Ingolstadt showed the Coupé at the Paris Salon in the autumn of 1980, and the timing was deliberate. The Audi Coupé (B2) was a two-door built from 1980 to 1988, a cheaper take on the turbocharged, four-wheel-drive Quattro without the turbo or the driven rear axle. It shared the Quattro's silhouette but lost the knife-edged fender flares of the pricier car. The plan was straightforward: sell the rally hero's shape and five-cylinder charisma to people who wanted the image without the Group B price. It worked, and it seeded Audi's move upmarket through the decade.
Five cylinders, no turbo
The car for sale here is the facelifted GT, and the facelift matters. Introduced in autumn 1984, the updated Coupé gained a slightly sloped grille and new headlights, a large wrap-around bumper with integrated spotlights and turn signals, plastic sill covers, and the big rear spoiler from the Quattro, dropping the drag coefficient to 0.36. This 05/1985 example carries the 2.2-litre naturally aspirated five producing 100 kW (136 PS), the sweet engine in the front-drive range and the one worth seeking. The advice among enthusiasts has always been the same: get a five-cylinder car, for the rather lovely noise.
That noise is the whole point. The off-beat warble of the inline five is what a Golf GTI of the same vintage could never offer, and the KX unit pulls with easy low-end torque rather than peaky urgency. Front-wheel drive keeps things honest rather than thrilling, but the car is light, the steering has genuine feel, and the five-speed manual suits the engine's relaxed delivery. It was never quick by modern reckoning. It rewards a long drive rather than a quick blast.
What the years have done to them
At 20,999 EUR this German-registered GT sits at the top of the typical band for a good front-drive Coupé, so condition has to justify it, and the indicated 81,000 km with two owners is the kind of history that would. The catch is what happened to the survivors: many were crashed or thrashed into the ground, and a sizeable share were cannibalised into Ur-Quattro replicas, which thins the pool of honest cars considerably. Inspect accordingly. These rust around the base of the windscreen, and the rear quarters behind the wheels and the front fenders need a torch and a wheel off to check properly. Sills, jacking points, floor edges and the front strut towers all deserve scrutiny. The belt-driven five wants a documented timing-belt history, and worn valve guides can cause smoke and oil consumption. Confirm it is a genuine GT and not a replica in progress, verify the mileage against the service book, and have a marque specialist inspect the shell in person before any money changes hands. Get those answers, and one of the increasingly scarce clean examples starts to make sense.
