Oh no, it's only gone and happened again, the innocent sharing of an ebay listing has resulted in another car joining Malc's collection, this time it's an Audi Quattro in need of a complete rebuild. We have barely started on the Astra yet although Russ has done some bits and we have had it running. None of us had seen the Quattro in the flesh although Malc had been chatting with the seller, Mark, for some time. A deal had been done that involved purchasing a rolling chassis with fully restored and repainted body, numerous boxes of parts and a later 20v engine with ecu and all the other bits needed to make it turn petrol in to noise and motion.
First phase of this cunning plan was to collect the car from near Oxford, a journey of about 3 hours each way, for which we used the van and 4 wheel trailer, all the loose bits went in the van so there was no way we could get done for an insecure load, which seems to be a favourite revenue generator for some police forces these days.
It was an uneventful journey down there, Russ drove, 3 hours later we arrived, for a few minutes we stood and marvelled at the pile of bits and then found ourselves wondering where the engine, diffs, rear glass and all the other missing bits might be. It turned out that the deal was Mark would supply a complete car and would be coming up to Lincolnshire with the missing engine and diffs soon. He's quite well known in the Quattro world and has a good reputation so that's fine. It only took us about half an hour to load up and get back on our way. For some strange reason Russ had thrown the van keys at me, I thought at first it was just because he couldn't find anything heavier but no, it was because he had unilaterally decided that I should drive us home.
The drive home was almost as uneventful as the drive there except for when I stalled the bloody thing half way round a roundabout. I have thought up a few excuses as to why that happened, needless to say it wasn't my fault. Money has changed hands, it will never be mentioned again.
This is going to be by far our biggest challenge yet - it's a very complicated car, we did not take it apart so we have no idea how it goes together. Fortunately there is a very good global enthusiast community that have a wealth of knowledge, experience and wisdom. One very kind chap in New Zealand has given us access to his google drive that contains thousands of pages of technical information that should be a massive help. There are many people on various facebook groups that have done all this already and seem keen to share their incredibly valuable knowledge. When done the car will be worth a significant sum of money, how long it will take us to get there is anybody's guess, it won't be this year, especially since we have other projects to deal with first. The Astra will take several months, we have an RS2000 on the lift now that refuses to start, the BTCC car has an oil leak to deal with, the Renault 5 Turbo2 group b Rally car smells badly of petrol, all of them need to be sorted before the rally / show season starts in March / April. I think Malc wants the 6R4 put through an MOT so that can be used out and about this year as well, it's ready but needs to be done, I have kindly volunteered to drive it there, I'm good like that. I reminded him that I am insured for it but his response when I suggested it wasn't overly enthusiastic. I wonder what Russ told him about my driving and whether he mentioned stallgate? hmmmm.
Anyway, here's a picture of the Audi when we went and got it.
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