Slideshow: Norway's Hanssen Motorsport Built One Heck of a Ur-Quattro
This Swede has built his own 487hp 407 lb-ft, Audi Quattro.
Audi Quattro
Whenever I hear or read about an Audi Quattro my mind automatically conjures up images of the WRC monster Quattros in the 80's catching air, and flinging snow and dust around the curves.
Apparently, these cars also caught the attention of Swede Börje Hanssen. He is the owner of the car we are about to show you and has been involved in competitive racing and rallying for over forty years, so he had a little prior experience, to say the least. Like many Swedes, he’s always been a fan of the Ur-Quattro (first gen Audi Quattro) but really fell in love with the chassis when he saw them competing in the Swedish Rally series, and instantly began dreaming of building one for on-road duties.
Ur-Quattro
Like I said, Hanssen fell in love with the chassis when he saw them competing in the Swedish Rally series. He was competing in one of the Nürburgring’s famous four-hour VLN endurance races and knew then and there that he had to build a Quattro to one day race in the series. He fell in love with the track, as most drivers do, and made a promise to himself that he would come back with a car of his own design to take on the Nordschleife.
Walk Before You Run
When Börje decided to start down his own path to build the ultimate Ur-Quattro the first thing he did wasn’t run out to his garage and start turning wrenches. Instead, he actually decided to hit the books as he studied as much as he could about suspension geometry. In order to make the car handle better, he’d need to brush up on his understanding of the science behind physical grip. In the end, he decided to team up with John-Erik Andersson, a very famous name in the Swedish racing industry.
During the ’90s, John-Erik was responsible for building all of the factory Volvo BTCC cars, so he happened to already know a thing or two about tweaking the suspension of a competition car. The two wound up re-engineering virtually every suspension link on the car.
With the suspension dialed in, the team started looking at ways to rebalance the weight and get it away from the front axle. Taking a cue straight from Audi’s own Pikes Peak effort, they decided to relocate the radiator and dry-sump oil tank to the rear of the car. They also removed or converted certain items to remove any weight possible, like switching to an electric power steering setup.
Now to the Heart of the Beast
Powering the Ur-Quattro is a turbocharged Audi 2.5-liter inline-5 cylinder engine using a diesel ACV block and a gas engine head, this Frankenstein comes with all kinds of goodies as well.
It's mounted on rigid engine and trans mounts, has balanced internals, Stone Pamer connecting rods, RS2 pistons; a port and polish job on the head, and Catcams camshafts with adjustable gears.
Bringing the boost is a Garrett GTX35 ball-bearing turbo; a GIK Turbo Technology dump valve and wastegate, Jorgen Source split-pulse turbo manifold, TIBUC throttle bodies, a custom 600x400x40mm intercooler and piping, a custom 3″exhaust system, VAG ignition coils; a Verdi 4-channel dry sump oil pump, a Sellholm oil cooler kit with PWR Australia exchanger, and a Sellholm PWR rear-mounted radiator with custom expansion tank and triple fans.
Handling the power is an Audi six-speed manual transmission with PAR Engineering dogtooth gears, a transmission cooler, Benny Axelsson custom shift lever, 034 Motorsport steel flywheel, Sachs clutch, Quaife front LSD, factory center diff, Audi 4.111 final drive from S2, rigid rear diff mount, and GKN racing axles and internal drive hubs.
Other Mods
Perhaps the coolest part of this whole build is the interior. While it is utilitarian and serves a safety function first with its full cage, but it still has its custom touches.
It has an adjustable pedal sled that will allow for drivers of different statures to be able to operate the vehicle comfortably. However the piece de la resistance is the custom carbon dash pod that gives the driver the necessary information, and some creature comforts at that.
All in all, this is a sweet little custom Quattro, and hopefully lives up to its namesake, and flies!
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