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A few weeks ago I was at the NEC in Birmingham, minding my own business setting up the PistonHeads show, and looking forward to five days of not seeing natural daylight. Then I spotted it. At the far end of the NEC Parva Cars was setting out its stand and I couldn’t help but notice the rather immaculate Audi RS2 Avant up for sale. The PH team stayed late into the night to get the show ready for opening the next day, but while the rest of the guys worked hard I could often be found staring at the Audi.

It’s fairly well known on PH that I have a fondness for older cars, and while the RS4, RS6 and other later RS models certainly impress me, it is this frankly ridiculous version of the Audi 80 that is my all-time favourite. I remember reading features in magazines saying that it was an absolute hooligan - a Labrador-carrying Porsche beater. Autocar even reported that it was faster to 30mph than a McLaren F1.

It was a hero car for me from then on. Rather unbelievably I never saw one in the metal until PHer JeremyC called into the office to let Ollie drive his car for a PH Heroes feature, and it was then that I realised just how much I liked them. It was an Audi 80 estate with some nice wheels, and to the man in the street that’s all it ever would be. In my eyes that level of discreet power made it utterly desirable, but I never even thought about buying one.

That was about to change as in the space of a few hours, I had decided to buy the car on display at the show. I hadn’t driven it, I hadn’t researched the market and I didn’t know how much it would cost to insure. But after a sleepless night thinking about it, I waited on the Parva stand until owner Chris arrived and gave him £500 deposit with the words ‘take this before I change my mind’. And that was that. A small amount of negotiating later and I bought the car for £16,250. Now, I’m under no illusion that this is at the top end of the price bracket, but this is no ordinary RS2.

So what have I bought? Well, it’s a 1995, Volcano Black UK specification car with a ridiculously low 65,000 miles and a history file that makes a Yellow Pages look like a pamphlet – it even contains the original bill of sale from an Audi dealer in NW London. It has unmarked wheels and bodywork, the often fitted cat back stainless exhaust system and also an engine re-map. I won’t quote a power figure as I don’t know it until it’s been on the rollers but 375bhp has been mentioned and the standard car delivers 315.

Insurance is reasonable at £650 through Adrian Flux with a 5,000 mile PA restriction. Some may consider a limited mileage policy a bad idea but when you consider that I am a 35-year-old living in London with zero no claims bonus and the Audi is insurance group 20 it made sense, and I can always extend it if needed.

I left the show and arranged to collect the car a week later, as Chris agreed to give N1 AGM a full service and fresh MOT as part of the deal. In fact, I must give him the thanks he is due as not only did he service the car, he also replaced some parts that he felt needed replacing despite not being service items. A week later I arrived to collect it, and to be honest I was feeling nervous.

After the paperwork was completed, I was on my way with a 120 mile journey home ahead of me. The car was so tight and solid with barely a creak coming from the interior as I drove towards the motorway, I couldn’t stop myself from saying ‘they don’t make them like this anymore’. The gearbox has the precise clunkiness of most Audis from this period and the steering is absolutely wonderful, but one thing was worrying me. Why couldn’t I warm up? It was them I realised that I was absolutely charged with adrenalin and my legs were shaking with excitement and nothing to do with the heater. How often can you say that about a new car?

Here I was in a car that, truth be told, I couldn’t afford to buy on a whim but right then I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. My new house can wait. This car is an icon, it’s made with help from Porsche and I own it. Even as I write this I have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up as I remember how it felt to be realising a long-held dream.

So with some trepidation and plenty of heat in the engine I floored the accelerator, firstly in 5^th gear. After 3500rpm it literally hunkered down and shot off with the most glorious five-cylinder soundtrack. I had gone from 80 to 120 in no time at all, and far from starting to run out of puff, it was still pulling as strongly as it had done from 80.

It made me laugh out loud and I was in the car on my own at the time. In fact I think I said a few swear words too. So what would happen if I slowed down and did the same in third and fourth? You can guess the rest, but lets just say I was thankful I was on a private road :wink:

It’s been a few weeks now since I collected it, and I’m just starting to cope with a 19mpg average. One thing I haven’t been able to shake off is the immense sense of occasion when I drive it, the pride I feel when a person who ‘knows’ pulls alongside and gives a respectful nod or thumbs up, or the way it looks as I stare at it from my kitchen window. It’s not a dream car to many, but for me I’m certainly living the dream.

I’ll continue to write about my life with N1 AGM, and as I am a normal guy who will have to juggle running and maintenance costs to keep this car in the same fine fettle lavished on it by the previous owners. I certainly don’t have a bottomless pot of cash at my disposal so life with a Porsche fettled, 300+bhp, 4wd Audi could prove interesting, not least to my bank manager.

One change I have made already is to replace the tyres. It was on Falkens that had plenty of life in them, but I am fussy when it comes to rubber. It now wears four Dunlop Sport Maxx TT precision tyres with reinforced Kevlar sidewalls. I was careful to fit the correct 225 fitment as recommended by all RS owners I have been in contact with, and so far so good. I have only covered a few hundred miles since fitment so I’ll tell you how they fare in the next report. Following my visit to HiQ in Kingston I have already spent £468.   

Coming home the other night in my old 190E, I noticed a note on the windscreen and feared the worst. Had someone crashed into it? Fortunately not, it was a neighbour who wanted to buy it. He wants first refusal on it if I ever sell it. If things get too expensive at least I have a contingency plan, and it's nice to know that others appreciate my choice of car.

Speaking of the 190E, after spending £700 on a car I bought for £650 I now have a perfect little Benz. I was going to sell it, but instead i've decided to keep it alongside the RS2 to use for running about in to save using the Audi all of the time. In fact, I can see it fitting into my life for a long while yet, it's a cracking little thing.