As if its previous Hawaiian Tropic makeover didn't get enough attention we decided that before the season was out (and we removed the matte red wrap) we'd take our Audi Avant's midlife crisis to a whole new level. See you in rehab...
So for those that have only just tuned in and missed out on part one (back in PVW07/14), it's time for a quick recap. Back in February, with the water-cooled VW scene season opener - Ultimate Dubs -looming we decided it was time to give our trusty Audi A4 B7 Avant a long overdue makeover. Despite having enjoyed the car for many months on its awesome Eibach coilovers and 19" OEM+ Speedlines we just fancied taking things to the next level, even if it did mean stirring things up in the process.
A set of forged 3SDM splits, AirLift air-ride, Studio Incar boot build and Vivid Vinyl matte red wrap later and we'd transformed the car in literally a couple of days; icing on the cake being the lairy Hawaiian Tropic racing livery, literally applied on the day of the show. Despite the crazy drop achieved by the
AirLift, the one-off forged 3SDM splits, meticulously ceramic polished by Diamond Styling, and the custom [neon pink] boot build lovingly created by Studio Incar, it was the wrap and race car livery that provoked the most questions. Is it a wrap? What's Hawaiian Tropic? Is it a race car? Yes, I'd created a rolling billboard which, considering I'm usually all about black cars with the street sleeper look, was pretty ridiculous. My kids loved it, though, and so did the other children at the nursery where I take them. It's a shame the same can't be said for the other 'normal' parents rolling up in their sensible MPVs with their frowns and 'tut tuts' of disapproval. Who was having more fun though? I'd take the mid-life crisis over having one foot in the grave any day! It's funny, though, because I swear there's a bit of Victor Meldrew in all of us - even me -and due to the rest of the interior being relatively standard, after a while you forget that the outside of the car couldn't be more of a contrast and I've lost count of the amount of times I've almost opened the window and shouted 'what you looking at?' before realising I may as well have sprayed 'Suck Me Beautiful' down the side of my car. So where did the Hawaiian Tropic theme come from? Good question...
Ever since I was a kid and watched The Cannonball Run movies (look them up on YouTube, kids) I'd always promised myself that should I ever have a red car in later life then, at some stage, it would get plastered with the same NASCAR-style livery as the hillbilly Chevrolet that featured in the 1981 film. Okay, we all make promises to ourselves as kids, very few of which come true. However, some 30 years later (Christ, is it that long ~ All) and just as we were about to kick off my daily driver's transformation, I remembered that promise and the Hawaiian Tropic (it's a suntan lotion brand if you didn't know) livery came to life.
In the film, the road-legal Chevy stock car is entered into the cross-country road race by Terry Bradshaw and Mel Tillis, who play a couple of hillbilly 'good ol' boys'. Long story short, after filling their race-replica full of beer (and one packet of peanuts) for their excursion, inevitably it's not long before the car ends up in trouble, or more specifically a hotel swimming pool while taking a shortcut to avoid the police pursuit. Okay, there are some that claim our Audi Avant, with it's roof box and estate-car lines, couldn't be further removed from a Chevy NASCAR if it tried but I was just having fun, and the result actually received more positive remarks than I could ever have imagined.
I'll be honest, with so many newbies on the scene I was quite frankly startled at how many people actually recognised the livery and where it originated. My hat must go off to Marcus Burnham of Stealth Decals who did a fantastic job of recreating the livery and adapting it to suit the Audi estate. And under immense pressure, Vivid Vinyl's Alex Wright (who applied the original wrap) didn't do too badly applying the graphics either, making yet another of my stupid ideas a reality.
With the ceramic polished forged 3SDM 0.05s, air-ride and incredible boot built the car went down a storm at Ultimate Dubs. Out on the open road, despite its somewhat humorous appearance the car really is fantastic to drive. I'd been concerned that the air-ride may not even come close to matching the brilliant Eibach coilovers it
replaced, but I've got to say this kit really is as good as people claim. And with the added practicality you get from being able to raise the car at the touch of a button to get over obstacles, you don't mind that it's perhaps not quite so tight in the turns. However, after a few months of usage, I'd started to wonder if I could make the already impressive 'track proven' AirLift air-ride setup even better. Would trusty Eibach anti-roll bars and SuperPro polybushes, something I seem to end up fitting to all my cars eventually, really bring the whole chassis together and compliment the air-ride rather than compromise it? An email to our good friend Corey at AirLift to check confirmed this would be a good thing to do, so with a quick call to our people at Eibach and SuperPro to check what's what and to place our order we then booked the car in for another sitting with The Phirm.
