Find of the Day: ur quattro Throwdown Currently Happening on Bring a Trailer

We’ll forgive you for missing yesterday’s finish of an auction for an über clean 1985 U.S. specification ur quattro. That pristine white 56,000 mile example listed by BaT user @911R transacted yesterday at a lofty $94,000. And while that’s a very impressive number for a U.S. specification ur quattro, @911R is back again with what appears to be an even more pristine 15,000 mile Mars Red example.

For the truly uninitiated, the Audi ur quattro is the modern Audi icon, a made-for-the-road rally car that commanded more than Porsche 911 money in the very few years it was sold in North America (1983 to 1985). In the world collector markets, significant rally cars or later 20-valve examples regularly command six figures, but the U.S. with slightly lesser engine spec and less elegant American market impact bumpers don’t typically bring the same level of attention or appreciation.

Then there’s Bring a Trailer. While one could complain that prices there are high, the site’s significance tends to attract the best of the best, specimens that go well beyond what you typically see in the market, or at least listings so detailed and explicit that they go well beyond what we’ve ever seen in the market at communicating flaws to the buyer. We’re fans of the process if not the premiums associated with that level of care.

So let’s get back to arm chairing this car versus last week’s car. From a drivetrain perspective, a U.S.-specificaiton 1983 is largely the same as a 1985. Cars like the white ’85 are more rare, with 70-some examples being built reflecting mid-lifecycle freshening making for more robust interior plastics and electrical systems. They’re most easily spotted for their later sloping grilles and, super rare in ur quattro parlance, sloped headlight binnacles to match, yet made for quad sealed beam headlights versus the sloped glass of the European market cars. The look is less elegant, but very, very rare. To American collectors, the ’85 might be more compelling in an apples versus apples comparison.

In contrast, the ’83 is the most common production year for the American quattro. That doesn’t make them common by any stretch, but it’s a notable difference. Even still, we’d wager that this car is so low in mileage and wearing the iconic Mars Red paint that it’s a comparable specimen. It’s got a few imperfections, but it’s a remarkably clean car.

Anyway, we’re curious to see how high this car goes. It’s clearly one of the lowest mileage examples of an American ur quattro we’ve ever seen. We’d love to know where @911R is sourcing these cars, and we’d love to know if he or she has more. In the meantime, here’s the LINK to the car in question.