Chip Mautz

I was at an event this fall at Road Atlanta, in N. Georgia (USA), and ran into an interesting car in the paddock area - an Audi A3. Looked like a VW Golf/GTI, on steroids. ;-)<p>It was a hatchback, fender flares, apparently built on the Golf/Bug chassis, w/ a 2.0l inline 4 (I believe that's what he told us it had - maybe the 1.8l). It was normally aspirated, as they don't allow turbo engines in SCCA IT racing.<p>The guy was out of Florida, and it was one of only a few A3's in the country - maybe the only one. Apparently, his company developed the air bag for it for Europe.<p>After R&D and testing, Audi didn't want the car back. So, as it couldn't be legally registered in the US, he made it 'disappear', by making it into a dedicated road racing car.<p>That's right - Audi gave it to him. Lucky dog. It looked way cool!<p>Never got to see it compete, though, as he drove it down to the grid from the paddock, and at race time, it wouldn't start! <p>Are there any other A3's in the country that anybody knows of?<p>Chip<br>

JohnS

I doubt Audi just 'gave' the car to him. Speaking with a friend of mine who is in charge of US prototype testing for VW and Audi one day, he explained to me the process they go through with the test cars. <br>After they are through testing, the car MUST be destroyed. They don't ship them to germany, they don't give them away. Since they are prototypes, the cars are illegal in every country, and do not pass any regulations anywhere. I commented to him after driving a TT that he had, that I'd swap him wheels off my A4 and put the TT wheels on my car when they destroy the TT, and he said that he would, but legally they can't do that. When the car is crushed, US Customs Agents come out to watch the cars get crushed and verify that all the parts are there. If people don't follow the laws on this they go to jail. The US Customs department has records of every test vehicle that comes into the country. It's not like they can make the car just 'disappear' by giving it away. I have a hard time believing that guys story.<p>BTW, right now he's doing testing on a fleet of 2.7 biturbo A6s. Sweet cars!<p>JohnS<br>

joemamma

yeah there is one up here in Washington, and boy is it fun to drive. It's owned by an employee of H&R it's got plates and everything. I'm not sure what paper work was filled out but I think most of it was luck.

Cameron

nt<br>

Todd

I know in talking to the people at VW Sport (great guys BTW) that they make some sort of arrangment to import a car for up to a year legally for the purposes of testing aftermarket parts. I know they have had a Golf IV 1.8t from Germany. I think they traded a new Beetle to Projektzwo in Germany for developement, since they haven't had that car over there yet. I imagine there is a similar arrangment that H&R has with the Audi A3. These are not prototype cars, they are simply unapproved foreign cars.<p>If there is anyone from VW Sport reading this, please correct me if I am wrong about this.

Oscar

Well, after having a conversation with a friend of mine that works for a reputable magazine, he told me H&R has an A3 with many mods and he mentioned that little sucker flies!! It is a 1.8T and it makes something like 220 hp!!<p>Oscar