At this stage I had contemplated opting for a big brake upgrade, too, but weighing up the costs and minimal power the car was running I decided against it. I've never felt the car is hugely under-braked and despite having fun in the twisties, I never push silly hard on the road and don't have any track days planned for the future. I'm not afraid to admit that the main reason it crossed my mind was because they'd look good. Yes, there, I said it!
In terms of the anti-roll bar swap and bush upgrade, things were business as usual for the chaps at The Phirm. Both Eibach and SuperPro are renown for producing top quality kit that fits off-the-shelf. You may think that's what you'd expect from any reputable aftermarket parts producer, but sadly that's very rarely the case. Granted, swapping bushes is never the most enjoyable or swiftest of jobs but things were made all the more tedious come fitting time by the fact the bushings [which aren't replaceable] in my quadralinks were totally shot. The play was so bad, in fact, that the guys insisted I replace them before putting the car back together. You may remember contributor Sam Dobbins had a similar problem with those on his Passat estate a while back, and at the time he fitted uprated items by the guys at Black Forest Industries in the States. Unfortunately there simply wasn't time to go down this route where my car was concerned, but a quick call to good-ol' Euro Car Parts revealed it had a pair of links in stock for my car, which would be with us within the hour.
It goes without saying that with the upgraded roll bars, bushes and now all-new quadralinks, I was itching to see how differently the car performed and in record time Jay had the car back together and it was road-test time. One thing I did mean to source but had forgotten to order were new engine mounts. These have been on their last legs for some time now, and whether it's the fact everything else is now so new and tight or it's just psychological I'm not entirely sure, but the engine seems to rocking in the bay far more than ever. That wasn't about to stop me giving the car a damn good shakedown, though, and it will probably come as no surprise when I say the improvements were pretty damn obvious. It's always hard to describe exactly how an anti-roll bar upgrade
feels like, without simply saying it rolls less. Truth is, not only does it sharpen up the handling (yes, with less roll) but it also gives the car a 'like new' feel - not a lardy diesel Audi estate new, more a well-honed Audi RS4 new. In fact, if you're running air-ride and any sort of performance car, then I can't recommend this upgrade enough. When you know the car is going to be driven enthusiastically at a number of different ride heights, it pays to know your bushes are all in order and going to last and in the case of SuperPro you get a three-year 36k-mile guarantee. Over time rubber will deteriorate and start to lose its shape, which means your suspension components will move around in a way never originally intended. Using polyurethane will prevent this and, in turn, in many cases, also prolong tyre wear and we're all for that!
As a driver you obviously get to feel more of an improvement but most passengers I've taken out have been equally impressed with the overall feel. 'You literally wouldn't know it's on air', is probably the most common remark, which speaks volumes. Oh, and you'll be pleased to hear that since this upgrade I've ordered a pair of new Stage 1 uprated engine mounts from Black Forest Industries, which I'm itching to fit. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. I'm also waiting for the right exhaust upgrade solution to come along to compliment the remap and free-low filter but have not had much luck so far. Having seen and heard a number of good things about EMP Performance I think a call to Dave Phillipson over there is long over due. We'll see...
