anybody rallying Audis?

Hello everyone, lately I have been talking with a friend about building a rally car. he is moving up to Vancouver, Canada next year where he will have a good job with enough money to go about building a car. We were fairly set on building a volvo however, lately we have kinda become infatuated with Audis.

So, we are talking about building a 4000 or 90 chassis audi quattro. benefits as I can see them are cheap shell compared to a evo or subaru, the 20v turbo engine is more then capable of whatever power you want and you have something different then your standard evo or wrx to compete with in awd.

Downfalls, they are front heavy, i know next to nothing about whether their suspension is well suited for rally except watching any rally video from the 80s they sure look great.

I guess it comes down to if we want to build a rwd or just go for broke and build a awd car to begin with. Everyone on here seems pretty knowledgable and good at shooting down peoples dumb ideas so let me know what you think about audis.
Thanks

Call Salta Motorsports and talk with Brian if you're considering building one. They've done a few already and are building a new Pike's Peak car as we speak.
The 20V engine is awesome.

---

Grant Hughes

NoCoast Wrote:
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> Call Salta Motorsports and talk with Brian if
> you're considering building one. They've done a
> few already and are building a new Pike's Peak car
> as we speak.
> The 20V engine is awesome.

And everything about Audis are awesomely expensive.
And with a 34mm restrictor, well drive Golves are as fast at 1/4 the cost.

>
> Grant Hughes
> www.nocoastmotorsports.net
> Denver, CO

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Ezekiel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello everyone, lately I have been talking with a
> friend about building a rally car. he is moving up
> to Vancouver, Canada next year where he will have
> a good job with enough money to go about building
> a car. We were fairly set on building a volvo
> however, lately we have kinda become infatuated
> with Audis.
>
> So, we are talking about building a 4000 or 90
> chassis audi quattro. benefits as I can see them
> are cheap shell compared to a evo or subaru, the
> 20v turbo engine is more then capable of whatever
> power you want and you have something different
> then your standard evo or wrx to compete with in
> awd.
>
> Downfalls, they are front heavy,

Yep, and handle like pigs at BEST

i know next to
> nothing about whether their suspension is well
> suited for rally except watching any rally video
> from the 80s they sure look great.

Yeah WORKS cars, but remember that even the works Quattro GpB cars had their stage times beat by GroupA cars by 89.
>
> I guess it comes down to if we want to build a rwd
> or just go for broke and build a awd car to begin
> with.

Broke is how most people end up who build turbo 4wd cars.

Everyone on here seems pretty knowledgable
> and good at shooting down peoples dumb ideas so
> let me know what you think about audis.
> Thanks


Forget Open turbo 4wd cars.
Of course it can be done but for the 4 or 5 times the cost is it really 4 or 5 times the fun of a good solid rwd car?

Why bother?
They orders of magnitude more to build, and to run and the restrictor makes the motors no fun to run since everything peaks so early and falls off so drastically.

You want to run something different? Something you could actually have fun driving?

Go buy Houston Peschl's Gp5 Volvo 240 up in Calgary and finish off the rear suspension.

I built a turbo 4wd Cosworth I shoved into a cheap Xratty, but if anybody waved money I'd rip out all the 4wd stuff in a heartbeat and go back to rwd.
Then for $380 for a gearset, I'm fat dumb and happy.

I've been pushing 240 Volvos hard cause they sold HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS and there are allways plenty of them in the Rally Spare parts Storage Depots aka Junk yards.
No so with Audis of any sort.

Rememeber there's how a car goes, but there's also LIVING WITH A CAR.
Sure is nice not worrying where the next door or hood or windshield is going to be found. That's the no-fun part of ANY CAR THAT IS THESE DAYS KINDA OBSCURE.

There are real sound reasons why in countries where there are viable rally programs with hundreds upon hundreds of active participants the most common car type is still rwd: the ability to upgrade parts easily and piecemeal as you can afford them.
Can't do that sortsa stuff on any 4wd car--or fwd car, but you want a stouter rear axle in a 4wd car? Just weld on some brackets and shove it in.
Want a stronger gearbox and one you can afford a gearset? Just a simple adapter at the bellhousing to gearbox and shoive it in.
Can't do that for a couple or four hun on any 4wd or fwd.




