Re: Quattro 4000 Mods list

[Pete Hamilton <phamilt1@swarthmore.edu>]

>For all the stuff you are doing, you are getting precariously close to the
>price of an 1988 M3 or tricked 325, which will thoughly whip a 4000 around a
>track and off the line (as well as top speed, I'm sure)  Are you that much of
>an Audi fan?  (I am!!!!!)  Also, you are extremely close to the price of a
>good 944/924S, which would do about the same as the M3.  Actually, there is a
>nice 87 924S for sale near me for 5500.  My dad owns one, so I can tell you
>that the car is extremely good handeling and pretty quick (for 140hp)  I'm
>not trying to shy you away, but realistically what are you looking at doing?
> Track?  Street?  Show?

Did I mention that the guy who's doing all this for me is a friend of mine?
As you pointed out, the work I'm getting done ought to be considerably more
than it is.  Lucky me.  As far as Porsches go, I know they're fun, fast and
good handling cars, but I'm looking for something that'll push 250k miles
without any more substantial work on it.  944's are notoriously unreliable,
and 924's are much worse (yes I know that the 924S is a 944 in 924's
clothing).  And $5500 is the starting price for a car that probably needs
some reasonable service, and has *really* expensive parts which are liable
to break at any time.  Your dad's car may be great, but I've heard too many
horror stories to risk burying myself with this car as my only vehicle.

Has anyone actually *done* the 5000 turbo conversion?  From the guys I
talked to, problems are (from memory):
- intercooler must be remote mounted
- a/c unit is essentially unfittable into the 4k, and must be abandoned
- lots of custom machine work needed = $$$
- Total cost is usually $6k or so for the conversion.

That said, I would *love* to have a try at this if I've got a spare motor
and another car to drive for 6-8 months while I do it myself!

The standard compression ratio for the 4000 is something like 9:1 or maybe
lower  (anyone?  anyone?).  Surely you can raise it to 10 or 11:1 without
race gas.  Many sportbikes get 12.5:1 box stock.  Is there some reason
smaller engines can run higher c.r.'s?  I've always wondered why cars were
so much lower than bikes.

Okay, I'll admit a touch of exaggeration on the h.p. claims.  I talked to
him again, and he said that it'd probably be like a 40bhp increase from
stock (he was talking in percentages before, and I added 'em up wrong and
used the wrong starting #).  So I've got a 155bhp car that'll last me
another 100k without any real problems (theoretically) that cost me $7500.
It works better in the snow (I'm gonna be in central NY) than any BMW, even
the iX and certainly any porsche.  And it'll proablby be able to whup most
of 'em stock as well, though I'm strictly street and don't wish to inflate
my ego with this stuff.  I'm picking the Audi 'cause I drive a car for what
a car's good for, bad weather, comfort, convenience, reliability (at least
for this Audi!), good handling, safety and fun.  For massive insane power,
speed and performance, I'll take my bike (an '84 Honda Interceptor 750),
which cost me $1400 + $600 mods, and will will whip *any* car under
$100,000 if the weather's good and the roads aren't really really straight
(top speed 150 or so).  Flames anyone?

This is a fun list.  Thanks for all your help!

--Pete