StanceWorks: NEW PROJECT: I Bought a Group B Rally LEGEND!

StanceWorks Video Transcript

The day has finally come i am ready to start a new project and i am ready to share that project with you this is by every measure a dream car of mine and i know i know that’s what everybody says when they start a new project on youtube

But hear me out there are only 664 of these cars brought to north america there are considerably fewer than that left and i’ve got one of the very very first cars that was brought over it is a very special piece this is a group b legend it is a monolith in motorsports

History and i am so stoked to have one of my own and more stoked to share this build with you guys so let’s pull this thing out from under the lift let’s pull the cover off and let me show you what we’re working with For the last 11 and a half months this car has been hidden in the back of the shop under a cover out of sight and out of mind since i parked it there i’ve only pulled the cover off of this thing one time and thus i’ve stacked parts on top of it

Beside it and in front of it thankfully that’s helped obscure it because i have put a lot of effort in to keep you guys from guessing what the car actually is when i challenge you guys to take your best shot out of the thousand or so comments only one person made a correct

Guess that means this is your final chance to take a stab at it because i’m finally ready to take the cover off of this thing and get this build underway Understandably most of you guys guessed that this had to be a bmw and i can’t blame you for that one there were also guesses for things like atlanta delta or a fox body and even a lotus carlton which i admit would be incredible but no that’s not what we have here

My favorite guess was a rover sd1 but still not quite it if you want to get this one right you’re going to need to speak italian to pronounce the name and latin to pronounce the manufacturer all of which for a car that comes from germany anyone that knows me knows i lust for

German engineering and this is if you ask me one of the most important cars to ever come from germany this is the audi quattro the quattro is famed for its all-wheel drive system and its turbocharged inline 5-cylinder engine for many it is the quintessential audi and for even more it is the ultimate

Rally car it’s the machine that birthed and won the first year of group b rally racing still considered by many to be the best racing the sport has ever offered but before we talk about my particular example let’s take a lap through the history books the quattro was first unveiled in 1980.

It was the first production car to make a front engine all-wheel drive layout with a turbocharger to say that audi nailed that recipe is a little bit of an understatement if the quattro name sounds familiar that’s because audi has named every single successive all-wheel drive system after this car

But let’s not be silly it’s not because this was an incredible road car i mean it was don’t get me wrong it’s known for its performance but where it really shined was in the dirt With the quattro audi proved exactly what was possible with a four-wheel drive system the car claimed wrc championship titles in 1983 and 1984 and claimed overall victories at pikes peak in 1985 86 and 1987. the car was considered to be revolutionary and it changed the way rally has been raced ever since

And if its prowess wasn’t enough the scream of its iconic five-cylinder engine still stands as one of the best sounding cars ever made Eventually the quattro evolved into the s1 and s1 e2 this is perhaps the most famous version of the car equipped with wild bodywork and an engine that made nearly 500 horsepower there’s also the homologation version of this car the road-going sport quattro and as much as i wish i had one of these

In the garage unfortunately they still fetch some serious prices about a half million dollars if you’re lucky most notably these cars come with a shortened wheelbase along with wider arches and a 300 horsepower variant of the same 5-cylinder engine but as said we don’t have one of these

So let’s go back to the shop and take a look at the example that i purchased this car has been completely restored it’s had every spec of rust that these cars are prone to professionally repaired and it was taken down to the bare metal before it was repainted in its original mars red

The interior is in beautiful condition and although it looks black it’s actually a very very dark brown if we take a look inside at the headliner you’ll see that this car is actually a slick top which from what i’m told is incredibly rare that likely has something to do with the

Fact that this car was built in 1981 what i’m told is that this car was actually a dealership promotional vehicle brought over before the actual production models for north america this quattro is in beautiful shape meaning we’ve got a fantastic place to start this build so there are probably a few questions

Why a quattro why this quattro and what are we gonna do with it well if i have to explain why an audi quattro at this point that’s your loss i can’t help you out as far as why this one well this car does have a catch this particular car was cheap and that’s

