!st US Quattro?

[ptimmerm@mashtun.JPL.NASA.GOV]

		The First US Quattro ???

The official beginning of production of US spec Quattros began
in March of 1983.  My car, VIN "C" #00535, was produced in
11/81, and is shown arriving in LA Harbor in March of 1982,
a full year before production.  Yet the car is a true US spec
car.  This creates something of a question.  How was a US spec
car created one year early, and why.

There a numerous clues in the car itself.  The options for the
car a a bit unussual compared to most 1983's with VIN "D" designations.
The car is Amazon Blue, without sunroof, or rear wiper, and has a
85 mph speedo.  I know of no 83's with any of these options  Secondly,
the presence of test equipment on the car.  Thermocouples have been
fitted to both the a fuel injectors and into the intercooler.

These data points, and the time and location of import all point to one
thing.  This car was a test vehicle brought to the the southwest for
testing in various climates of this area.  Numerous reports have been make
of fleets of Quattro traveling about the southwest every spring.  There
were some serious problems with this development, including hot start,
and electromagnetic radition caused ignition cutouts.  The use of an
intercooler was new to this model in the US, and the presence of a
thermocouple in the intercooler indicates a nature concern about its
efficiency and the issues related to detuning for the post energy
crisis low quality gas that was then available in this market.
Beyond these points, when I bought the car, there was already evidence
of probing into the computer harness, which may have been done at this
early testing stage.

One question remains with this scenario.  How did they make the car
US spec, when all of the parts for the US spec car weren't available
at the time of import.  Clues to the final point are found on the
specific US Spec parts themselves.  The larger parts, including the
gas tank, and bumpers have distinctive markings in german on them.

The deciphering of the material indicates that the parts were shipped
from germany to the head of the US turbo development ground at Audi
USA.  So the next piece of the puzzle is that the parts were shipped
later and added onto the car so they could sell off there mule.

I still don't know who it was sold to originally, but I am working on
getting to a engineer who worked on the testing and may have driven the
car during it's career as the  first US Quattro.

Paul Timmerman