Pro Rally 4000Q

[AUDIDUDI@delphi.com]

Yesterday, I finally made it up to the Prescott National Forest to watch the
annual Pro-Rally event.  Before going out into the woods, I spent some time 
looking at the cars during Tech Inspection, including the Audi 4000Q driven
by Rui Brasil and John Elkin (although he may not have been there since the
crew was taping over his name on the fender with duct tape when I left...).

The crew was busy trying to put the front suspension back together and spoke
some language other than English most of the time (it sounded like Portugese
but I'm not sure) so I didn't try to talk to them.  Since the car was apart,
I spent some time looking it over and offer the following observations:

1) it IS possible to install a 5000 turbo motor in a 4000Q bodyshell.  They
did it pretty neatly, all things considered, but it's clearly not a bolt-in
proposition: both the downpipe and tie-rod appeared to be custom-fabricated
so they would clear each other and the radiator was relocated to allow room
for the intercooler, both of which were hidden under an aluminum shroud.

2) The strut housings they were running did not appear to be 4000Q parts but
those from a TQC (although the hub had only 4 lugs) or perhaps an early 5000
... they were running Bilstein inserts and had added threaded spring perches
to make ride-height adjustments easier.  The steering arms appeared to have
shortened an inch or two (but not recognizing the strut housing, I can't be
sure) and the entire strut/knuckle area was reinforced with gussets and/or
additional plating.  To my surprise, they used OEM 4000Q strut bearings but
the dished mounting plate under the nut was replaced by a spherical bearing
setup so it couldn't move up-and-down the way stock bearings do.

3) They were using the stock calipers and rotors front and rear.  They were
also using what looked like OEM rubber bushings in the control arms and had
no anti-roll bars (I guess they want to keep the wheels totally independent
of each other).  The front control arms had an additional tab welded to them
and attached to this was what appeared to be an idler arm from another car
that ran forward to the skid-plate mounting brackets.  I would guess this is
supposed to prevent the control arms from being torn off or knocked out of
alignment when crashing into rocks and/or potholes.

4) Although the transmission appeared to be stock, I did see a small cooler
mounted on the side that came from an automatic box.  The driveshafts also
appeared to be stock.

5) The rollcage was a work of art (LOTS of bracing throughout!) and the car
itself was anything but ... from 50', it looked okay but up close it looked
ratty.  So did the rest of the cars, for that matter (although there were a
few -- one of the Mitsubishis, a Rabbit, Saab 99 -- that were pretty nicely
turned out).  I guess they're busy enough just keeping them running than to
worry about how they look but still...

6) IMHO, Pro-Rally is doomed to failure in this country.  This was possibly
the least spectator-friendly event I've ever attended -- in fact, I'll even
go so far as to suggest they were discouraging spectators! -- and with only
26 cars starting the event, there wasn't a lot to see even when you did get
near the course.  That said, the 4000Q was clearly one of the quicker cars
out there and was being driven VERY aggressively ... it came through one of
the corners I was at on two wheels at 60+mph and looked to be heading onto
its roof but the driver somehow saved it.  Amazing.  I was also surprised by
how SLOWLY some of the cars were going through this turn ... I don't know if
they were nursing wounded cars, didn't know where they were going or simply
afraid to drive any faster but the speed differential between the fastest
and slowest cars at this point was easily 30mph.

It was 9pm when we left and facing a 2-1/2 hour drive ahead of us, we didn't
bother to go back into town to find out the results.  It was an interesting
experience, to say the least...

                /| | | |\  |   |\  | | |\  |  AudiDudi@delphi.com
               /-| | | | | | = | | | | | | |  Jeffrey Goggin
              /  | |_| |/  |   |/  |_| |/  |  Scottsdale, Arizona