Because after all of the restoration efforts the owner of it managed to somehow pop the motor even the most basic gear head can spot all of the coolant this thing is pushing out everywhere it possibly can records show that the driveline was completely rebuilt but the owner took

Things a little bit too hard out at willow springs and that was the final straw he was ready to just get rid of this thing thankfully for us that means we’re able to snag this quattro for a fraction of the price that these things normally go

For as said in the intro this is a car i thought i’d never get my hands on but it kind of just fell into my lap if you ask me an audi quattro with a blown engine is the ideal place to start this build now the quattro does run and drive it

Just doesn’t like doing it it overheats pretty quickly and it’s really down on power i haven’t diagnosed it because i wanted to wait in case you guys wanted to see we could do that in the next episode figure out what’s actually wrong with it before we go ripping the engine

Out but no matter what that engine’s coming out i’m not keeping it we are going to have some fun with this car and leaving it stock is not fun that’s not for me it’s not my mo i’ve already got an engine i have teased it in previous episodes it’s sitting

Back there under that cover take your best guess at what it is it’s going to be sick this is going to be awesome it’s gonna sound amazing and that’s part of what i’m going for here what i really want out of this quattro is a street car every build always winds up transforming

Into something that’s a bit too crazy for the street so hard ground rules are no roll cage absolutely full complete interior this one’s in beautiful shape we don’t need to go ripping it out maybe some cool bucket seats or something but let’s not go too far with it

No arrow let’s keep this thing simple to drive maybe we won’t even slam this thing it doesn’t need to be on the ground the quattro is pretty cool because it can run through the dirt it’s meant to go off-road it would be fun to keep this thing fit for blasting down some gravel

Or dirt roads fire roads things like that but that is to say the first thing on the list that we’re gonna do is put it on jack stands pull all of the suspension off send everything over to our friends in germany at h r and have some coilovers made for this thing so

That we can fine tune it but as said there are big plans for this car i’ve already got an engine for it as well as a number of other parts ordered everybody that’s supporting on the patreon page has actually known about this car since i bought it a year ago

And they also know what engine we have sitting under the workbench and what other parts are on order so if you want to stay ahead of the curve the link is in the description but otherwise i’m going to save the big mods for an upcoming episode because i’m

Still working out some of the kinks but i will say i have every expectation that this build will be of the same caliber as the 308 now this will disappoint some of you guys but it’ll make others breathe easy i just want to get it out of the way right now

I am not going to cut my car in half short wheelbase conversions are cool and if you like them power to you the originals are something truly special but i think it’s something that should just stay original the conversion cars really ever have the right windshield angle and

Where the b-pillar and c-pillar meet on the roof it gets too small on the chopped up cars the proportions get kind of wonky and the whole thing just kind of looks deformed if you’re asking me it’s not a look that i’m into i prefer the long wheelbase cars yeah it’s not as

Wild looking but i mean look at it this thing looks incredible nonetheless so i’m just saying i’m not going to cut the car in half but we are going to cut it up this is not going to be your ordinary quattro i promise you that i hope you

Guys are excited for this build i’ve been so eager to share it with you for almost an entire year now i bought at the beginning of august last year and it’s just been a painstaking wait until the timing felt right but we’re here i think this is going to be a great

Surrogate for episodes and content so let me address one other thing i know some of you guys are gonna freak out you’re gonna say whoa ferrari progress you’re getting distracted you’re not gonna be focusing on it no the ferrari is still the priority but a lot of the details that i’m

Working on the ferrari aren’t really all that interesting and i’m struggling to make content that feels worthwhile content that i’m happy with so i’ve decided something that i can space those episodes out to fit more into them to make that content richer and better and to make the payoff in those episodes

More worthwhile well we need something else to work on we’re still going to work on the model a2 we’ve got some steps to make on the on the e36 but why not get started on this build now it’s been a full year it’s time to get going

So here we go i’ll catch you guys next week with another episode i’m not sure whether it’s going to be 308 yet or if we’re going to dive into the quattro it’ll be one of the two let me know what you guys think and i’ll catch you then

Thanks as always for the support You