Reluctantly, I sold this car. It was a great car for me, and I hated to see it go. However, I told my wife that I would sell it in exchange for my buying a 1973 Porsche 914. As much as I would have liked to keep it along with the 914, it didn't make sense for us to own four cars at this point.
I bought this car on October 17, 1997 with 91,913 miles on it. It had approximately 116k miles on it when I sold it. It was a rare beast indeed. It was one of only 1084 of the 1987 vintage. (Note: Despite its rarity, most parts are readily available.)
As you'll read more below, I had taken very good care of this car in the time that I had owned it, and it had in turn been very good to me. With ONLY 116k miles on it, it was just being broken in!! In addition to the upgrades and extras below, I had done the following repairs and maintenance in the time that I had owned the car (four years and 24k miles):
Besides doing the repair/maintenance items above, I've also:
What was wrong with the car?
Take it from me, this car was a lot of fun to drive (usually you can't say that about a station wagon!!), and it was absolutely fantastic
in poor weather conditions. Especially armed with snow tires, it was amazing and incredible when the nasty weather began to appear. Add to all that the fact that it had wonderful cargo capacity
(i.e. for trips to Home Depot etc.), and this vehicle was hard to beat, given the price. If you have any questions about any of that, feel free to e-mail me at quattro@pobox.com.
Before getting to the pictures, for those individuals not familiar with these cars, I should
probably try to answer the question: "What is a Quantum Syncro?" Well, perhaps the best way to describe it, for those that are familiar with the Audi model
line-up, is that it is an Audi 4000 quattro Avant (with Avant meaning station wagon in German). You see, in the mid to late 1980's, VW was able to convince
Audi to borrow their quattro system (i.e. mechanical AWD system) for use in their Passat (i.e. large, top of the line) wagon.
Part of the deal was that VW had to use another name than quattro, so they used Syncro (which VW has the rights to...
for their Ferguson viscous coupling AWD system). When they brought the car over to the U.S. at that time, they did not call it Passat, but rather Quantum
instead. So, that's how it came to be called Quantum Syncro.
There are a lot of similarities to the Audi 4000 quattro. The 5 cylinder engine, transmission, and quattro system (with
locking center and rear differentials) are the same. The front suspension is the same, however, the rear suspension is different. Of course, the interior is
different and a lot roomier, and it has MUCH more trunk space!! Heh... heh... :-)
Now..here are the pictures!!
Here is a page of some pictures of the extent of the rust: QSW Rust
Check out these links where I have a lot of action shots!!NEQCUSA Advanced Driving/Safety School at LimeRock Park, CT - Sept. 1999
NEQCUSA Winter Driving School - February 2000
Autocross and Go-Kart track event
For additional info about these cars, link over to these great sites:
Questions? Comments?
