Seeing this car on an Ohio highway was like being reunited with an old friend. My first car was an Audi Coupe – though mine was from the beginning of the model’s seven-year run, rather than from the end as this car represents. Interestingly, the Coupe’s rear profile remained largely unchanged over seven model years, even though Audi redesigned the 4000 on which it was based. That’s certainly not a bad thing, because that fastback Giugiaro-designed rear was one of the more distinctive shapes to come from the 1980s sports coupe era. And it still looks exciting today.
Audi followed a solid formula when creating its Coupe – plunking the 5000’s drivetrain onto a smaller 4000-range chassis, and endowing the resulting car with a unique fastback hindquarters. By doing so, a rather sedate sedan was transformed into an intriguingly fun coupe. That represented a good strategy, though in a flash of uncreativity, Audi named this car the “Audi Coupe” when it debuted for 1981, eschewing both names and numbers in favor of nomenclature anonymity. The GT suffix was added two years later.
If you assumed the Audi Coupe was a hatchback, you’re not alone. It is actually a fastback, with a proper trunk, but since it was born at the peak of global hatch-mania, an identity crisis was almost inevitable. In fact, the above 1979 Road & Track sketch, based on spy photos, clearly shows the car as hatch. Italy’s Giorgetto Giugiaro designed the Coupe’s wedge-shaped rear, and the car yielded an impressive-for-the-day 0.39 drag coefficient.
When it went on sale, the Coupe looked more distinctive than the spy-based drawings suggested. The final effect was an exciting and contemporary design that looked neither faddish nor overly daring. Offered with the 5000’s five-cylinder engine, and a stiffer suspension than on the 4000 sedan with which it shared a wheelbase, this was an entertaining car for its day. Coupes weren’t so much all-out performance machines though, but rather balanced and somewhat sedate GT cars.
I know this first-hand, since my first car was a well-used 1981 Audi Coupe that I bought in 1989. The reason I was able to purchase an Audi on a teenager’s budget was because Audi’s “unintended acceleration” fiasco plunged the make’s resale values, so that older models from Audi’s pre-luxury era were dirt-cheap. I was the car’s fourth owner, and though it had plenty of quirks that one would expect from such a car, I never tired of looking at, or driving, my Coupe.
As a Coupe fan, however, I had relatively little company. At the model’s prime in 1984, its approximately 4,000 US sales accounted for only about 6% of Audi of America’s cars. These Coupes just fell through the cracks… costlier than most sports coupes, yet not quite up to luxury-car standards… a trunked fastback in a hatchback world… a sporty car that could comfortably seat four adults… and a fast-looking car that was in reality was just barely quick due to its 110-hp engine.
For 1985, the Coupe benefited from the same facelift as the rest of the 80/4000 lines, which furnished a smoother front end and slimmer bumpers, though the car’s drag coefficient remained at 0.39. The rear third of the car remained essentially the same – something that I certainly appreciated since I felt that my own car looked newer as a result.
Our featured car is from this first-generation Audi Coupe’s final model year of 1987. (The sedan on which it was based was updated for 1988, and though a Coupe version joined the new lineup eventually, it wound up being a hatchback – just when hatchbacks were going out of style.)
I have a feeling that non-car enthusiasts in the late 1980s would never have guessed that this rear shape was designed nearly a decade earlier — it aged remarkably well, and has continued to hold its own. In my opinion, the rear design of this car looks less dated than the front, which of course is a newer design.
I kept this Coupe GT in my sight as long as I could, until its angular profile was silhouetted against the Midwestern sky. Saying goodbye from a distance, I left this Coupe hoping that I’d see an old friend like this again.
Photographed in Fairfield County, Ohio in March, 2018.
What a handsome car. The color and shape remind me of the ’93 Saab 9000 I owned for a couple of months about a decade ago.
I love these, great sighting that last picture especially is excellent. I enjoyed my ’84 and then the successor ’90 as well. I somehow put it out my mind that Giugiaro did the 80/4000 and then the rear of the Coupe, always figuring that Martin Smith did it. Smith DID do the changes that begat the ur-Quattro which is what I was conflating that with.
Little known fact – Martin Smith (also at Opel and Ford) designed the Star Wars Land Speeder.
