The Project Pad

I've always wanted a sport quattro, but like most people I could never affort to buy one.

Then one night over drinking some beer, 2 of my good friends Martin Pajak and Mike Hopton decided that they were going to build a couple of Sport quattro replica's. At first my knee jerk reaction was that no way I was going to undertake such a task of my own. I had just finished a complete restoration from the ground up on my 84 urq,and was in no mood to go through that again.

Long story short , Martin and Mike aquired a full sport body kit from Poland. The panels looked great. Still being the stubborn Scot that I am, I was positive that I wasn't going down this path.......

As time went on I started thinking about it. I still had my trusty 4000 quattro with turbo conversion just sitting there doing nothing, staring at me everyday feeling neglected. I'd driven the 4000 for nearly 10 years and had many,many great memories in that car. Unfortunately the Canadian winter has taken it toll on the car.

One day I grabbed the angle grinder and cut the trunk off. I still don't really remember that part, it's as if something or someone was driving the bus that day and it wasn't me!!
So there I was grinder in hand, looking at this poor mutilated car. My trusty old 4000 was dead, or was it It kind of reminded me of a murderer staring at the knife after killing the victim in disbelief........

That's how my quest started in a attempt to build my own version of a Sport quattro.

The car is not going to be a true replica, but my vision of things that I would like to see on the car.

Build spec is as follows:

I want the car to look like a Road car from the outside.
The car will have a roll cage for safety reasons.
The body shell will get all the attention. I like metalwork and learning new things. I want the
underside to be as perfect as the topside.
Interior is most likely going to be something like Porsche GT3 spec.
Engine most likely 2.2 AAN, but that could change.
Transmisson O1e.
Suspension most likely custom, aluminum struts etc.
Brakes........ big.
Colour......most likely white, but that could change.
Engine bay.......carbon fibre everywhere

So there you have it.

I'll start adding pictures and give as much detail as possible for anyone else thinking of taking
on such a build.

Cheers,

Craig Cook.

Tartan Motorsport

The day I got my first quattro. IMO there's something special about type 85's

5 bolt converstion being done on the old girl.

Time for more power. Turbo Transplant.

MC with a chipped computer and 3" exhaust .

It really transformed the car. Other than the gearing being too short, this car was a blast
to drive.

The sport build begins.

Trunk cut off. Here I'm gettng my game plan together.

Why use a 4000 quattro 4 door as a build foundation for a coupe 2 door build ?

A few reasons:

I don't have a urq to cut up, and would feel bad cutting one up in the first place.
North America didn't get type 85 coupe quatto's.

By using the 4000 as a donor I already have the correct windshield angle that the sport quattro uses.
This way I won't have any weld joins at the bottom of the windshield pillar. If I had have been using
a coupe body I would have had to cut the whole roof off.

I decided to use the complete 4000 quattro floor pan minus the 320mm of course.
Going this route presents a few problems. For one it has 4 doors. Also I need to source a coupe rear end.
IMO the best way to build a sport quattro is to use a 4000 quattro front mated to a urq rear end.
Like I said I didn't have a urq to cut up, so a coupe gt rear body sheet metal would have to be sourced.

The next piece of the puzzle would be sourcing a 2 door 4000, Not a easy task in North America.
This would turn out to be alot harder than I first thought.

So basically I needed parts from 3 cars to make 1 sport quattro.

Allright Craig, Keep telling the story. I look forward to seeing how this plan came together and get up to date on the project. I figure anytime someone has to hack up three different vehicles to make one, that the project has to be considered HARDCORE. I like it.

Now we have a 2 door

I don't think I realized how insane you actually are...

Heck yeah Craig! Love this thing. We are only missing MIkes now. He seems pretty attached to MG!

Hank

Hank wrote:Heck yeah Craig! Love this thing. We are only missing MIkes now. He seems pretty attached to MG!

Hank

Hank, MIke should be on here very shortly. We just spoke about it over lunch and a beer.

We just got back from the sheet metal guy that's building Mikes car.

