[urq] First URQ in the USA

[arpad buzas]

Thanks Peter for this great story, please post some pics. Regards Arpy

Todd Phenneger <tquattroguy at yahoo.com> wrote:  YES!
I would like. 
Cant speak for the list. But I would DEFINITELY like



> From: Peter 
> Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:34:28 -0700
> To: 
> Subject: [urq] First URQ in the USA
> 
> Hello..............
> 
> I had lunch today with Carl Behrer. For those of you not familiar with him
> he was the service manager of Prestige Porsche Audi in Denver, Colorado for
> over 30 years but more importantly he was the liaison between the "Mother
> ship" and the U.S. He has some incredible stories about Audi which he has
> shared over the years but today he told me the story of the infancy of the
> URQ. He indicated that it all began in the '70's when Volkswagen was
> building a military jeep for Germany called the Europa. It contained the
> early version of the quattro system. Then it was decided in 1979 to try and
> put the quattro system into a regular automobile platform. Carl showed me
> pictures from Germany(which at the time he took them were considered top
> secret) taken of the underneath view of the first quattro system. It doesn't
> look that much different than the first quattro's. Then, in late 1980; they
> shipped him the first URQ (Red in color) in the United States for him to
> test. It was intercepted by the president of Audi USA who let his kids
> off-road it in the hills around Michigan. Audi AG was furious and told Carl
> to go to Michigan and pick it up. My understanding is that it was pretty
> beat up by the time they got it and had to do a lot of work on it. At the
> time, the city of Breckenridge, Colorado had their police drive Audi 4000's.
> They were having trouble with one and they asked Carl to come up from Denver
> to take a look at it. He took the URQ when he went. I don't know how
> familiar you are with the town of Breckenridge; but in the late '70s and
> early '80s it was struggling both as a town and a ski resort but they did
> have skiers. I can remember skiing there during that period and I would say
> on the weekends there were at least 2-3000 people on the mountain and I
> would guess at least 1000 during the week. OK, your asking why am I telling
> you this? Well, Carl saw the mountain slope and decided to see if the
> URQ could conquer it!! B.S. you say? I would say the same thing but I saw
> pictures today proving it true and there are skiers on the mountain to boot.
> He was escorted off the mountain by the Breckenridge police; but he said
> they were just laughing at/with him. Today, he would be put in jail for that
> antic. He says he has the negatives of all these amazing Audi/Porsche
> pictures he showed me today. As soon as I get them I will post for your
> enjoyment if you would like.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Peter Coulter
> obsessive URQ collector
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