2000 Audi TT Rally Cross experiment

I remember when this car was unveiled; sometime in the late 1990's one of the mucky-mucks from Audi announced that this new car was the type of car "James Dean" would have driven (much to the chagrin of the Porsche mucky-mucks, who historically owned those bragging rights). Well I have always been passively interested in this fascinating little car. This particular example, an all-wheel-drive, turbo 5-speed model presented itself to me recently for very cheap and I had to have it. I've never owned or driven an old Porsche 356 or 550 spyder (Dean's car), but when I'm hunkered down in the low slung, chopped roof cockpit of this little bomb-shell, I feel distantly connected to that piece of German sports-motoring heritage. This car in 180hp trim with a 5 speed and all wheel drive is responsive, grippy, slightly under powered, and spectacular in twisties. It is also highly modifiable and pretty simple to work on.

 My car had 199k miles on the odometer, but looked to have been well maintained, so I figured it was  at least a 50-50 chance of it not blowing up in my face...I replaced the timing belt, gave it a full tune-up, and completely rebuilt the cooling system.

 The paint on the center of the hood was oxidizing, so I added the red-accented matte black stripe.

 The rims were gouged pretty good so I repaired them and painted them graphite. I painted the graphite detail onto the rocker panel too

I terminated the stripe on the rear spoiler for a vintage-modern touch

The interior is gray leather, which I am a sucker for. It also has heated seats. The dash layout is simple and aesthetically quite attractive: only what you need, and nothing you don't. 

The car was already wearing new bilstein shocks, new brakes and newish Michelin tires when I bought it. I added Neuspeed 1.5" lowering springs and Megan Racing adjustable rear lower control arms to get  proper rear camber alignment.

To maximize performance on minimum money, I reconfigured the turbo controls via some creative plumbing, added an adjustable diverter valve, an adjustable manual boost-controller, and built this free-flowing cat-back exhaust system to expedite spool-up.

A boost gauge is a must when fiddling with overboosting an engine. I added this Bosch unit and it looks right at home

I decided to take it to the local off-road park at Prairie City, where the quattro all-wheel-drive system impressed me in the mud. Then I accidentally drove it over a small cliff and broke the lower nose and radiator....

So I had it towed home for lack of an in-tact engine cooling system

During dismantling and inspection I of course found the radiator ruptured, but also found the core support very broken.

Here is what it looks like when the front of an Audi TT is off

After repairing the core support and various other pieces, I replaced the radiator, reassembled and set about protecting the radiator from a repeat "incident"

I fabbed up this push bar, which bolts to the bumper beam and also to the add-on "panzer" skid plate underneath.

I added mud flaps, racing numbers, and a trio of Hella driving lights.

yes

To complement the white bar, I resprayed the wheels white. I also raised the front back up 1.5 inches

Driver: Eric Schulte

I returned to Prairie City to compete in the "prepared all-wheel-drive" class in the Nor-Cal rally cross series. The car did very well in it's first real foray and was on track to rank as the 3rd fastest car of the class (of 10 cars),

                                      
Unfortunately it broke in the middle of round 4. I was jamming the shifter like a mad-man, powering out of a complicated turn when the 19-year-old brittle plastic linkage end snapped and rendered the shifter completely limp and useless. So instead I came in 9th place of 10. And after the race I limped the car home 25 miles in second gear with the hazard lights flashing away! Two days and 30 bucks later, the TT was back up and running.