4k 5+5 turbo experience...

[OorQue@aol.com]

Last night, I drove a cosmetically ratty '81 4000 5+5 that had the MC motor 
from an '86 5ktq transplanted into it ... it was, by far, the quickest Audi 
I've ever driven and to my surprise, it handled quite well, too.  Built for 
$3,400 by a local salvage-yard scounger, he says the motor puts out between 
250-260hp and the car weighs a whopping 2385 pounds ... best case, that works 
out to 9.17lbs/hp!  By comparison, my 200q would have to put out over 365 hp 
to match it.

The single most expensive part on the car was the Quaife LSD he installed in 
the '84 4kq gearbox (he runs it with the center diff locked) and it seemed to 
do a good job of putting the power down through the 205/50s after he was into 
2nd gear ... full throttle in 1st gear simply made clouds of blue smoke and 
laid down a pair of black stripes on the road.

The exterior and interior are totally stock -- at the moment, he doesn't even 
have a boost gauge installed! -- and in need of attention as the car really 
does look rather tatty with a dented fender and door, and torn upholstery.  
He is planning to work on this next, as the funds and parts become available, 
but seems pleased to be driving a "Q-car" that doesn't attract attention to 
itself.

All in all, I was very impressed by the potential of this car.  I know the 
idea of transplanting turbo motors into 4kqs is all the rage these days but 
to my knowledge, only Gary Erickson has done it with a FWD car.   I've had an 
itch to build a hot-rod Audi sedan for some time and after last night, I'm 
now wondering if it really needs to have AWD.  Although they're not too 
common around here, when they do turn up, 5+5s are usually pretty cheap and 
I've got a lot of the parts I'd need on hand already.  Hmmm....

JG