Continuing the theme: Audi 200 Trans Am

As is it is with a lot of things in life, when I get some idea into my head, whether it's related to cars, bikes, music, whatever, there is a tendency to become fixated on it. I don't really know if this is a good or a bad thing really...I'm sure it's productive in some way, and I learn a lot about whatever it is I'm obsessed with, but it's a bit of a let down when the idea fades away without anything coming to fruition.

Since the somewhat obvious revelation that Audi 5-cylinder turbo motors are awesome, I have been somewhat obsessed with the idea of acquiring one and putting it someplace it doesn't belong. No not my apartment, as if there was room to turn around in let alone work on an engine....something more hatchback and VW shaped. Namely, Scirocco Madness. Now sure. This is not the smartest nor most realistic of goals. You can probably count the number of swapped longitudinal Audi-powered VW's on one hand. As I was mulling over these possibilities with Robert, he kindly reminded me that although it would be very cool, it would require an extrodinarily large amount of time, resources, money, and space. What of those things do I posses in excess? None of the above. So it may be back to the drawing board for my pipe dreams, but I may have finally decided that forced induction isn't all bad.

Anyways, I was doing some of my searching for info and pictures about the Audi Trans Am efforts, and stumbled upon this listing over at The Auto Collections in Las Vegas. For those who don't know, they do a lot of buying and selling of rare cars. Mainly super rare, super old cars, but they occasionally have some cool race cars as well. They've sold some old Group B Metro 6R4's, some Audi's, and apparently this 1988 Audi 200 Trans Am, number 44. (Auto Collections also handily takes a number of pictures of the cars in their inventory, so they have some pretty nice images to drool over)

That would be the car that Hurley Haywood drove straight to the driver's championship that year. The price, as it says, was "make an offer." I don't think that meant they were looking for low-baller tire kickers, but rather the other end of the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" type of make an offer.


They must have sold it, although I couldn't find it under the sold cars listing, and it's not currently listed under the for sale section either. I found some photos of the car from the Goodwood Festival of Speed, so at the very least it made its way over to merry olde England a few months ago. Who owns it? Who knows...maybe Audi had second thoughts and bought it back? Audi Motorsports Museum? Let's hope so. After all, a car of this caliber and quality deserves to be kept in tip top shape for as long as we have dead dinosaurs to stuff into the tank.

So what will be the motive power for Scirocco Madness? Well I still don't know, and considering that it is still snugly squashed between a building and 5 immobile VW wrecks, it may be a while until that is even worth thinking about, but hey, it never hurts to dream right? I can safely say that after looking at build threads for other 5-cylinder and Quattro drivetrain swaps, and looking at sheer size of the Audi 200, it's a long shot beyond long shots. I guess in the meantime it's time to start obsessing over something more logical, like vintage aluminum wheel covers for use on ze Madness (as seen on this Audi 200) from BBS...that makes more sense, right?

_WRS