Quattro Fever

[Greg Amy <grega@pobox.com>]

Help!

I have Quattro Fever. 'Tis nothing new; I've had it for some 15 years I
suppose, ever since I saw my first Quattro Coupe as a young parts and
service lad in my local VW/Porsche/Audi dealership. The Fever has been
in remission for some time, and somewhat under control.

Alas, this past year has not been a good one for my illness.

In June I was invited to run the One Lap of America with a local chap,
and his mode of transportation was an Audi S6 Turbo Quattro. What a car!
He's not one to sit on his laurels (or save his pennies; he's "doing OK"
in the biz he owns), so he spent quite a bit of money on improvements
all around. According to him, it's putting out about 300 horsepower, and
coupled with the significant braking, suspension, and wheel improvements
it was, to me, the ultimate car. It was fast, nimble, comfortable (both
in driving AND in sleeping in!) and into that car we could stuff
EVERYTHING we needed for a week! Man, I want one of those. This car
handled EXCELLENT and I felt like I could do anything with this car on
the track. I flung it around at racetracks all over the country and
(almost) never felt out of control! Triple-digit speeds on the
racetracks and open roads were nothing.

Once we returned from our adventure (summarized at
http://sandbox.delphi.com/auto/onelap/onelap.html as written to my
friends), I had The Fever something fierce again. I couldn't stand it,
it hurt so good.

I went searching for an S6 or an S4. Oh, they're out there all right. If
you have in the mid-to-high-20K to spend. I don't. Me, I have a
15-yr-old Rabbit GTi that I keep in mint condition, and I have my old
Showroom Stock race car, a 1987 Shelby CSX that I'm trying to restore.
The "expensive" one of those cars was 12K when it was new. No way I will
spend 25K for a used car.

Well, after being disappointed in my search several times I decided that
maybe this still wasn't in the cards for me, and I let the Fever go into
remission for a while.

Then I met John.

Who's John, you say? John's a new friend that I met this year. We're
both in the same flying club (now you know why I can't spend 25K on a
car...airplanes are too expensive) and we're both motorheads. John likes
to tinker with cars, he has an old 911 that he dinks with, and he looks
for bargains. Lately, he found a nice-shape 5000 Turbo
(front-wheel-drive) that he got for a song with a burned water pump
(which turned out to be a WHALE of a job to replace) and I could feel
the tingling inside. It took a while to recognize, but in hindsight I
know it was The Fever coming up like those Acid Reflux commericals.

John invited my wife and I over for dinner a couple of months ago, to
get to know each other better. As we arrived, John invited me into the
garage to check out "his cars". As he led me through the dark doorway, I
saw the shadow and I could almost smell it, like pheromones. My heart
started beating, and when he flipped on the lights I got a full view of
it: a 1983 dark blue Audi Quattro Coupe in BEAUTIFUL cnodition. Oh, man,
did the year 1983 at the Audi dealership come flooding back.

Well, this whole story may sound silly to all of you, but YOU have your
Quattros, and I don't. I want to fix that. My only problem is that now
I've been so out of touch with the marque that I don't know my 4000 from
my 200, my 20V from my V8. That's the point of this note.

I need resources for information on the cars 1980-present. I want to
know what a 200 is, what a 90 is, and how each came equipped. Sound like
a daunting task? Well, of course it is.

What I want is a small chassis, turbo 5-cylinder intercooled car, with
Audi's all-wheel-drive. It must have a standard transmission, and it
must have engine management that lends itself well to modifications
(both electronic and mechanical). I want a fully upgradeable suspension
and braking system, and it must be reasonably priced. I'm a mechanical
wiz, but I hate doing bodywork. If I had to set a dollar amount, I'd say
I want something under $10K.

If I manage to talk John out of that Quattro Coupe (which from reading
this list I now realize is referred to as the "Ur Quattro") then so be
it, but John's no fool; he won't likely sell any time soon.

How about you?

Greg Amy
Milford, CT
grega@pobox.com