North East Audi / VW Show and Dyno
KTR Performance in Ayer, MA was host to this year’s North East Audi and VW GTG and dyno day. Turnout was phenomenal given the weather, which ranged from light but steady rain to torrential downpours. There seemed to be equal representation from both the Audi and VW side of the fence with everyone in the same mindset (which was initially to ignore the weather and eventually to enjoy the camaraderie that exists at shows like these).
To give an idea as to how wet it was, there were actually people pulling their cars under tents so that new modifications could be added sans rainfall. The official AudiWorld tent was used throught the day for various mods, as well as fuel-ups prior to dyno runs.
Because of the weather the event quickly became less of a “show and shine” and more of a serious social event. Attendees were more inclined to stand under tents and in the spacious KTR facility to soak in the sights and sounds than they were to try to keep their cars clean. It doesn’t hurt that automotive eye candy literally abounds at KTR – lots of fantastic, older, street legal (and race track-only) cars are scattered throughout the facility.
An attmept was made to measure the width of the tires on the BB512 in the above photo, but no suitible measuring device was willing to participate
As in other years, there were numerous vendors on site as well. Jeff Moss (Torque Factory) was on site providing GIAC ECU flashing, Tom (AWE) was present to talk about the company’s products, NorthAmerican Motorsports was there with their Jetta (and some products) and the Dingman was there to pull dents.
since the event was also a dyno day, there was a steady stream of cars in and out of the shop’s dyno room. Likewise, there was a steady crowd of folks standing by the windows to witness the runs. The biggest run of the day was Dave Pramanik’s 2001 S4 which belted out 374.0 HP on the Dyno Dynamics machine.
We also found out what happens when you only have 3 gallons of your coveted 104 octane racing fuel in the tank, and then try to make a bunch of pulls on the dyno! Dave and Mark were both using the same race gas. It was interesting how they transferred the fuel OUT of their cars before running the race gas. Using a section of hose, they removed the return line from the rail and put the hose into a can in order to drain the 93 from the tank. All the while they would be cycling through a variety of output tests on the VAG COM to run the fuel pump.
After Mark’s run the same procedure was used to transfer the leftover racing fuel into Dave’s car.
As previously mentioned, the spots by the windows were popular for viewing the dyno runs. Even though there is glass between you and the vehicle, the noise of the car on the dyno was loud. For anyone who has never seen a car run on a dyno, it’s failry intense watching the car climb up onto the rollers and scream to redline.
No event like this is complete without a little comic relief, and we had ours in the form of a VERY low MK3 VW Jetta which grounded itself out on the dyno in 3 locations. It was so low in fact, that it never made it all the way onto the dyno. They actually had to take parts OFF of the dyno to get the car safely backed off. It was a bummer too, because this car had a VR6 engine and it would have been nice to hear it run!
All in all, the GTG was a huge sucess, and all attendees appeared to have a fantastic time. The United We Stand for Jason crew also had a very sucessful raffle to raise money for Huntington’s Disease research.