Both Paddy and myself pretty much died and went to heaven when we saw the trio of quattro cars at Ultimate Dubs last weekend. The vehicles owned by James Dorey, Dave Rowe and Hamish White have all been home-built. A truly mind blowing amount of dedication has been put into these Audis and I am incredibly humbled by their work. This is Speedhunters material of the highest form.
This is a tricky job, putting this short spotlight together, though. The reason being that the Speedhunting team is going to feature each of these cars individually over the next couple of months and I don’t want to give too much away. Anyway, we only have 15 photographs that have been shot by Paddy, so lets get down to business.
James Dorey’s car is based on a 1991 model Audi S2. James has painstakingly put the car together and credit where credit is due: it’s a work of art.
Is he some sort of motorsport guru, then? No, he’s a chef! I guess making food look pretty is quite arty, so it’s understandable that this car looks so good.
There’s been a lot of trial and error, of course. James has worked things out as he has progressed with the build, but this is a testament to his relentless effort to build his ultimate quattro. Everything has been put together by this man except for the paint and body which has been produced by Keith Clement. Weighing in at around 1100kg and kicking out approximately 750bhp, this is a track weapon of the highest order. I very much hope I get to go and shoot this car and write the story – to get a passenger ride in this car would be amazingly cool.
Next-up is Dave Rowe’s super-lightweight quattro creation. Dave is from Australia and used to build rally cars in Melbourne so he knows what he’s talking about.
He also runs a company called Electronic Performance Systems that specialises in engine management, so when it comes to mapping he’s the man.
The car features a space frame chassis, aluminum honeycomb floor, carbon kevlar roof and weighs-in at 980kg. The windscreen rake is also more upright to replicate the original Group B cars perfectly and this helps to save weight by reducing the amount of glass in the front screen – this really is incredible!
Noteworthy modifications are, well… pretty much everything! But the fly-by-wire throttle, 6-speed dog box and infrared brake temperature sensors are pretty cool! Not to mention the inboard rear suspension setup…
Then, there’s the dry brake fitting inside the car that allows the engine to be pre-heated with hot water to the perfect temperature before it’s started – I think this is an amazing touch. I love Dave’s car and can’t wait to hear more about it.
Finally there’s Hamish White’s car that we very briefly touched on in the Edition 38 report last year. This took four and a half years to build with Hamish’s own fair hands.
Hamish’s dad builds vintage cars, so automotive skills are in his blood. You may have seen this car recently on the cover of Performance VW magazine – the car has evolved significantly since then and we will be covering this in full.
Based on a 1986 quattro, the motor is producing 700bhp making this a formidable weapon.
Make no mistake about just how thorough this and the other two builds are. To see the three of them together in the same hall at Ultimate Dubs was simply mind blowing.
Hamish’s car, like the other two, will be featured very soon. I must thank Will from VRS in Northampton for showing us around these cars and introducing Paddy and myself to their owners. We can’t wait to see these cars used in anger…
-
Words by Ben Chandler
Photos by Paddy McGrath / paddy@speedhunters.com
Photos by Paddy McGrath / paddy@speedhunters.com