The Audi Coupe wasn’t the only trunked-fastback, they were a fad in auto-design circles the ’70s for a number of reasons, but they were late to the party and occupied a unique position in their lineup. Usually they were made as such either as the only full-4/5-seater variant (Lancia Beta at least at launch), the cheapskate version of a model that could be upgraded to a hatchback (Ford Pinto, Opel Kadett D) or to avoid clashing with an existing hatchback model (Leyland Princess and Austin Allegro vs. Austin Maxi). Not only was there no hatchback Audi 80/4000, there was a conventional notchback two-door sedan *at launch* which was cheaper than the Coupe.
Yes, I think the notchback you’re thinking of was the 4000 5+5 – same concept as the Coupe (4000 chassis with the 5-cyl. engine), but a more generic design. From what I recall, there were sold for two model years and were replaced by the Coupe:
They had the two door in Europe for longer than over here. There was even a (very rare) Quattro model of the two door. Of course there was also eventually a Coupe Quattro (non-turbo, narrow body, basically a CGT with 4000Q running gear) as opposed to the Ur-Quattro (turbo).
I had no idea about that. Thanks!
Here’s an 80q two door, supposedly only 120 made
And a 1986 FWD two door from the UK. After the US got the facelift in 1985 and the bumpers became integrated, in Europe the sedans split into 80 and 90 (formerly just 80) and the 80, while updated, got the separate bumpers like this one while the 90 got the full flush treatment like the 4000/CGT over here. So this one is an 80 and got a body/bumper update that we never saw over here.
Once the model change to the next generation happened over here for 1988 we also got 80 and 90 designations with the 80 being 4cyl powered and the 90 being 5cyl UNLESS the 80 was a quattro model, then it also got 5cyl. Or in other words, the only way to get a 4cyl Audi was to get a FWD 80, in which case it was basically the VW GTI engine but longitudinally mounted.
I’ve never seen these! And with that 1986 two-door, if I didn’t seen the Audi front clip, I would absolutely swear it was a VW Fox.
I always liked these, though to me the rounded front clashed with the relatively angular back on the newer ones. And most of the ones I have seen were red, a color that works wonderfully well on these cars.
Great designs age well. In thirty-odd years, what will autophiles think of Dripping Mascara and Gaping Maw?
Excellent find Eric. When these were at peak popularity, I remember thinking how some lines on the lowly Hyundai Pony looked like the Audi Coupe. Particularly Coupes with the plain steel or flat faced alloy wheels.
It would have been pretty cheeky if Hyundai offered an appearance package that mimicked the Audi in nose and taillight detailing. With black or bright red paint and deep dish alloys. Perhaps adding a turbo. This pic approaching how they may have appeared.
I think the Pony was also a Giugiaro design (not positive about that, but I can definitely see the resemblance). I’m sure Hyundai was thrilled by the association… Audi maybe less so.
Looks like an Audi may have fooled around with an Omnirizon.
Good analogy. The Pony looking like an entry-level Audi.
Having owned 3 Audis , going back to my 74 Fox Saloon, then an 80, followed by an 86, both also Saloons (Sounds so much more Euro than 4 dr sedan. The all handled as if on rails, though maybe not the quickest off the line. The Ur Quattro Coupe was a delight when i drove one. And a 4 dr non factory version was built using the boxed flare fenders in California. The front clip was a simple bolt on affair, but the rear doors and fenders required some very well done metalwork. as a Sport sedan it was gorgeous and forecast a market now quite common. pictured is my 80 4000. Purchased new in late 79. A capable and dependable car, with regular maintenance until it gave it’s life when I was rear ended by a semi on an exit ramp off 1-44 in St. Louis in early 86. hence the replacement 86. which came with me on the move to Phoenix in 88. I still like the low lythe linear look of these cars. Quite the unicorn today.
Thanks for the education, Eric; count me as one who had no idea these weren’t hatchbacks. Kind of like the Cutlass Salon.
The opposite would be a car that looks like it has a trunk, but is actually a hatchback: like the Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance/Chrysler ES, or more recently the latest Skoda Superb…
Older me appreciates the Coupe and Coupe Quattro as attractive examples of 70s/80s angular styling. Younger me disliked the Coupe as a pale imitation of the Ur-Quattro. I’d have liked to see a short version of the Coupe based on the Quattro Sport but I understand it made no sense. The later S5 has more Sport proportions and the TT also fills some of the Coupe niche.
I quite like those it was when Audi built things worth buying and the Quattro ruled the rally world and there was a very nice one offered for sale at the recent Wheels on Windsor car show with only 100,000 kms clocked up barely run in 3k very tidy car and tempting though I’m getting rid of stuff not accumulating at present.
