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It’s been a while since I looked at some C4s, and a few popped across my computer screen in searches that I thought were worth taking a peek at. As the E34 M5 and W124 500E/E500 creep up in value, if you search you can still find excellent examples of the odd-ball turbocharged inline-5 all-wheel drive wonder from Ingolstadt. While the 1993 model in the U.S. didn’t sit quite as low as the 1992 model, some chassis fans love them because of the carbon fiber interior trim and as ’92s are quite limited and hard to find, coming across a ’93 or ’94 is a touch easier. Which one of these two excellent examples would you prefer to take home?
For some time, if you wanted to go fast in a two-door Audi in the U.S., you had to make your own car from pieces of others. Even if you selected the much praised Quattro, you had a fairly heavy car to start with that was coupled to a rather measly 160 horsepower. Unless it’s snowing, a bone stock Ford Fiesta ST will pretty thoroughly stomp all over the legendary boxflared wonder in just about every situation. So people began modifying the turbocharged cars to produce more boost and bring them into line with their European counterparts. Of course, when it came to the replacement for the Quattro, those that waited longingly from 1985 until 1989 for the next turbocharged coupe were greatly disappointed. Sure, the new 90-based B3 Coupe Quattro had 20 valves under the hood – but no turbo came here. Europeans enjoyed several iterations of the turbocharged B3 and B4, including the Porsche tuned RS2, but in North America only the normally aspirated, slightly portly 2-door hatch came here. Again, it was no surprise that as soon as they were outside of warranty, people began to tinker; in this case, making their own S2s out of pieces from their bigger brother 200/S4s. Installing the 20V Turbo into the engine bay instantly transformed the Coupe Quattro from competent cruiser to sleeper assassin:
One of the best features of the German super-sedan is how much of a sleeper performance machine they are. In more recent years, that sleeper-status has decreased slightly in some marques, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s, you still needed to be an enthusiast to really tell the difference between some of the more potent models and their more pedestrian stablemates. Certainly that was true of the B5 Audi S4; yes, it had subtly refined front and rear bumpers and distinctive wheels, but aside from that the outside looked nearly the same as any other sport package A4. But the performance was certainly better than the typical A4, and the B5 2.7T V6-equipped S4 has proven itself to be a popular tuning platform. The ability to channel the power through all four wheels means that horsepower figures that would render other cars simply tire-shredding machines can be utilized by the S4. And some of those power figures are impressive; spec out a B5 S4 motor such as this and APR claims it’s capable of getting within a riding mower’s worth of 700 horsepower. Look at the outside and tell me you’d be expecting that at the lights when this stealthy sedan pulled up next to you:
Being a fan of older Audis – and owning one – I’ve followed with much excitement the development of a small California-based tuning firm called 034 Motorsports. 034 – a reference to the 5-cylinder Audi motor part numbers – has taken a niche community and turned it into a flowering business. Initially starting with turbo modifications to the older 5 cylinder cars, the folks that make up the brain trust at 034 created some legendary Audis – most notable, the 1,000 horsepower turbocharged 80 quattro. But the reality is that these now 25 year old cars make up a very small percentage of the tuning market, so 034 turned to the much more popular A4 and Volkswagen GTi crowds, creating two stunning cars in the process. Less spectacular but stunningly effective was the A4 Time Attack car which went through several different engine configurations; but much more notable and impressive is what 034 attempted next; mid-mounting a V6 turbo into a 2001 GTi. The results are nothing short of stunning:
