Re: Audi Rally cars + others (tryII)

[Dave Lawson <dlawson@ball.com>]

Ti writes:
>> I think you are referring to the SCCA Trans Am series of 1988.
>> Audi participated with the 200 quattro (with Hans Stuck and
>> Hurley Haywood as drivers), and absolutely dominated the entire
>> season.  Although the Audi was disadvantaged in terms of horsepower
>> and weight compared to its competition, Audi was able to out-corner
>> other cars with its AWD and gain time.  This in spite of mid-season
>> rule changes in Audi's disfavor, forcing Audi to reduce horsepower
>> by installing turbo restrictors.

bernhard writes:
>Yep that's the car.  Apparently the only mod's done to the standard
>car were to the engine, lighter (aluminium) panels and a smoother
>underbody airflow.  I think it set the lap and top-speed record
>at Taladega(??) with one of the Unser's driving (Bobby?).  Lap speed
>was +-330 kph and the top speed on the straight was 347 kph.  Quite a
>different car than the rally beasts !  The power output was also
>well up - 484kW.

There are two different versions of racing quattros being discussed here. Ti 
is talking about the 5000/200 series Trans-Am cars which were raced in 1988. 
And I think you are talking about the closed course speed record 5000 
quattro. There was a small article on this car in the July/August 1986 issue 
of VW/Porsche magazine.

On March 24, 1986 Bobby Unser set a new closed-course speed record for 
all-wheel-drive vehicles of 206.825mph over the 2.66 mile superspeedway at  
Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega, Alabama . He was running 
up to 216 mph on the straights. The car used was based on a 5000 turbo 
quattro production vehicle, but was fairly modified. The body was fitted 
with aluminum body panels, front air dam, rear spoiler, lower side sill 
extensions, a low drag under-body floorpan, a full roll cage, a racing 
suspension which lowered the car and knock-off wheels with racing slicks. 
The engine was a specially built turbocharged, air-air intercooled, 20-valve 
5 cylinder engine which output 650hp. At the time, it was the most powerful 
5 cylinder gasoline automobile engine ever created. The car also used the 
standard quattro four-wheel-drive system and five speed transmission. Audi 
used this car as the starting point for the Trans-Am racing effort.

>Locally there is a formula for heavily modified sedans.  Two Audi
>S4 Quattro's run against a single Ford Mustang (700bhp) and a
>Mazda Mx-6 fitted with a 4-rotor Wankel engine.  Despite the
>turbo restrictors and ever-narrowing tyres ( I think they were
>downsized twice this year :( ) the Audi's were still at the head of the
>pack for about 5 laps, then the tyres popped, literally.  They've won
>that championship for the last two or three years, the Mustang
>taking it this year.  Unfortunately last week was the last time
>these cars could be seen in action ...

Isn't one of these cars is driven by Terry Moss. Do you have any information 
on the cars Audi is running in this series? From articles I have seen, Audi 
was using what looked like the US Trans-Am cars in that series a few years 
ago. Were they known as the Minolta _black_widow_ quattros?

 -
Dave Lawson  dlawson@ball.com