Project Avant N300

[Farhazaftab786g]

After a couple months of rest for the Avant it was time to bring it back out.
First job before MOT was replacing the steering coupling. I have done this before on the Coupe so was easier this time round.

MOT passed as expected and taxed ready to be enjoyed.
After months of sitting out exposed to the elements i decided to give it a clay bar and polish.
Looks like it really needed a clay bar. The paint is silky smooth now !


I was lucky to get hold of a RS2 intercooler through the Tradition group buy run by Colesy so this was fitted next. This was the last part needed to complete the full RS2 spec.
I have a set of Toyo Proxies Sport tyres ready to go on the current tyres are old and perished they no longer grip the way they should. I will be taking it for a dyno run soon hopefully make 360-380bhp.

[Tractor Dave]

Very nice.
If you get a NG coolant hose you can tidy things up there. Then fit a very short hose radiator top and blank after a few inches. Will look tidy. Tradition sell the hose

[newsh]

Very nice.
If you get a NG coolant hose you can tidy things up there. Then fit a very short hose radiator top and blank after a few inches. Will look tidy. Tradition sell the hose

I always envisioned refitting the Aux rad so left the hoses in place. GTMotorsport in Germany now do an aluminium one, I was looking at them yesterday, they also do a very nice oil cooler.

[newsh]

The car is looking great Faz

[Farhazaftab786g]

Very nice.
If you get a NG coolant hose you can tidy things up there. Then fit a very short hose radiator top and blank after a few inches. Will look tidy. Tradition sell the hose

I'll have a look, its something i need to do on the Coupe too as it also no longer has the aux rad

[Farhazaftab786g]

The car is looking great Faz

Thanks John !

[Freddix of Scotts]

Dear Members, I hope you won't mind me posting on this thread and slightly off topic, but perhaps interesting for some of you.

I worked at Scotts during the 1990s first as a car salesman, selling out of Sloane Square, and focused quite a lot on promoting and selling the Scotts Mototune upgrades that we offered. I didn't really enjoy car sales (was basically almost all commission, but I was quite good at what I did), so I told the Operations Director Mr Harald Peters who was german, and had started the Mototune side of Scotts, I wanted to leave , and they for some strange reason didn't want to lose me, so offered me a job as marketing manager and to specalise on the sale of the Scotts Mototune brand.

I cannot remember how many cars I did, in terms of full Nothelle conversions, but I recall doing 1 S2 Coupe, 1 S2 Avant (in Brilliant Yellow) another S2 Avant in Ming Blue, and an S6 Avant. These were cars specifically ordered by customers to their spec. The S2 Avant with N300 conversion was a nightmare as the customer also wanted to integrate into the bumper massive Subaru front spots with covers that blended into the bumper of all things (he lived in the countryside and wanted something that would light up the dark lanes...). The costs of the conversions were typically between £20,000 - 30,000 which made some of the cars I sold c. £60k+ (some of the clients wanted fancy recarro upgraded seats etc) quite a lot of money for an Audi back in the day, and when compared to the RS2, (we had 2 allocated to us, and I sold one to a young, I kid you not 17 year old, I think from memory they were c. £47k)

I also arranged at the time (because we thought it would be a good idea) to import a brand new Audi A4 1.8T Quattro Avant from Ireland. You couldn't in the rest of the UK order a quattro 1.8T Avant (probably because Audi thought it would compete with S2 sales). I then arrange with Nothelle for it to be converted, with a similar spec to the N300, but also got them to fabricate a full custom exhaust system (straight through no cat).

Part of my job, was to often take the cars over from the UK to Essen and then bring back what had been recently finished by Nothelle.

I used to get up at 4am and leave Sloane Square by 5am, drive down to Dover and pre the Channel Tunnel would take the ferry, and later the Shuttle drive straight Nothelle, have a cup of coffee, drop off the car to be worked on and pick up tuned car and be back in Sloane Square by 7pm the same day. It helped of course that across Germany, it was autobahn, and I can confess that the return part of the trip was always fun, as most Germans in the Porsche and big BMWs couldn't understand how these Audi's were basically keeping up with them and often outrunning them (if they had more basic non turbo Porsche for example).

You might be horrified to know that I have somewhere a photo, taken with a normal camera (no mobile phone back then), of the speedo of one of the S2's N300s at c. 170mph - I took the photo whilst on the autobahn steering with my knees whilst trying to get the camera focused and zoomed in on the speedo.

The 1.8T Quattro we did, when I drove it back to the UK, I couldn't understand when you put your foot down why it was so incredibly noisy - and I mean very very noisy, to the point that it was probably one of the slower trips I made back from Nothelle. When I got back to Scotts and we gave it to the mechanics, it turns out that the new manifold hadn't been properly tightened down. That 1.8T Quattro wasn't as good as an S2 N300 as the turbo lag was enormous, I cannot remember what increased blower they put on it, but when it kicked in it was a holly cr@p moment.

