By-Tor

Guys, check this out. It's advertised as 1985 model but has the S4 looks. If you change the rear bumper, lights and rear & front spoilers, are there any visual differences left?



http://www.autoscout24.se/Details.aspx?id=182035810

I'm not buying this car, nor planning to do such transformation... I'm just curious.

Rob Edwards

Are we sure it's not just a typo in the ad and it's really an '87? No engine pics to verify.

By-Tor

I have no idea. It's been there for quite a while already. I was just asking because I thought there might be something else that you can tell the new and old model apart (for sure).

Really nice looking car, whatever it is. If it's a S4, it's one of the cheapest in the EU too.

Leon Speed

Front brake caliper is shown in one pic and is pre-S4.

Leon Speed

One more thing, the wing seems to sit a little too high.

Nicole

This is very nicely done! You really have to know what to look for, in order to see that it's an "imitation" S4.

Check the extra gauge in the instruments - I don't think S4 models ever came with this one

hacker-pschorr

What a way to ruin a perfectly good looking S bodied car.
That's like putting a 996 body kit on a 993.

Marine Blue

rocker panels are different on the OB's

Landseer

Wonder what prompted the new body parts?

By-Tor

It could have been done from 2 cars... maybe they had an old S that had a working engine & transmission but bad body & paint... and the S4 had good body & some bad technical issues (like the thrust bearing/ engine failure).

In the 1990's the price difference between the old & new models was HUGE in the Europe. Maybe it was already done back then... someone wanted a "newer car" this way. Same way they're bastardizing those early 70's 911's now... with 964/993 body kits.

Just guessing.

928mac

Very very clean. The wing is to high and there is another gauge in the tach area

RyanPerrella

just looking at the pic

yes its very convincing and appears to be a great looking car

i think Rob is onto something though. Every S to S4 conversion I've seen looked terrible. Im going to say misstated year.

blitz928

I agree with Ryan, the amount of work to make the conversion look that good, wouldn't make sense. That looks like an S4.

Mike Frye

Exhaust on '85 is not dual exhaust and comes out the side behind the wheel, that must have been changed as well.

Emboss

Differences compared to my '88 S4 (besides the obvious non-standard wheels/exhaust/head unit):

1. Exterior antenna (none on mine), but only on some of the pics?!?!
2. Mine has white (possibly glow-in-the-dark, never tested) dots on the interior door handles, which this one doesn't.
3. The rear spoiler is sitting maybe 5 cm further forward on the hatch, and is painted the body color on this car.
4. Aero mirrors
5. No seat memory selector. I don't have any option code for this on mine so presumbly it's standard on at least the '88.
6. Different scale on the speedo - the 2000 rpm mark lines up with 220 km/h, whereas on mine 2000 rpm mark lines up with 240 (half way between the 220 and the 260).
7. Redline appears to be at 6000 not 6200, though this could just be a JPEG artefact.
8. Extra gauge down the bottom of the the tachometer. This gauge shows up in a couple of the diagrams in the 84/85 RoW Owner's Manuals but is never mentioned.

Some of these could be due to regional things or options, but there's enough major things that I'd say it's probably not an '88 S4.