Finally, you'll probably notice (you can't really miss it) that the car has received yet another cosmetic makeover. Many thought we'd struggle to top the Hawaiian Tropic theme but before the killer 3M Matte Red wrap was removed for winter there was one final itch I had to scratch. Yes, I appreciate it may appear this midlife crisis is kind of ongoing, but I swear after the attention this second makeover has had I'm well and truly done. So, yeah, back in the early '80s I had this Group C Matchbox toy, which was actually a Sauber SHS C6 and I loved it. I loved the timeless shape, the pepperpot-style wheels and, most importantly, the BASF livery. I had no idea what BASF was, but I knew I loved it. The bright red car, with spiralling white graphics just stood out over any of the many other cars I had as a kid. I would later discover the livery was intended to promote the cassette tapes (look them up kids) the company produced. Of course, I didn't care. I don't think I ever even bought at BASF cassette but I did always say it would be a killer livery to replicate should the chance ever arise and, later on seeing the incredible Pro Car BMW M1s (again, look them up kids) running the same livery didn't help. In fact, it was actually the Pro Car livery we (okay, I) decided to try and mimic for version two. As if Marcus and Alex weren't challenged enough with the first theme, this time they were really up against it. They still both rose to the challenge, though, Marcus getting the design done in virtually one take and the application going considerably smoother than we'd first
thought. I must also say a huge thanks to Ross Barnden for helping with the strip down of the car and to Lee Fulford of Sportcar Classics for letting us use his facility to apply the vinyl.
The transformation is incredible and despite it admittedly being so far removed from the mid-engined '70s supercar race car it was taken from, the livery works so well. I love the subtle changes Marcus made to the design and the Contravision vinyl Alex used on the rear window (to mimic that on the Sauber car). This vinyl is pretty trick (and expensive) and is usually used on commercial vehicles when people want to be able to see out of the van but not in. It worked a treat on the Audi for what we wanted.
Naturally there have been haters and quite a few who have no idea where it's from. Then there were a couple of killjoys online who said it didn't work because the car wasn't a BMW, despite the original inspiration being a Sauber.
Those with a keen eye will also notice we've swapped the wheels since Ultimate Dubs. There were two reasons for this: the first being the fact that the bare finish to the ceramic polished 3SDMs simply wasn't practical for daily use; secondly, they simply didn't go with the Pro Car theme. As luck (and it was lucky) would have it, the BASF-livery Ml Pro Car was most often seen wearing black and gold BBS turbo fans, which my 19" Rotiform BTHs just so happen to have been modelled on.
The only other small changes include removal of the roof box and de-chroming of the window and grille surrounds, plus the roof rails. With the graphics finished and the Rotiform's bolted up, well, those that knew the Pro Car would probably get a chuckle. Those that didn't, well, they probably just mistook me for some unfortunate sales rep that had to drive around in a gaudy company car.
To conclude on the overall upgrades, you may remember I was slightly concerned that I may actually end up ruining the car by going a little over-the-top, but I'm pleased to report that the modifications have only improved things. It's a pleasure to drive and practical, too. Okay, I'm looking forward to going back to black but the wrap has been great run and something I would 100% do again. Not only does it transform your car but it also protects the paint and is easy to maintain.
What does the future hold? Well I've still got a hankering for a Touareg but we'll have to see. I'm genuinely attached to the Audi and whatever replaces it is going to have a hard act to follow, that's for sure
So for those that have only just tuned in and missed out on part one (back in PVW07/14), it's time for a quick recap. Back in February, with the water-cooled VW scene season opener - Ultimate Dubs -looming we decided it was time to give our trusty Audi A4 B7 Avant a long overdue makeover. Despite having enjoyed the car for many months on its awesome Eibach coilovers and 19" OEM+ Speedlines we just fancied taking things to the next level, even if it did mean stirring things up in the process.
A set of forged 3SDM splits, AirLift air-ride, Studio Incar boot build and Vivid Vinyl matte red wrap later and we'd transformed the car in literally a couple of days; icing on the cake being the lairy Hawaiian Tropic racing livery, literally applied on the day of the show. Despite the crazy drop achieved by the
Ever since I was a kid and watched The Cannonball Run movies (look them up on YouTube, kids) I'd always promised myself that should I ever have a red car in later life then, at some stage, it would get plastered with the same NASCAR-style livery as the hillbilly Chevrolet that featured in the 1981 film. Okay, we all make promises to ourselves as kids, very few of which come true. However, some 30 years later (Christ, is it that long ~ All) and just as we were about to kick off my daily driver's transformation, I remembered that promise and the Hawaiian Tropic (it's a suntan lotion brand if you didn't know) livery came to life.
