Found a rarity at the junkyard today

"twochevrons" (twochevrons) 06/29/2015 at 10:00 • Filed to: junkyard, audi, unicorn

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While I was scouring the local LKQ last weekend, I came across a unicorn. More after the break, but see if you can guess what it is from this picture:

Somehow, a Mk1 VW Rabbit had ended up at the junkyard – with my Scirocco’s fuel system in a sad state, I thought that it would be a perfect parts source for the finicky K-Jetronic injection system common to ‘80s VWs. While on the hunt for the elusive Rabbit, I spotted the familiar wedge-shaped prow of what I thought was a C3 Audi down at the end of a row. I had no use for Audi bits, but I’ve always had a soft spot for them (I spent a fair bit of my early life in the third row of a 100 Avant), so I wandered over to take a look.

However, I was sorely mistaken. Rather than being a lowly 100 or 200, this was Audi’s late ‘80s-early ‘90s flagship, the Audi V8. Despite looking almost identical to its C3 brethren, the V8 was built on its own platform, and, as the name suggests, sported a 32 valve quad cam V8, displacing either 3.6 or 4.2 litres, in place of the C3’s inline 5. Driving all four wheels through Audi’s famed Quattro system, and with a fantastically luxurious interior, this was a seriously special piece of machinery.

One of the Audi V8’s defining features was its unique front brakes. In order to increase braking power while maintaining a compact package, Audi turned a disk brake inside-out, using a bowl-shaped rotor to allow the caliper to be mounted on its inside edge, rather than the outside. This way, larger rotors could be used than the 15” wheels would otherwise permit. From what I’ve read, they had a number of shortcomings in practice - the expensive rotors were prone to warping, they were a nightmare to service, and they did not dissipate heat as well as a conventional disk setup. Still, they were a clever piece of engineering, in the classic “how complicated can we make this” Germanic tradition, and I couldn’t resist pulling one of the factory BBS alloys (still in good shape!) to take a photo.

It’s sad to see something as unique and awesome like this in the junkyard, but hopefully, it will give up plenty of its parts to keep others on the road. R.I.P.

505Turbeaux > twochevrons 06/29/2015 at 10:03

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Dem UFO’s!

Quick, need to do a few emergency stops from 65 MPH to straighten them out!

pip bip - choose Corrour > twochevrons 06/29/2015 at 10:05

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typical german over engineering!

sadly VW/Audi are still at it today!

JGrabowMSt > twochevrons 06/29/2015 at 10:06

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If the price was right, I would consider letting it follow me home.

kanadanmajava1 > twochevrons 06/29/2015 at 10:10

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My friend had an S4 with similar “inboard discs”. And his discs were really worn out. I think he bought a used par for €300 as new ones would have cost double the price. It’s the only time that I have heard someone buying used OEM discs with that level of price.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > twochevrons 06/29/2015 at 10:16

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It would be fun to take these down to the local autoparts store and ask to get them turned, and by fun, I mean excessively cruel. Nobody needs to see an Advance Auto employee leap through a plate glass window to escape.

jkm7680 > twochevrons 06/29/2015 at 10:20

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That’s an awesome car. Glad it’ll give itself up to save multiple other cars.

EL_ULY > twochevrons 06/29/2015 at 10:20

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coooooooool!

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > twochevrons 06/29/2015 at 14:06

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This reminds me of the Ausco-Lambert disc brakes on Chrysler Imperials in the early ‘50s.

twochevrons > JGrabowMSt 06/29/2015 at 22:16

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I’d be sorely tempted. I didn’t realise it until I did a bit of research, but they were available with a manual transmission, and were seriously quick when so equipped. The idea of an eye-wateringly fast luxobarge has always appealed to me.

twochevrons > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 06/29/2015 at 22:18

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Heh, I’d imagine so. I’ll admit that I did once bring a Citroën suspension sphere to an auto store parts counter for shits and giggles. I’m a terrible person.

twochevrons > The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) 06/29/2015 at 22:20

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Fascinating! I love reading about clever dead-end technology, and I’d never heard about those before.

DrJohannVegas > 505Turbeaux 08/16/2015 at 23:06

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UFOs are the jam.

Autofixation > twochevrons 09/09/2015 at 20:24

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That has to be the best of example of over-engineering/over-complicating by the Germans I’ve seen yet. Runner up has to be the six chains in the timing system of an Audi 4.2.

Amoore100 > twochevrons 09/20/2015 at 00:52

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What happened?? I need to hear this...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > twochevrons 02/21/2016 at 11:19

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I always enjoy trips to the boneyard. I walk up and down the rows and look at the open hoods and the engines in various states of disassembly. Living where I do, San Francisco Bay Area, the environmental restrictions on the boneyards are fierce, so they only keep newer, more profitable hulks, generally, and parts are expensive.

Nowadays, I can get most of the boneyard parts I need from Ebay.

twochevrons > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/22/2016 at 19:09

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I enjoy them for the same reason – I’ll often end up spending more time poking around interesting cars than actually getting the parts that I’m there for.

Here in MN, it seems that things are much more relaxed, at least going by the oily sheen on the ground when it rains. Thanks to road salt, most of the really interesting old stuff rotted away years ago, but there’s enough there to make it worth looking around.