We used to run track days that I organised with customers who had modified cars or simply wanted to put their standard Audi's through the paces, mostly at Castle Combe. They were good days and customers in the main where lovely people

I've attached a few photos from an old Scotts brochure I've kept for the last 25 plus years, not that interesting for you I'm sure, but perhaps gives a bit more context. The Audi with the touring car rings on it was my company car for a while - it was only a 1.8T, and wasn't tuned, but did have uprated suspension and some Oettinger body parts (they were another firm we used but mainly for styling tweaks) and some different wheels. I lived in London, and I have to say the car always got a lot of attention, if occasionally a bit negative from some drivers who spend their time trying to cut me up. All quite fun for a young 20s something year old!

[Tractor Dave]

Fantastic write up and all very interesting to me, another Nothelle owner. Maybe you remember my car? Emerald green, sold in 94.
Anyway, I've just been back to visit Nothelle in Germany with it. The business is still thriving with Marcus Nothelle, his wife and son running the business. Mr Nothelle (senior) is now in his 80's but still pops in now and again .


https://www.s2forum.com/forum/welcom...lle-n300-owner

[Freddix of Scotts]

[QUOTE=Tractor Dave;n2136364]Fantastic write up and all very interesting to me, another Nothelle owner. Maybe you remember my car? Emerald green, sold in 94.
Anyway, I've just been back to visit Nothelle in Germany with it. The business is still thriving with Marcus Nothelle, his wife and son running the business. Mr Nothelle (senior) is now in his 80's but still pops in now and again .



Thanks Dave, I do remember an Emerald Green car, lovely colour. Audi made some fairly eye popping colours back then, I had a Coupe (not S2) for a while as my demo (the cars I drove where of course demonstrators and you had to hope that nobody wanted to buy them, if you liked what you were given), but the Coupe was in Kingfisher Blue, a really striking colour, and again with a lowered sports suspension and some Nothelle wheels, it was very pretty if a bit "look at me" whereas Emerald Green was a bit more subtle.

We had an S2 N300 in a purplish colour (cannot remember the proper paint name) and I do recall taking a possible buyer of it or an order for a new one up Sloane Street (that's the road that runs North up towards Harrods). because I was young and of course pretty stupid, I did manage to hit 100mph showing him what it could do - I would like to point out that the traffic lights where green!

I think I was lucky really as I joined Scotts in the early 1990s which was an exciting time, given that VAG was transitioning from runners up to BMW and Merc, and then launched the Audi A4 and the TT, etc and suddenly became the 3rd spoke in the "what marque do I want and who do I want to be?" I sat on the national panel for advertising for VAG UK for a while, and really enjoyed the Ad, which we unanimously agreed was good, that poked fun at the typical BMW driver, whereas driving an Audi meant you were a bit more "discerning :-) and less of a wide boy"

I think the German tuning companies and companies like Scotts (and of course their customers who could afford to have something special) drove Audi to develop proper performance cars again. The original UR quattro was so innovative and Audi just needed to up their game on the styling front which they did big time with the A4 and TT, which took the game to BMW and Merc.

I had the "pleasure" of briefly driving a short wheel base original Quattro at Castle Combe which we had taken in as a special purchase - I think we wanted £80,000 for it back then (hate to think what it would be today), which was simply terrifying to drive, it wasn't designed as a track car, it was a rally car. It was hot (in terms of temp sitting inside it) and I think I span it twice coming down to the Combe Tower Corner - just because its a quattro doesn't mean if you have a poor driver behind the wheel they will do the impossible....

Audi upping their game to produce cars like the RS2 and further incantations of serious performance cars I think took the wind out of our sails in terms of tuning. There wasn't much left to do when Audi started making "R" cars, although I know that people like MTM etc just went on modding the ECUs etc.

When the RS2 was launched I went to Milbrook with a customer who had "expressed an interest - I think he was a chancer..." but spent the day with Derek Bell demonstrating around the Alpine Circuit what an RS2 could do - it was all I could do not to throw up (i was in the back seat) over Mr Bell and my customer, and it made you realise what an achievement the RS2 was.

The thing about Nothelle was they properly breathed on the cars back in the day, and I credit anybody who made the decision to buy one, and I hope you all enjoy what you currently have and treasure it.

[simons2]

Thank you for your memories and for the wonderful insight into fast Audis in the 90s , very much appreciated

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading your thoughts recollections and stories about Sloan Square and the performance Nothells that passed through your hands. I'm trying to put myself in your shoes as i'm possibly a couple years older than you, what an experience it must have felt to be a part of, they were the best of days in many ways, the B4 80's and C4 A6's were probably Audi's best built Audi's ever. I own a couple and are they are so reliable, I remember vividly seeing a C4 S6 estate on the road for the first time around 1996 and thinking what a beautiful car. Lucky boy experiencing those days in the way you did.

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

A good clean always has it looking good

Loving your thread and the care given to this car, it looks stunning!

[newsh]

Loving your thread and the care given to this car, it looks stunning!

Beautiful car, do I regret selling her? Maybe.. but Faz is looking after her really well so it's all good.

[Ian Simmonds]

Beautiful car, do I regret selling her? Maybe.. but Faz is looking after her really well so it's all good.

Ah, I’ve just put 2 & 2 together John. Klaus’ old car?

[newsh]

Ah, I've just put 2 & 2 together John. Klaus' old car?

Indeed!