In the film, the road-legal Chevy stock car is entered into the cross-country road race by Terry Bradshaw and Mel Tillis, who play a couple of hillbilly 'good ol' boys'. Long story short, after filling their race-replica full of beer (and one packet of peanuts) for their excursion, inevitably it's not long before the car ends up in trouble, or more specifically a hotel swimming pool while taking a shortcut to avoid the police pursuit. Okay, there are some that claim our Audi Avant, with it's roof box and estate-car lines, couldn't be further removed from a Chevy NASCAR if it tried but I was just having fun, and the result actually received more positive remarks than I could ever have imagined.
I'll be honest, with so many newbies on the scene I was quite frankly startled at how many people actually recognised the livery and where it originated. My hat must go off to Marcus Burnham of Stealth Decals who did a fantastic job of recreating the livery and adapting it to suit the Audi estate. And under immense pressure, Vivid Vinyl's Alex Wright (who applied the original wrap) didn't do too badly applying the graphics either, making yet another of my stupid ideas a reality.
With the ceramic polished forged 3SDM 0.05s, air-ride and incredible boot built the car went down a storm at Ultimate Dubs. Out on the open road, despite its somewhat humorous appearance the car really is fantastic to drive. I'd been concerned that the air-ride may not even come close to matching the brilliant Eibach coilovers it
replaced, but I've got to say this kit really is as good as people claim. And with the added practicality you get from being able to raise the car at the touch of a button to get over obstacles, you don't mind that it's perhaps not quite so tight in the turns. However, after a few months of usage, I'd started to wonder if I could make the already impressive 'track proven' AirLift air-ride setup even better. Would trusty Eibach anti-roll bars and SuperPro polybushes, something I seem to end up fitting to all my cars eventually, really bring the whole chassis together and compliment the air-ride rather than compromise it? An email to our good friend Corey at AirLift to check confirmed this would be a good thing to do, so with a quick call to our people at Eibach and SuperPro to check what's what and to place our order we then booked the car in for another sitting with The Phirm.
At this stage I had contemplated opting for a big brake upgrade, too, but weighing up the costs and minimal power the car was running I decided against it. I've never felt the car is hugely under-braked and despite having fun in the twisties, I never push silly hard on the road and don't have any track days planned for the future. I'm not afraid to admit that the main reason it crossed my mind was because they'd look good. Yes, there, I said it!
In terms of the anti-roll bar swap and bush upgrade, things were business as usual for the chaps at The Phirm. Both Eibach and SuperPro are renown for producing top quality kit that fits off-the-shelf. You may think that's what you'd expect from any reputable aftermarket parts producer, but sadly that's very rarely the case. Granted, swapping bushes is never the most enjoyable or swiftest of jobs but things were made all the more tedious come fitting time by the fact the bushings [which aren't replaceable] in my quadralinks were totally shot. The play was so bad, in fact, that the guys insisted I replace them before putting the car back together. You may remember contributor Sam Dobbins had a similar problem with those on his Passat estate a while back, and at the time he fitted uprated items by the guys at Black Forest Industries in the States. Unfortunately there simply wasn't time to go down this route where my car was concerned, but a quick call to good-ol' Euro Car Parts revealed it had a pair of links in stock for my car, which would be with us within the hour.
It goes without saying that with the upgraded roll bars, bushes and now all-new quadralinks, I was itching to see how differently the car performed and in record time Jay had the car back together and it was road-test time. One thing I did mean to source but had forgotten to order were new engine mounts. These have been on their last legs for some time now, and whether it's the fact everything else is now so new and tight or it's just psychological I'm not entirely sure, but the engine seems to rocking in the bay far more than ever. That wasn't about to stop me giving the car a damn good shakedown, though, and it will probably come as no surprise when I say the improvements were pretty damn obvious. It's always hard to describe exactly how an anti-roll bar upgrade
feels like, without simply saying it rolls less. Truth is, not only does it sharpen up the handling (yes, with less roll) but it also gives the car a 'like new' feel - not a lardy diesel Audi estate new, more a well-honed Audi RS4 new. In fact, if you're running air-ride and any sort of performance car, then I can't recommend this upgrade enough. When you know the car is going to be driven enthusiastically at a number of different ride heights, it pays to know your bushes are all in order and going to last and in the case of SuperPro you get a three-year 36k-mile guarantee. Over time rubber will deteriorate and start to lose its shape, which means your suspension components will move around in a way never originally intended. Using polyurethane will prevent this and, in turn, in many cases, also prolong tyre wear and we're all for that!