Look anybody who came into the sport when I did always has a soft spot for the GpB Quattros, but they were outclassed as works cars as soon as anything else came along.
And as GpA cars they fizzled badly, and by 100 Lakes 97 1800cc 8v Opel Kadetts were faster (Pontiac leMans to us)

A rwd car is not going to be a handicap in WA, BC or Alberta roads so it needn't be looked at as a stepping stone: they are an effective enough tool on their own, look at this years results with an aging John Lane---rusty as hell from a 5-6 year lay off winning OVERALL twice.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Thanks for the quick response. Yea that is pretty much what I thought I would hear and is just what I needed. When we first started talking rally I was daily driving a fairly built 240 but now I am driving A audi 200 20vt which has filled my head with romantic ideas of sport quattros and unbelievable amounts of money. yea having to run a restrictor really is a buzz kill on 4wd

I would love to get Houston's car but really have no place for it until spring at the soonest.. though it would be such a huge leg up it is almost worth it just to find somewhere to store it until then...

Thanks
-Ezekiel

as someone also starting with a blank sheet of paper (which it sounds like you are), i have been doing a lot of research on what to start with.

personally i would stay away from an open class car as someone with zero coefficient points. I don't know, you might of rallied a bit, but it sounds like you haven't. starting rally in an open class car, you are much more likely to roll the car before you are competitive. so why not start with a G2 car, beat the crap out of it for a few years until you get your magical 18 points, and then move up? sure you can usually fix a wadded up car, but would you rather be looking for an RX7 or golf shell to cut a donor roof off of, or a rare audi?

i might just end up eating my words though, as i am going to take a look at an open class car for sale tomorrow. I know its hard to let go of AWD when you drive an AWD car everyday, but RWD is pretty fun too.

Ezekiel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the quick response. Yea that is pretty
> much what I thought I would hear and is just what
> I needed. When we first started talking rally I
> was daily driving a fairly built 240 but now I am
> driving A audi 200 20vt which has filled my head
> with romantic ideas of sport quattros and
> unbelievable amounts of money. yea having to run a
> restrictor really is a buzz kill on 4wd

Yeah I may end up with all the Cossie 4wd gear in a street car.
>
> I would love to get Houston's car but really have
> no place for it until spring at the soonest..
> though it would be such a huge leg up it is almost
> worth it just to find somewhere to store it until
> then...
>

Send him money.
Store it anywhere.
Hell ask him if it can sit up there.
he needs money for Life, the Universe, and Everything---but he may have space.
We could figure out something in the Seattle area so we could weld in the rear towers and link boxes.

See wasn't that easy?
> Thanks
> -Ezekiel

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Also on the Audi, there are no diffs, the parts to replace are expensive, the engines are super cool, but expensive, and the suspension stuff is not out there, though as with anything JVAB will work with you to get something that works well under it.
It can be done, but there are way better choices out there.
You'd be better off with a restricted car to use the 10V engine. You can make plenty of power and they are way cheaper to build. About 1/3 of the cost to build a pissed 10V over a 20V.

---

Grant Hughes

I would love to rally an audi - but too much hassel and cash.

The volvo ran amazing in the last rally - so i amn switching it over to mega squirt and making custom strut mounts to adjust JVAB's amazing coilovers.

Still for sale, but I will try and rally it next year if noone buys it.

h.

If you're interested... I know of a 90q rally car with a 20v NA swap in Squamish... it may be for sale. Pretty much stock, but with a lot of attention to detail.

The owner is too busy coaching mountain biking to be rallying.

Contact me at dtompsett-at-hotmail.com if you want more details.

And yes... while I'd love to rally my Audi's... there is just no support for them. No fancy LSD's, no trick suspensions (without complete custom like JFAB stuff), front heavy, old technology. They're still a blast to beat on though. Very hard to break stuff.

See my av?

That's the last time that one was run, at Olympus in 06 (I think it was 06) and it broke on us on stage 4.

Todd still has it with competition dreams rolling around in his head.

I have dreams of it rolling around in my head too, but they are of the naughty variety, anyone want to sneak over to Lengacher's place and help me fulfill some audi fantasies.



Anyone want to buy a replica S1?

I'll go for a A3/S3 audi rally car any day.

---

Michael LeCompte

Until you have to touch any of the suspension components. We went through probably $2000 worth of aluminum arms during two years of hill climbs in the A4.

---

Grant Hughes

Big deal. You won Open Class.

---

Michael LeCompte

Oh yeah, and there are diffs available out there. I found a clutch type front diff for the 5000 transmission. It was only like $9000 or so. Used.

We regularly got beat by Todd Moberly in his STI due to the differentials. We had at least 100 more hp, but he had the grip.

---

Grant Hughes