Audi could have teased Porsche 30 years ago with this Quattro Spyder

The promotional film of the Audi Quattro Spyder shown at the IAA ends with a caveat (“Isn’t it nice that there might be another car like this soon?”), in which hundreds of interested parties reportedly, quite understandably, announced the announcement of have read the serial production. At Audi they would have liked nothing more.

The Audi Quattro Spyder had a removable roof section.

But unfortunately, the Quattro Spyder – which is a confusing name for a coupé with a removable roof – would become far too expensive to produce as Audi’s first mid-engine sports car. The model was indeed destined for a place in the segment of the expensive super sports cars, but that did not mean that it could price itself out of the market with impunity. Anyway, Audi’s executives indicated at the IAA that the Quattro Spyder would cost less than 100,000 marks if it went into production. That made the car completely irresistible.

To give you an idea: at the time, a Porsche 911 Carrera 4 also cost less than one ton in marks and in the Netherlands slightly more than 100,000 guilders, while a Lotus Esprit and Ferrari 348 had to yield generously more than one and a half tons. The latter two were admittedly much more powerful, but not automatically much faster than the Audi. And that while behind his front seats was not even the 250 hp engine from the Audi V8, but the 2.8-liter V6 from the Audi 100, which delivered 174 hp. That seems a bit thin to be allowed to fish the territorial waters of the 911, but the Quattro Spyder could still reach 250 km/h with it.

An aluminum body and a mid-engine. We would see the first on the first A8, the second on the Audi R8.

He had a secret weapon: aluminum, the material from which the coach was built, just like the later Audi A8. The lines were partly preserved and took shape in a spectacular way at the 1995 TT. Apropos TT: that name brought to mind the sporty models of the same name from Audi’s former group member NSU. Because the NSU TTs were always orange, Audi had already won the hands of historically savvy fans with its choice of fidji orange for the Quattro Spyder. In retrospect, the color even symbolizes the situation in which the car ended up. When waiting German (and many other) motorists see an orange traffic light glow, it’s a sign for them to engage first gear and drive away as soon as the green light comes on. In the case of the Audi Quattro Spyder, however, the light remained stubbornly orange. Even the second prototype didn’t change that. And that was still… green.

Audi didn’t make much of the Quattro Spyder on the inside.