It's simply stunning.

Hopefully Mike will post some pics on here this weekend.

Cheers,

Craig.

In these pictures I'm still stripping away the sheet metal that's not needed.

The plan here is to get the car ready for adding the rear coupe gt back end.

I built a frame to keep the car braced and square. This is a very important step to
complete. The frame is also what I used to mark all my reference points for shortening and make sure
nothing have moved out of alignment after the shortening process.

I also installed a coupe door as a reference for the location of the b pillar. It's clear to see the difference
in the windshield angles between the 4000 and the coupe with the door installed.

Enjoy the pics.

Craig Cook.

Now that I've done all I can do to the 4000, it was time to hunt down a coupe gt back end.

Time to turn this 4 door into a coupe

For once luck was on my side. One of my good friends John (1wheelpeel) who is in the process of restoring
his own urq was breaking a coupe gt.

So one Saturday morning I went up to his house to liberate said parts.

Cheers,

Craig Cook.

Next step is to get this coupe back end on to the 4000 floor pan so as I can get my game plan together.

First of I had to prep the coupe sheet metal in order the have a trial fit on the car.

Once I had the coupe back end sitting on I could figure out the b pillar location.

Martin took a video of the two pieces being offered up for the first time

http://youtu.be/b29B-yvFUfE

Cheers,

Craig Cook.

Now that the car had been converted to a coupe it was time to start the shortening process.

I carefully markout out on my jig the dimensions to be cut and then cut out a piece of the floor.

Cheers,

Craig Cook.

Who is going to finish first Craig?

Now the fun car really begin. The day has arrived to shorten the car.

In these pictures the car has been shortened,but still has about 20mm to go.

Martin came over to help out with the fun part.

Again we took a few videos of the process. A little elbow grease and the car came together !!

http://youtu.be/w7XwL7B1HbM

http://youtu.be/dsm2iS200KM


We have a shorty.............

Cheers,

Craig Cook.

Hank wrote:Who is going to finish first Craig?

That's a tough question Hank.

Mike is pretty much in the lead now from a body work standpoint.

Martin is way ahead with part acquisition , but behind in body work.

I'm kind of in the middle with a broken ankle at the moment but stuggling on.

The neat thing about these builds is that although they will all look like sport quattro's from the outside,
the build details are going to be miles apart.

So I'm not really sure who will finish first.

Cheers,

Craig

Now on to the hard part.

Where the hell am I going get a 2 door in North America

I guess the Audi god's must have been approving my build. One of the audi group members
had a 2 door he was willing to break for me

I NOW HAVE ALL THE PARTS FROM 3 CARS TO BUILD MY OWN SPORT QUATTRO

Jim (glibobbo21) had just what I needed. Although it was over a 20 hour round trip, I couldn't get there fast enough.

So after driving for over 10 hours we arrived at Jim's place.

Here's Jim looking quite scary cutting the car up!!

Now that the car has been shortened, it's time to get some strengh back in to this unibody.

First, I sat the roof on to verify fit.

As hoped, it looks great


Cheers,

Craig Cook.

Now it was time to get that b pillar welded in.

I installed the b pillar in 1 complete piece. Most people cut the b pilllar in half.
This way is a stronger way to do it.

So for the first time I have the correct b pillar and door on the car. It's starting to look like
a car again.

Cheers,

Craig Cook

More unibody work on the car.

My goal is to make the car stronger than even the factory sport quattro road car was. Even
before I install the roll cage. A strong platform to build from is a must.

I bent up my outer rockers in a heavier gauge metal than the factory used.

I also installed a complete mid inner rocker in a heavier gauge metal. This part alone has increased the unibody
strength significantly.

Cheers,

Craig Cook.

A few more on the rocker detail.

By installing the mid inner rocker piece, I was able to seam weld the a and b pillars together.
This increased the strength significantly. Something the factory never did.

yes!

These dimple dies look familiar, I hope we don't wear them out before Martin needs them

Thanks for the loan