Minneapolis Street Sighting: Audi Coupe GT

The Audi quattro has always been a staunch favorite of mine-- be it the S1 rally car, or the more mild-tempered streetgoing car. As a car enthusiast, I simply can't deny the Audi quattro's effect on the 1980s, but also on performance as a whole. Really, if it wasn't for the enormous success of Audi's legendary foray into AWD performance, cheap speed like the Japanese-American DSM triplets would've been offered. Nor would we have the Subaru WRX, and Mitsubishi Evo-- never mind Audi's own lineup of and RS cars.
But this isn't exactly the much-heralded quattro; instead, this Coupe GT is the quattro's tamer, less excited brother. I would almost compare the quattro and the Coupe GT to a seven year after drinking a two liter of Mountain Dew in one sitting, to the very same seven after just waking up at six AM. Same basic results, with a completely different outcome. One makes you go berserk, and the other one keeps you from doing so.
As I would loved to have found my favorite roadgoing German car, its much less exciting little brother will have to-- for now. Finished in an oh-so-cliche red with black trim that many 1980s German two doors seems have been bathed in, this vehicle represents a time when red and black were the "in" color combination. Not that it matters much today, but rewind time twenty five years, and to have a red and black Audi or BMW meant you were a driving enthusiast with a little bit of flair. But flair, the Audi Coupe GT did not have-- mechanically, anyway.
Sure, it had a five cylinder mill, but unlike the firebreathing S1 and quattro cars, the Coupe made do with only 130 horses. Surely, nothing to really write home about, but then again, this was at a time when the hottest Mustangs only made 205 horses. So, I suppose it isn't too terrible; especially considering the 2.1 liter I5 in the pre-1987 cars chugged along with barely 100 horses.
When a vehicle looks this good, who cares what power it makes? Granted, not many would exactly call this generation of Coupe "beautiful", but I quite like it; Audi, to me, has always been about minimalist styling, and this car hails from a time when they didn't all look like VWs with Porsche price tags.
I can't really think of any extreme negatives here, save for the fact that this is just a Coupe GT, versus a quattro-- but hey. I can't complain. I've always liked this generation of Audi's two door quasi-hatch, and with these getting quite rare here, I say this was a well spotted car.