Edition speciale..?

[Heksi]

Found from mobile.de: 1988 Ur-Quattro, Edition speciale..

http://www.mobile.de/SIDs-LSYh...op=4&

Correct me if I am wrong, but there was definately no such thing as Ur-Quattro Edition speciale ever made. As you can see from the pictures, there's actually a plate in the dashboard saying that the car is 59th out of 200 built.

I am just wondering who has done this, and why.

[PerL]

Audi never called this car the "Turbo quattro" except in USA, but I was thinking that it may have been from when the end of the quattro was announced. Later, Audi had to say that they will let it live for another few years, because of popular demand. This letter was printed in the "quattro Special" magazine of Audi Driver from April 2001 (the 20th anniversary). If I only had a scanner, I would let you see this letter.

[CoreyUK]

And someone couldn't have had the plate made to fool unsuspecting purchasers?

[PerL]

Well, of course they could, and I'd say that that is most likely in this case.

[Heksi]

The word Speciale does not sound very German either.. I'd say that is definately a fake.

Wasn't it so that because of the demand, Audi decided to make the Ur-Q 20V? By the way, there seems to be very little model year 1989 (MB) Ur-Q's anywhere. It would be interesting to see the production numbers for that year. 1990 came the 20V (RR) version.

[PerL]

The only numbers I know are that there are made 10.402 10Vs, 934 20Vs and 214 Sports. I havent seen any breakdown for model year anywhere. I had a hope that audicoupe.de had the breakdown for model year; they have this for regular Coupes, but unfortenately none for the Ur-quattro.

[PerL]

Now I'm bumping this, look at what was posted on a Norwegian forum!

This car (an 88, btw) was for sale at totsteile.ch Maybe it's a Swiss special edition? It has analog instruments (switzerland never had digidash) and an unpainted rear spoiler?

[Heksi]

Wow.. I'm surprised. Was it a swiss car in the mobile.de? I can not remember, the car is gone now.

Looks like the bonnet is unpainted, too? If I am correct, -88 Ur-Q's had carbon fibre boot lid. However, the bonnet was made of steel. It could have been changed for this particular car and left unpainted, though.

I have two books about Audi Quattro, and both of them doesn't say a word about these edition speciales. Perhaps these cars could be a "unofficial" special edition, made by local dealers.

Btw, was it so that swiss Ur-Q's had less hp, much like US-versions?

[PerL]

I never saw the ad on mobile, only the pic you posted here.

I just noticed, when you wrote it, that both the trunk lid and bonnet are in fact black. They could've been replaced though. The boot lid is not made out of carbon fibre, only regular glass fibre. I have the same boot lid on my Coupe quattro.

The "Edition Speciale" could have been a special model by the Swiss importer, there have been several of these around Europe, on different VAG models.

The Swiss Urqs did in fact have US-spec engines, so did Sweden. They have had quite strict exhaust regulations for more than 30 years. This means that the Urqs in Switzerland had only 160 hp from the 2144 engines. I'm not sure if they got the 200 hp 2226 MB version, this one did have a cat. Switzerland did get the 220 hp 20V.

[StormChaser]

Interestignly enough, I also have the glass fibre (ro fiber glass to the yanks) trunk lid, but other Coupe GTs of the same build month have steel. Who knows what Audi was thinking back then...

Oh, do I spy dual exhausts on that car? or are my eyes tricking me?

[PerL]

You're right Dave, those are exhaust tips.

I dont understand what happened with the rear trunk lids. Some 87s have glass fibre lids, others have steel. I dont think there is a VIN change for those either. Mine is 85-H-012141 if that matters.

[StormChaser]

My VIN is WAUBE857HA033722, so yeah, it seems random. Wonder if they were just rying to get rid of olds UrQ deck lids and just randomly threw them into the mix?

[WAUOla]

Just for stirring up the Ur and Sport section.
YES, these are genuine Audis! Both my own and another co-member of PerL and me in Norway has such cars, and they are 1988 exclusive production cars according to VIN.

In basic a WR detuned to 162hp and 300Nm I think it was (don't exactly remember right now), given WX designation, Swiss market only, 200 numbered vehicles, leather or "quattro" part leather upholstery, red illuminated analogue instruments. The bootlid I cannot recall is plastic or not, perhaps.

edit: I think maybe mine is. Then again, a fellow urquattro owner talked about this being for the 1986 onwards models, and is visible by the heights for mounting the rear spoiler - as the metallic ones does not have that.