I thought it was about time I justified all my posts in the wanted section with some information on this car.
Back in February 2006 I purchased this car from eBay for £700, completely unseen and 400 miles away. The sole purpose was to buy a cheap car for a European roadtrip with 3 of my friends. I intended to buy a 2.0 but when I found out the insurance would be the same for a 2.8q, that was it, I had to have one. I knew nothing of Audi 80s at the time other than they were cheap and well built and would be well suited to our planned trip.
This is how it looked when I first got it
I quickly became quite taken by the car, at the time it felt ridiculously fast especially when compared to my friend's cars and what I had previously driven.
After a cambelt change, new wishbone bushes and a 60k service it was off to Europe.
Here I am driving back in my long hair days!
VMax on a quiet stretch of Autobahn
On a campsite in Prague
2 weeks, 12 countries and 3000 miles. No problem.
First MOT brought up a few problems, 13 failures and 4 advisories. As predicted, this was gong to become an expensive car to own.
Every rear suspension bush replaced as well as all the brake hoses
I also took the opportunity to fit all the optional extras I had amassed over the previous year or so, I put a lot of information on Audifans at the time but to summarise I fitted the following:
On board computer
Ambient temperature gauge
Autocheck
Headlamp washers
Cruise control
Heated seats
Rear electric windows
Converted my manual sunroof to electric
Auto dimming rear view mirror (from a 99 A3)
S2 aux gauges
Drivers side reading light (from a C4 A6)
Comfort indicators
pollen filter
S2 clocks adapted to read correctly on a V6
S2 front bumper
3 spoke steering wheel
Elipsoid headlights
It was all wired in as near as possible to the original Audi wiring, in most cases I had to make my own looms as no one was prepared to sell me them from breakers. To give an idea of the work involved this is what I had to do to fit it all
This was the result
Then it was time for another roadtrip, 3 weeks, 12 countries and 3500 miles.
A memorable moment on an unexciting stretch of Belgian motorway on a wet morning.
Me once again, this time on a ferry out of Estonia
Bottle bank footwell!
Then I sold it to a friend of mine, I would have kept it but I wanted something faster and didn't have enough space to keep this.
I still had the pleasure of maintaining the car and we went on another roadtrip round Ireland in it
Yet another campsite
On a road through a peat bog
Then in October 2009 it was stolen and used as a getaway car in a robbery. The Police recovered the car 5 days after it was stolen, I had thought I would never see it again so I was very pleased. As someone died in the robbery and the car held the evidence which led to all the arrests, it was kept for a long time. By this stage my friend was working overseas and I was responsible for the car. I got to go and see it once forensics had finished with it.
It was many months until I was able to get the car released, it had to be kept until after the trial was over. I finally got it back a couple of months ago looking like this.
There was no major damage beside the locks but lots of small dents and scratches it didn't have before.
It had some existing problems so I carried out a top end rebuild a couple of weeks ago. Again I covered the progress on Audifans but here are the highlights.
I've also changed the interior to a leather one from an S2 avant, it turns out there are quite a few different parts needed to fit door cards with a trim strip to a car which didn't previously have them
I've still got the rear seat to sort out as the Avant one doesn't fit.
As of today this is how the car looks
The driver's door is a bit of a state but I've just done a temporary repair to cover the bare metal where they had tried to lever the lock plate off.
If you've read this far, thank you for taking the time and having the interest to read about my car. It has quite a history in the time I've know it and my friend and I have both agreed one of us must always own it as it means too much to ever sell.
Back in February 2006 I purchased this car from eBay for £700, completely unseen and 400 miles away. The sole purpose was to buy a cheap car for a European roadtrip with 3 of my friends. I intended to buy a 2.0 but when I found out the insurance would be the same for a 2.8q, that was it, I had to have one. I knew nothing of Audi 80s at the time other than they were cheap and well built and would be well suited to our planned trip.
This is how it looked when I first got it
I quickly became quite taken by the car, at the time it felt ridiculously fast especially when compared to my friend's cars and what I had previously driven.
After a cambelt change, new wishbone bushes and a 60k service it was off to Europe.
Here I am driving back in my long hair days!
VMax on a quiet stretch of Autobahn
On a campsite in Prague
2 weeks, 12 countries and 3000 miles. No problem.
First MOT brought up a few problems, 13 failures and 4 advisories. As predicted, this was gong to become an expensive car to own.
Every rear suspension bush replaced as well as all the brake hoses
I also took the opportunity to fit all the optional extras I had amassed over the previous year or so, I put a lot of information on Audifans at the time but to summarise I fitted the following:
On board computer
Ambient temperature gauge
Autocheck
Headlamp washers
Cruise control
Heated seats
Rear electric windows
Converted my manual sunroof to electric
Auto dimming rear view mirror (from a 99 A3)
S2 aux gauges
Drivers side reading light (from a C4 A6)
Comfort indicators
pollen filter
S2 clocks adapted to read correctly on a V6
S2 front bumper
3 spoke steering wheel
Elipsoid headlights
It was all wired in as near as possible to the original Audi wiring, in most cases I had to make my own looms as no one was prepared to sell me them from breakers. To give an idea of the work involved this is what I had to do to fit it all
This was the result
Then it was time for another roadtrip, 3 weeks, 12 countries and 3500 miles.
A memorable moment on an unexciting stretch of Belgian motorway on a wet morning.
Me once again, this time on a ferry out of Estonia
Bottle bank footwell!
Then I sold it to a friend of mine, I would have kept it but I wanted something faster and didn't have enough space to keep this.
I still had the pleasure of maintaining the car and we went on another roadtrip round Ireland in it
Yet another campsite
On a road through a peat bog
Then in October 2009 it was stolen and used as a getaway car in a robbery. The Police recovered the car 5 days after it was stolen, I had thought I would never see it again so I was very pleased. As someone died in the robbery and the car held the evidence which led to all the arrests, it was kept for a long time. By this stage my friend was working overseas and I was responsible for the car. I got to go and see it once forensics had finished with it.
It was many months until I was able to get the car released, it had to be kept until after the trial was over. I finally got it back a couple of months ago looking like this.
There was no major damage beside the locks but lots of small dents and scratches it didn't have before.
It had some existing problems so I carried out a top end rebuild a couple of weeks ago. Again I covered the progress on Audifans but here are the highlights.
I've also changed the interior to a leather one from an S2 avant, it turns out there are quite a few different parts needed to fit door cards with a trim strip to a car which didn't previously have them
I've still got the rear seat to sort out as the Avant one doesn't fit.
As of today this is how the car looks
The driver's door is a bit of a state but I've just done a temporary repair to cover the bare metal where they had tried to lever the lock plate off.
If you've read this far, thank you for taking the time and having the interest to read about my car. It has quite a history in the time I've know it and my friend and I have both agreed one of us must always own it as it means too much to ever sell.
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