engine.With a superb stature in its high performance and advanced aerodynamics, this car proves to be a survivor of the old horses in S- type and its competitors, I recently added it to my fleet and i enjoy it most as a daily car. oh!!
I mean the S4 (1991-1993) model.
Not sure if this one is still for sale but it’s a “93 and green: http://atacar.net/inventory.php?id=173
A beautiful car indeed. 🙂 I own a ’92 100 S in Forest Green (5 Spd) fully loaded and really enjoy it. It does need some repairs but nothing that can’t be fixed. This is the car that I would like to keep for as long as possible. A beautiful and pretty rare car, It definitely can pass for early 2000+ model.
Thank you for sharing!
Jim,
I totally understand how you feel. I own a Pearl with Ecru interior with carbon fiber trim. I’m the second owner since 2002 and bought it with 96,000 miles and drove everyday until this summer when I blew the cylinder head. It rests with over 270,000 at my brother-in-law’s shop. Except for a few minor interior issues, the cosmetics are in better than average as this car was babied. I’ve decided to sell rather than fix however I have $1,000 in new parts that will be needed to put it together. If you’re interested, please feel free to email. I’m in the So. Cal area.
1993 Audi S4 2.2 turbo quattro is a car you have to own, or drive to love. Words can’t make up for the sheer power, and comfort of a 4 dr sedan that really IS a wolf in sheeps clothing. I owned Chevy Chevelles years ago. A ’72 SS, then a ’66 SS, and finally, a ’68 SS. These cars are aggressive, and just looked fast, and as well, they all were. This S4 is the dream come back…almost… for a more modern muscle car that is. I have driven many cars between those eras, but NOT ONE, compares to my new baby. And with 50’s on it…it looks bad-ass!!! Definately one of the 2 best investments ive ever made…in my life. I will NEVER get rid of this one…especially cause of a woman! Just like my other baby…my dog, Spaz! Cars & dogs come first in my books now!
I remember reading this a couple of years ago with great jealousy. We didn’t get these in Aus (as far as I know), and the combination of looks (subtly really handsome in the metal), turbo zoot, and 4wd has huge appeal. I also like the fact that it’s a pretty big machine possessed of a mere 2.3 litres with which to irritate V8 drivers.
There is also an irrational attraction based on the fact that five cylinders, quite apart from sounding so very good, should not be hanging all beyond the front tyres. The whole shebang just shouldn’t work, yet consistently it’s reported by the mags and people like yourself that, with 4wd, it sure as eggs does.
Find it, Mr Klein, and buy it back. Give the rest of us some further vicarious thrills. Turbo and 4wd would doubtless be an ideal Colorado car. Wouldn’t it?
You did get them in oz, I’ve seen them occasionally for sale there (I’m over the ditch). I forget the website you guys use for selling cars but I’ve seen them in there ….
Cheers
Two radiators in a row ???
Methinks it doesn’t make much sense.
It’s my car
Almaty Kazakhstan ??
Hey, isn’t this the one the article is about?
http://www.dailyturismo.com/2019/07/my-s4-is-urs4-1993-audi-s4.html
Same type of car and same exterior color but different car. Weird that it’s listed for sale in the same city I live in now. Interior is a different color than mine was.