I think that warrants an "Ooooooh shiny" 

 

 

Wellington European sent me the first pic this afternoon. At 5pm after work I was there to collect Rusty!

 

Before immediately parking it in town and going for dinner with my wife.
The drive home was great! Smooth, good noises, happy driver.
No obvious drips when home after a spirited drive up the hill road.

 

 

Nice little drive followed by a wash.
No problems at all, lots of smiles from me.
Nothing broke.
All fluids stayed in their proper places.
Really happy with Wellington European's work.

A mate and I had a good feel around the carpet and it is damp underneath the passenger side carpet. So something’s definitely leaking there and it must be the source of the musty smell.

I will put up with it for a little longer, don’t want to strip the interior out yet as I have a couple of events to go to in the next few weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 18 April, 20215 yr by RobClubley

Great drive yesterday with the VW guys. 270km over the Remutaka Hill to Lake Ferry. Gorgeous day and Rusty ran beautifully. Unfortunately when I checked the drip tray this morning we have a new leak. Sigh.
Everything Wellington European
 did is dry and good, looks like maybe the rear seal.
Always a challenge, this car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another drive on Sunday and everything seems pretty good.
When it gets warm it leaks oil from the rear of the engine.
I've decided to leave it alone until after the Wookies meet in Ohakune in 2 weeks. Fingers crossed

 

https://fb.watch/5glOwzwZIp/

 

 

 

 

Edited 10 May, 20215 yr by RobClubley

Trip prep:

 

 

Wookies in the Wild Episode IV - Return to Ohakune

I've promised to take my quattro to a Wookies event four times, and each year I have failed and attended in my daily. This time I was determined to make it, with my project car.

 

It was with great excitement and some apprehension that I set off on the weekend trip to Ohakune in Rusty, knowing that I still had an oil leak from the back of the engine somewhere, and having only driven about 300km since Wellington European did lots of work - new oil pump and gasket, cam and crank seals, sump gasket, boost leak fixed, fuel filling issue looked at, new coolant, oil and filters, leaking brake line replace, the list goes on...

First stop was to meet up with the Wellington Wookie crew at BP where I put in $175 of 98RON and stopped before the tank was full! It was way easier to get fuel into the tank than before but there's quite a strong smell of petrol inside the car so I still have something to fix there.

 

The rest of the trip went mostly well, Rusty cruising nicely along the highways. I discovered it has a flashing warning on the dash after 2 hours' driving to tell you to rest. Pretty advanced for 1985. The car has a strong tendency to tramline, following the slight ruts in the highway made by heavy trucks. Something modern cars seem to have overcome. I do have lowered springs, big wheels and harder bushes, so probably doesn't represent how a standard ur might feel. It does make my car pretty tiring to drive.

 

We had planned a break in Mangaweka, about 2.5 hours from Wellington, and by then Rusty was holding back on acceleration over 4k RPM as though I had a boost leak again. After 20 minutes or so of cooling off, I had a look around the engine, but couldn't see anything amiss. I slightly tightened the wastegate banjo bolt as that had been the source of the previous boost leak. The rest of the way everything was back to normal, so either it was a heat thing or that bolt.

 

We arrived in Ohakune in plenty of time for the evening meal and to reconnect with Wookie driving friends.

 

Next day was the main Wookies event: a relaxed breakfast followed by a cruise up the mountain from Ohakune to Turoa Ski Field. Then back down, around to the other side of the mountain, lunch by the chateau at Whakapapa village, up to the Whakapapa ski field, then back to camp for a barbecue. Interspersed with lots of parking up, taking photos, laughter and socialising.

 

 

 

Driving up that first tree-lined twisty road was a sublime experience. The 80kph limit is plenty to have a great time in an old sports car. Leading the pack up the hill, the inline-5 on song and the turbo whooshing, wastegate chattering, blipping the throttle on downshifts, taking pleasure in timing it just right. Awesome. The quattro is front-heavy and has a tendency to understeer, which you can combat by being on the throttle sooner than you would in other cars. I soon found the rhythm of it, revelling in the feeling of grip, power down all the way around the corners. Not worrying how delicate my old car might be, just going for it and loving the experience.
It was here that I discovered another feature - the rev counter flashes to warn you to change up All too soon we were standing at the top, enveloped in cloud, shivering in the icy wind.