As a driver you obviously get to feel more of an improvement but most passengers I've taken out have been equally impressed with the overall feel. 'You literally wouldn't know it's on air', is probably the most common remark, which speaks volumes. Oh, and you'll be pleased to hear that since this upgrade I've ordered a pair of new Stage 1 uprated engine mounts from Black Forest Industries, which I'm itching to fit. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. I'm also waiting for the right exhaust upgrade solution to come along to compliment the remap and free-low filter but have not had much luck so far. Having seen and heard a number of good things about EMP Performance I think a call to Dave Phillipson over there is long over due. We'll see...
Finally, you'll probably notice (you can't really miss it) that the car has received yet another cosmetic makeover. Many thought we'd struggle to top the Hawaiian Tropic theme but before the killer 3M Matte Red wrap was removed for winter there was one final itch I had to scratch. Yes, I appreciate it may appear this midlife crisis is kind of ongoing, but I swear after the attention this second makeover has had I'm well and truly done. So, yeah, back in the early '80s I had this Group C Matchbox toy, which was actually a Sauber SHS C6 and I loved it. I loved the timeless shape, the pepperpot-style wheels and, most importantly, the BASF livery. I had no idea what BASF was, but I knew I loved it. The bright red car, with spiralling white graphics just stood out over any of the many other cars I had as a kid. I would later discover the livery was intended to promote the cassette tapes (look them up kids) the company produced. Of course, I didn't care. I don't think I ever even bought at BASF cassette but I did always say it would be a killer livery to replicate should the chance ever arise and, later on seeing the incredible Pro Car BMW M1s (again, look them up kids) running the same livery didn't help. In fact, it was actually the Pro Car livery we (okay, I) decided to try and mimic for version two. As if Marcus and Alex weren't challenged enough with the first theme, this time they were really up against it. They still both rose to the challenge, though, Marcus getting the design done in virtually one take and the application going considerably smoother than we'd first
thought. I must also say a huge thanks to Ross Barnden for helping with the strip down of the car and to Lee Fulford of Sportcar Classics for letting us use his facility to apply the vinyl.
The transformation is incredible and despite it admittedly being so far removed from the mid-engined '70s supercar race car it was taken from, the livery works so well. I love the subtle changes Marcus made to the design and the Contravision vinyl Alex used on the rear window (to mimic that on the Sauber car). This vinyl is pretty trick (and expensive) and is usually used on commercial vehicles when people want to be able to see out of the van but not in. It worked a treat on the Audi for what we wanted.
Naturally there have been haters and quite a few who have no idea where it's from. Then there were a couple of killjoys online who said it didn't work because the car wasn't a BMW, despite the original inspiration being a Sauber.
Those with a keen eye will also notice we've swapped the wheels since Ultimate Dubs. There were two reasons for this: the first being the fact that the bare finish to the ceramic polished 3SDMs simply wasn't practical for daily use; secondly, they simply didn't go with the Pro Car theme. As luck (and it was lucky) would have it, the BASF-livery Ml Pro Car was most often seen wearing black and gold BBS turbo fans, which my 19" Rotiform BTHs just so happen to have been modelled on.
The only other small changes include removal of the roof box and de-chroming of the window and grille surrounds, plus the roof rails. With the graphics finished and the Rotiform's bolted up, well, those that knew the Pro Car would probably get a chuckle. Those that didn't, well, they probably just mistook me for some unfortunate sales rep that had to drive around in a gaudy company car.
To conclude on the overall upgrades, you may remember I was slightly concerned that I may actually end up ruining the car by going a little over-the-top, but I'm pleased to report that the modifications have only improved things. It's a pleasure to drive and practical, too. Okay, I'm looking forward to going back to black but the wrap has been great run and something I would 100% do again. Not only does it transform your car but it also protects the paint and is easy to maintain.
What does the future hold? Well I've still got a hankering for a Touareg but we'll have to see. I'm genuinely attached to the Audi and whatever replaces it is going to have a hard act to follow, that's for sure
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