I recall having a brief love affair with the idea of one of these in 1984-85. One would have been a great older used car purchase, but they were a terrible new car value. I don’t recall the exact price, but I recall them being up into BMW range on price but not comparing very well for power. And they had only a 10 horsepower advantage above the VW GTI that I ended up buying in 1985 for waaaaay less money. I still find them attractive, in an 80s kind of way.
This was a terrific looking car.
Too bad Ford didn’t start cribbing Audi design earlier.
Excellent spotting! I haven’t seen one of these since I started my curbside search; any Audi from this era is a rare sight on the roads today. Though I have run across a couple of the next-generation (but still rare) Audi Coupés, these all seem to have disappeared.
Very true about 1980s Audis. Apart from this Coupe, I think I’ve only seen two 4000 sedans… and that’s it over the past two years.
The very striking Audi Karmann Asso di Picche concept from 1973, had distinctive D pillar design similar to the Coupe.
Rather, C pillar design. This concept makes the Coupe look somewhat tame by comparison.
Mine was an ’86, Graphite Metallic with gray leather and the digital gauge cluster and trip computer (such as a trip computer was in 1986).
Another little known fact to go along with the not-a-hatchback one: the sunroof was steel and had a crank inside, but turning the crank didn’t slide it into the roof. It raised at the rear and could then be released and stowed in the trunk on the brackets provided under the rear deck.
I loved that car; one of the very few of many cars I have owned that I would Do Over.
I didn’t know that about the sunroof.
I loved my Coupe as well. I sold it after four years for a newer car with less mileage… that wound up being a Saab turbo, and that car was a disaster. I should have kept the Audi for longer.
This was my ’81 — it looks good in the photo, though closer-up the condition wasn’t great, and the plaid upholstery was shredded by the time I bought it.
I always thought of the Audi coupe as a grown up Scirocco…The car a Scirocco would aspire to own….A 2+2 sporty car based on a more modest model.
Awww, this brings a tear to my eye.
I had one of these and it’s sorely missed. Mine was a 1986 model, red over gray leather, just like the ones pictured here. Got it in 1989. It was the first car that I bought totally on my own & had my name on the title. (Previous cars were “mine” but owned by one or the other of my parents.) It felt great…solid and quite powerful enough for the times. Sure, it wasn’t going to set any speed records, but hey – you could accelerate going uphill with the A/C running. At 19, what more could I ask?
Oh, I LOVED that car!
In the short 3 years I had it, I put on lots of miles…including driving it from Washington DC to San Diego and back again, and many trips from DC to FL and back. I could cruise on the Interstate all day at 80MPH (or higher) very comfortably, and there were days out in the western states that I did just that.
I wish I could say it was ultra-reliable, but instead I have to admit that I was a frequent visitor of the Heishman Audi service department (and also an independent shop in Fairfax, depending on the problem). I can say though that it never once left me stranded. Problems were mostly of the annoyance, better-address-it-now-before-it-becomes-a-big-issue variety. I didn’t care though – I enjoyed the car that much.
People were always amazed at the trunk. First, that it wasn’t a hatchback, and second, its size. You could put a huge amount of cargo in there. The space was vertical instead of the horizontal space in most vehicles, so its looks were deceiving.
Another interesting thing about this car was the sunroof. The roof wasn’t long enough to accommodate a proper “roll back” sunroof, so you could either pop up the panel as a vent or detach it altogether and store it on a shelf in the trunk.
It met an early demise one spring afternoon in 1992, in stop-and-go traffic on I-66 in Arlington. I was rolling slowly, and stupidly looked down for a split-second…and rolled right into the car in front of me, a crappy Sentra wagon. This was mere days after having paid a big service bill, of course (welcome to my life). All the Sentra got was a wet spot on its bumper from my radiator. Meanwhile, my front end was bashed in…all from an impact below 10 mph.
Of course, the repair cost was high and the car’s book value was low, so it was totalled. Goodbye Audi Coupe GT.
I’d still love to have that car today.
The Quattro Couple that came out in ’91 (I think) was always my favorite in the styling department. Was that a successor to this model?
I still have one of these and absolutely love it – just ticked over 100k Original miles last year. Stays in the garage most of the time but it goes for a run every couple of weeks. Being a manual, it’s a bit of a hassle in traffic but fun on the open road