thecarman

I just joined this forum because I just bought my brother's stock 91 Coupe Quattro 20V 5-spd. I've been doing local RallyX for the past year in an 89 Subaru GL-10 turbo 4WD wagon (the old boxy kind, not a newer Legacy or Impreza/WRX). Now I'm stepping up to the Audi and am looking for advice...

I plan to start out slow, and build this as we go along, staying on a budget. Our next RallyX is May 30, and is a pretty smooth dirt track. No holes, jumps, or big ruts. (Although we have 2 heavily rutted courses this fall)

Are there areas on the CQ that I need to address before this first RallyX? (cage is not required, and stock belts are fine)

- Change the oil/filter (of course)
- Anything begging for immediate protection? I have sheet aluminum to do skids, but not planned before the 30th.
- Advice for when I *do* do the skids?
- It has the stock Speedline wheels. Will these hold up OK?
- Do I need to modify the rear locker wiring so it will stay locked?
- Any driving advice specific to CQs?
- The existing suspension and brakes are sound (safe), and the battery is tied down.
- Anything else?

Once we really dig into this (after the 30th), the car will go on a diet, just keeping the stuff needed to stay street legal so I can drive it on the road every once in a while. What are good weight-saving ideas, and what are things I should *not* mess with?

What are budget-conscious suspension mods I should look into for later on?

Is it feasible to run this car in AutoX as well, just for fun?

My brother had owned this CQ since 2000 at 94k miles, and it now has over 200k on it (of course the odometer stopped working a long time ago). I've changed the oil for him over the years, and did plugs/wires/cap/rotor and O2 sensor once, so I have worked on the car, but don't really "know" it yet. It was his daily driver until he bought a new Volvo C30 a month ago.

In case you are wondering...

Our local RallyX doesn't have any class distinction on car mods, other than tires. AWD is one class, and there are two 2WD classes based on engine size. Race tires put you in one bracket within your class, and DOT tires in another.

Our courses are short, about 45 to 70 seconds lap times, depending on venue. I *think* I'm an OK driver - I finished 2nd overall and 1st in class in our Subaru at one race last year, and this was with a hurt engine, against modded Imprezas and WRXs, plus some good FWD cars. I am very mechanically compitent, and can weld too.

Our Subaru seems cool because it's got a turbo, but it really only had around 110-120hp, and it was very peaky when the boost would hit, so I'm looking forward to the 20-valve's greater torque and smoother power. The Audi is heavier though. Our Subaru had been on a diet, with all interior removed other than front race seats and dash. It started out at 2800 pounds, so I'd imagine it was around 2500. The light-weight plus tight limited-slip rear are the only reasons it was at all competitive with the other AWD cars - the suspension sucked, and we never got around to upgrading because we kept addressing other problems (mainly engine), and then the Audi became available, so...

duncanm

Doug and others will probably be able to give you the best advice on this. If I were you I would consider getting some proper strut mounts (search for VAP) to help give the suspension some more support.

If you want the center diff to stay locked you will need to cut the blue (I think?) wire, otherwise it will automatically unlock after 15mph.

You may find that the Audi drives similar to the Suby on the track. Though it doesn't have boost, the 20v is pretty dead under 4k RPM, and really comes alive afterward.

squidix9

The biggest thing will be to stiffen the suspension. In stock form it's way too soft. However once you lighten it, that will improve. With some effort you should be able to pare off close to 500 lbs which will make a huge difference. Since you're looking at a smooth course to start you should be bale to skip the skid plate for now. I'll take pictures of mine to give you something to look at if you want to copy it.

As mentioned above a good going through of the suspension will be in order. Especially with the number of miles on it. Ball joints, mounting rubber and struts and bearings too. Some stickier pads will come in nice once you get towards the finish line and the stockish pads start to fade away.

Make sure you change your gear oil, front and back., That transmission tends to like to lose the syncros on 2nd then 3rd. I use NEO exclusively. I'd recommend 75/90HD.

Also get rid of the rubber exhaust hangers and fix it up tight with some good metal fasteners. With the flexing and bouncing it'll tend to drop on you if not.

I don't know how they run your but for ours you run 3 or 4 runs then they switch workers and run groups. Being that you run all out for a minute to 2 minutes then sit for awhile, the motor tends to run awfully hot. I'd find a way to duct the heater core to the outside and run with the heater on high. also rig the rad fan to manually turn on and off and run it as much as you can.

I'm sure I will think of some other important things along the way.

thecarman

Thanks for the info!

Squid - pics of your skidplates would be great.

What about swaybars - keep them on for this race, or unhook? We don't get any practice laps to test-and-tune, and our times are cumulative (so you want them all to be good), so I'd like to make the best decisions about sways before the race. (We do have opportunity for some fun laps after the race, and I could try different combos then)

What is generally best? Unhook the front bar? Unhook both bars?

dtompsett

Search around on motorgeek... I've posted pics and info about my skidplate setup there. May also be some stuff in my pic poster.

thecarman

Found the skid pics on motorgeek. Thanks!

Do I need to disable the airbag for RallyX? I never thought about it before, because my other cars didn't have a bag, but this 91 has the driver side bag in steering wheel.

If there's a chance I'll set it off hitting a berm or something, is it easy to disable?

dtompsett

Never had to disable one, since none of my cars have them.

If you're worried about it though, then do it.

thecarman

What's the quickest/easiest way to disable the airbag? Don't need to remove it at this point, just make it so that it doesn't inopportunely get set off during the race.

dtompsett

since i've never done it, I don't know where to start.

Removing fuses, removing relays, disconnecting sensors, disconnecting airbags, removing airbags.

thecarman

Did some maintenance to the car tonite, and pulled the covers off the front strut tops. I have 6-7 pennies (measurement method I saw posted by VAP) between the cupped washer flange and the upper surface of the strut tower.

So the mounts are toast.

Since my upcoming RallyX is 30-May, and is "pretty smooth", can I run with these mounts? What could happen? We'll be trailering the car to and from the event.

I guess I could try to get a rush shipment of 034 mounts sent to me. I'd rather investigate VAP's stuff (pro-mounts and mount savers?) - too bad the website is down, so I don't really know what I have to choose from, and what it costs. I have emailed Mance at what I *think* is the right address (salinas212@aol.com?), so hopefully I'll hear back soon, and find out how quickly I could get those parts.

What we got done tonite:
- Oil change with Mahle filter (instead of generic crap that was on there) and 20W50
- Trans fluid change to MT90, and lots of nice clean synthetic oil in my hair, and on the ground.
- Bare spot found in O2 sensor wire where was contacting exhaust. Taped up and out of the way.
- Heard exhaust leak, found rear muffler broken away from inlet pipe, so took it off. Pipe laying on top of rear diff/CV, needs to be mounted up better. This may have been the source of the clunk I was hearing/feeling when changing gears.

Still to do before 30-May RallyX:
- Rear diff fluid
- Front strut mounts, maybe?
- Disable airbag if I have time to look into how
- More solid exhaust mounting as Squid suggested
- pull door panels and figure out what to do with the windows, my bro says when you roll them down they won't go back up. I need them down for the RallyX, but need to be able to get them back up afterwards (fine if I have to do this manually until I eventually go to lexan).
- Get the freakin sunroof closed and cut power to it so it will stay there. It has a mind of its own.