 

The rest of the day was a similar blur of driving and socialising. Great times, great roads and great people.

 

 

 

This event is a great concept - pick a place where where everyone has to make a trip to get there. Then just spend the day doing nothing but driving and socialising. Friendly, relaxed, no silliness, no racing or anything like that, but some excellent roads for a cruise.

 

 

 

I'm happy to say the quattro made the whole trip with no real issues. I've expanded my list of things to fix - rattles, creaks, dim rear light bulbs etc etc, but everything important was good. When warm it drips - brownish-gold, looks, smells and feels like oil, but none of the fluid levels are reducing. So that's a mystery. It doesn't smell unpleasant enough to be gear oil.

850km driven, 750 or so on state highways, 100 up and down twisty mountain roads up to 1600m elevation and back. About 12l/100km consumed.

On the Sunday I popped out for morning coffee and to take a photo with the Ohakune carrot.

 

 

It was a beautiful clear morning and on a whim I decided to take one more drive up Mt Ruapehu to Turoa Ski Field. Not an opportunity to miss especially when it was so quiet.
I was in quattro heaven on the twisty empty road, windows down listening to turbo and 5 cylinder noises when suddenly there was a blue Ferrari 328 on my tail! How could this get any better?
I pulled over on a straight section and he howled past me with a glorious wail.
At the top I found not one but a whole group of Ferraris and other sports cars. I joined in their group at the end, subtle like. It was a Wellington car club on a weekend run. Absolutely awesome!

 

 

 

 

Then back down the hill to breakfast and to say goodbye to the Wookies crew before driving back to Wellington.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 17 May, 20215 yr by RobClubley

You win a pile of shiny internets for that.

 

2 minor points though:-

1. Where were the Wookies? I could only see humans.
2. Rusty was the most interesting car there, even when you found all those Smiths!

Wow! That's some trip. Looks fantastic, as does Rusty. If I was one of the others there I would hate you!!! Reckon you upstaged every car at the meet (well Rusty did  ) 

 

Btw on your list, I see the first word is Jack. Is that a human being that you are prone to forget, or the mechanical lifting apparatus. 

Some epic photos coming in from the Wookies event.
I'm wearing my "I'm driving a quattro on a volcano" grin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More urq pr0n

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last few pics from the weekend.

 

 

 

 

They make good money over here those Quattro-y things

 

https://www.classiccarauctions.co.uk/events/2021-auctions/spring-live-online-sale-2021/spring-live-online-auction-2021/cars/1990-audi-quattro-20v

6 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

They make good money over here those Quattro-y things

 

https://www.classiccarauctions.co.uk/events/2021-auctions/spring-live-online-sale-2021/spring-live-online-auction-2021/cars/1990-audi-quattro-20v

Whoa, yeah very. An original 20v is worth more than mine, but it makes the amount I’ve spent feel less painful :)

Grr FB has broken the image links again.

Went for a drive to the shops, called in at Armstrong Audi for a chat, and they offered me the keys to their demo RS6. Wow what a car! It has always been one of my dream cars, so I wasn’t going to turn down a drive! Effortlessly, ballistically, fast, see a gap, lightly prod the throttle and the gap is 200m behind you. All in total luxury. Love it! Anyone fancy loaning me $227k?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love a simple fix. My sub has had a vibration since I installed it in the Audi, gradually getting worse, and I assumed it was some loose trim somewhere in the car. Finally had time for a look, took sub cover off, unscrewed it from its 38mm of mdf mounting, tested, still making the noise. Oh no I thought, my trusty 10 year old sub is broken. Then I realised the centre cap was what was moving, it had come unglued from the cone. I gently prised it off, tested again. Epic bass noises, no vibrations. Result!

You'd hate a new RS6. How would you fill all that spare time you would have? 

Trying a new way of linking from FB that hopefully won't break after a while.

 

 

Practical classic ?

Little drive on Saturday.

 

 

Loving these new tail light bulbs from http://www.classicandvintagebulbs.com/
I should be more visible now 🙂
Of course, because old car, something’s wrong with the wiring to the right side. Brake lights work, not tail lights.

 

Another little job done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hahahaha so funny. After 90 minutes of multimeter testing, scrabbling around the footwell, then reading wiring diagrams, it was a fuse. Yes there appears to be a fuse that serves just one tail light.

 

 

 

 

Edited 6 July, 20214 yr by RobClubley