Re: Lots of Audi's

[Bryan Gunn <bgunn@voicetek.com>]

Allan -

>         This is a good time to ask something I've been thinking about. A while
> back - maybe two, three, maybe even four years ago - I was driving on
> Rt.3 North in the Billerica, MA area on my way to N.H. when I spotted a
> ur-q...I believe it was gold, but not sure now. I paced it and
> eventually rolled down my window to talk to the driver. He signaled and
> then pulled over on a side street after leaving the highway to talk. I
> believe he worked in Chelmsford? He had long curly hair and wire-framed
> glasses. His ur-q was heavily modified but unkept in such a haphazard
> way that it turned me off....although I did inquire about him selling it
> and he said "Although I put a lot into it, I'd always be interested in
> making a profit."(I think)
>         Was this anyone on the list?? Would you even remember? :-)

Yep. That sounds like a confirmed Rob Houk sighting. He works at Sun
Microsystems in Chelmsford, right down the street from me! I met him a
couple years ago when I was first in the market for an ur-q. Before he
did all the hop-up work on his car, he had it for sale in the want ads.
I went and checked it out, but didn't buy it. Actually, no one did so he
kept it and put a new head on it, a K24 turbo in it, Schrick cam, and a
ton of other stuff. He's a hardware engineer, so in his spare time he
reverse-engineered the ECU and fixed all the electrical system
weaknesses in the car. He found a chip burner and found all the ignition
and fuel curves in the computer, and can re-program them at will. His
car is in good mechanical shape, but the last time I saw it, it needed
some cosmetics. His car has an Abt suspension package in it, installed
by Abt in California (when there was an Abt shop in california) by the
original owner (I think). It also has a Borla exhaust system in dire
need of a kitty-ectomy (in my opinion).

I've driven his car a couple times, and it is FUN. The Schrick and K24
are a pretty good combination. In a stock ur-q, if you hit the gas at
1500 rpm or so, the boost needle snaps to atmospheric then
sloooooowwwwwwwly begins to climb up. By 3500rpm or so you have full
boost. By 5000 rpm, the engine just sounds like it doesn't want to rev
any more. In Rob's car, you hit the gas at 1500 and the boost needle
damn near snaps itself off against the full boost peg instantly. The
engine then proceeds to SCREAM to redline and you bounce off the limiter
before you even know it! It's great. Unfortunatley, Rob has put sooo
much $ into that car that he's going to want a big chunk of $ for it.
It's a good car if you don't mind tackling all the cosmetic stuff.
Mechanically great, though.

Later,

Bryan