The New Zealand Rally Championship has received a further boost, with news that Dylan Turner will debut a new Audi Quattro S1 at the International Rally of Whangarei.
Dylan Turner's new Audi Quattro S1 AP4 looks the goods.Built to AP4 regulations by Choice Performance in Pukekohe, the Audi joins AP4 cars from Holden, Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Skoda in this year’s NZRC.
"I've always admired the Audi -- the Quattro was kind of a cult car when it comes to rally. Audi is obviously a name synonymous with rallying," Turner told the New Zealand Herald.
"I had been watching the AP4 cars and noticed how quick they were and how easy they appeared to be to drive.
"So it was just a case of coming up with a brand and for me it was a no brainer -- the Audi brand is something I have always been passionate about. I have owned Audis for the past 10-15 years so that was how I decided to go down the Audi track.
"We looked at the successful R5 cars that are built by the sister company Skoda and looked at what they were doing and copied a lot of it, but using Audi parts. We got a 1600cc Audi motor built up based on the R5 specifications."
Turner has previously driven Lancer Evos and finished seventh at last weekend’s Otago Rally. He hopes to have the car ready in time to contest the pre-event shakedown at Whangarei in three weeks time, and then the rally proper.
While others have had some reliability problems with their new AP4 cars, Turner hopes that won’t be the case with the Audi.
"I don't think we'll have as many issues because we have gone down the route of replicating what the R5 are doing,” he said.
"We have gone for a tried and proven 1600 motor with the Audi block and Audi head that has been used by the Skoda team for years. There are always things we might not have thought of, but hopefully not too much."
- Peter Whitten
External link: Awesome Audi returning
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