Audi Quattro: all-wheel drive dominance

22 October, 2015

 

Audi Quattros have a very dear place in my heart. My first car was a 1989 Audi 90 Quattro, complete with five-cylinder 10-valve KV engine. It was fairly gutless, the drivetrain was heavy, and the engine was so far in front of the strut towers that it would understeer terribly. However, the beautiful sound that the slanted five-cylinder engine produced, the traction the five-speed all-wheel drive gearbox gave you, and the quirk of owning an older European vehicle makes it a car that I’ll remember for years to come.

Manuel Leon Minassian has been a fan of the Audi Quattro since he was young. He tells tales of spotting them parked outside his school as a teenager and the feelings it gave him. Now he has his very own Audi Quattro coupe, the UR-Quattro, complete with the 10-valve turbocharged five-cylinder engine — a truly iconic Quattro that is already classed as a collector’s item. Watch the video Petrolicious produced about Manuel’s passion for the Audi brand, and his own Quattro coupe.

This could be good news for restoring cars and bikes – but we must be quick!

Our parliament is currently considering a member’s Bill, drawn by ballot, called the ‘Right to Repair’ Bill.
It’s due to go a Select Committee for consideration, and we can make submissions ie say what we think of it, before 3 April this year. It’s important because it will make spare parts and information for doing repairs far more readily available and this should slow the rate at which appliances, toys and so on get sent to landfill.

1959 Sunbeam Alpine: A road trip with Lady P

The romance of the road
The South Island begins to reveal its unbelievable beauty and clarity of light as we weave and bend past mountain peaks, blue flowing rivers, and bright green forests. Today, while the cutlery wheel continues to chime, there are no morbid rattles, and we are still alive. The road moves beneath us and I start to really understand what a road trip is all about: the warm analogue hum of the engine, the sensory overload of wind and sun, the dreamy pageant of shapes and colour that glides by like a movie set, not a cloud in the sky.