1985 Audi 200 Turbo review from UK and Ireland

Turbo seals evaporated - new turbo.

Climate control fan.

Climate control unit.

Wheel bearing.

Used to over-boost and cut the fuel pump.

Lots more frankly, but...

I bought this car in 1995 when I was an overpaid 19 year old. My friend's Dad always had Audi's and said that if I ever had the opportunity to buy a 200 Turbo, then I should and to hell with the cost!

So, I found a 1985 B 200 Turbo in gorgeous metallic black with climate control in spanking condition for £2000!

So what if it had lots of miles on the clock! So what if the service history was sketchier than Rolf Harris's serviette! I had to have it.

Bearing in mind this was almost Audi's flagship model only ten years previously (bar the 200 Turbo Quattro), it may have been thought that I was a bit of a lunatic to buy a car that was going to cost the earth.

Oddly it generated so much respect that I used to get into nightclubs for free if I parked it on the forecourt!

Awesome, huge, beautiful, sinister, powerful monster. Silent and comfortable on the inside and understatedly menacing on the outside.

It had the 2.2 straight 5 turbo petrol engine that all Audi enthusiasts will, well, enthuse about now. Awesome performance from such a small engine in such a huge car and used to see off many "fast" cars of that era.

Interior was splendid, even to the point of having a little TV screen in the middle of the instrument cluster which used to warn that the next service will be an expensive one by flashing a plethora of red, orange and yellow symbols in one's face whilst trying to slow down from 140mph for the next exit.

Oh yes, it was enormously fast, both in terms of acceleration and top speed. In fact I believe it was the fastest saloon car in the world at the time of it's production.

Under the bonnet was a maze of pipes, tubes, wires, looms, rods, pulleys, belts and manifolds. So complex was it that a local Audi dealership refused to service it in 1996 as "nobody here knows where to start". :-)

The sign of a beautifully complicated machine.

I, of course, tuned it from it's basic 193bhp (by far enough) to 374bhp, which made it interesting to drive in the wet, especially as it was front wheel drive! After the tuning it went so fast that the needle would get buried at 160mph whilst still accelerating!

Obviously I tested this off the public highway and not on the newly opened A47 south Norwich bypass at 4am.

It fell to pieces on many occasions, mainly niggly bits that were new to car designs in the mid eighties and so not too strong, but the drive-train and engine were beautifully made and indestructible.

It was my favourite car, not only due to the reaction it got, but also because of the almighty performance, incredible comfort and the sheer "waftiness".

Fantastic, I wonder how the A8 compares?!