Installing Cobra Daytonas into the A4

[four.rings@MCIONE.com]

Hello, club.

After much aggravation and grief I can finally report that the project
"how to fit Cobra Daytona seats into a '98 A4TQ without the factory
slide kit, while disabling the side airbag control module in the
process" is over.

I utilised the subframes off an older 5000 w/manual seats. I basically
cut almost everything off the seat's frame sans the sliding piece on the
passenger side and sliding and tilting mechanism on the driver side.
After that I went to the Home Depot and bought two pieces of hollow
square steel stock, 1" side x 8' long. After some Gargantuan efforts
(did I ever mention that I am totally inch-ignorant? :-) I achieved some
proficiency in adding 11-7/16" to 7-3/4" and figuring out if it amounts
to a more or less an integer of lengths in a 41-3/8" of the remainder
piece of the steel stock. Then I took a tangent of a 60° angle and
calculated the rise of the rear legs, now _that_ was some goofy
trigonometry. Is this @#$% system of units DUMB! Doing engineering in a
non-decimal system is like running marathon in the water. Why?????

Never mind. Anyway, the subframes turned out pretty well. An added
benefit of not having the aftermarket slider mechanism: I have the tilt
ability in the driver seat. Comes rather handy if you have to share the
car with your wife.

I have already installed the 4-point harness through the slits in the
backrest of the driver seat. BTW, the Cobra Daytona seats have huge side
bolsters and are extremely comfortable. Mark, thank you very much for
the excellent seats!

The airbag circuit on the '98 got anxious to see the missing factory
seats, but it was very easy too fool, thanks to a very kind lister on
the A4.org board who has done some trial-and-error research with his own
CarComp software package and provided me with the necessary impedance
numbers. Jeff, it worked just like you said, plug in and reset, thanks
much!

This past Wed I finally took the car to the dealer for the first oil
change. After which I wound it up to the red line for the first time.
This car is amasing! It jumps off the standstill like a mad rabbit.
I was coming from the DC Quattro Club this past Sat and decided to
stretch it's legs. It went from 75 to 110 in a blink of an eye, the
needle just went WHAM! Excuse the cliché but it flies, no other epithet
comes to my mind. I can only imagine what it would feel like after
chipping it up. 
BTW, I recall my disappointment with this car in the very first week of
ownership. It was slow and waivy like a Corolla. Did I miss driving my
200 then! Of course my wife reposessed the 200 right after we bought the
A4. The official excuse -"you know that I won't be able to break-in the
new car properly".
Now, after the proper break-in (first 5000mi on the factory oil and
never over 3000rpm) I feel like someone just replaced the car in my
sleep. Of course the Sport suspension and those awesome 225/50/16 SP8000
on 16x7.5" MOMO Arrows helped improve the handling quite a bit too.
Did I mention that my wife has reposessed the A4 now? 
The official excuse - "the clutch and the small steering wheel on the
200 are too heavy". Hmmm, she never complained about them when her
personal car was an '88 VW Fox with a mechanical clutch and no power
steering at all.
Women! :-)

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Igor Kessel
'89 200TQ -- 18psi (TAP)
'98 A4TQ -- nothing to declare
Philadelphia, PA
USA
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/8949/homepage.html
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