Persona: Dave Pecoraro, Audi Rescuer Extraordinaire

When I first “sat down” with Dave, asking him to tell me a little bit about himself, he replied, “I’m Dave, I have an Audi addiction.” C’mon though, who here doesn’t? I mean isn’t that why you’re part of the club? Dave’s addiction began in the early 2000s when a friend picked up an Audi 80 and decided he wanted to swap a V8 into it. Dave was right there to help. Little did he know this would send him down the rabbit hole of addiction; his end goal, saving as many of the any pre-1995 Audi he could. To be more specific, 1980-1995 quattros, in Dave’s words, “are my jam.”

by: Louli Kourkounakis, photos: Sam Hurly

Since Dave was moving to Utah that summer, he thought an all-wheel drive car would be a better choice with the expected harsh winters. While that 80 was what pushed him over the edge, it was not Dave’s first Audi experience. His best friend had an APR Stage 3 A4 that he enjoyed. What Dave didn’t know is where this addiction would lead him…

So Dave, deciding a quattro of some sort was for him, found a 1988 Audi 90 for $600. As with most old cars, there’s always some weird thing that happens to go wrong. In Dave’s case, his fuel accumulator failed. The dealer price on the part was as much as he had paid for the car. Dave figured there were other routes to get the part, so took a trip to the local U-Pull, and $5 later was fixing the car in the parking lot. This trip only further fueled the fire in Dave to save these old cars!

Although Dave’s day-to-day is spent in the accounting world, he still stays grounded in the car world since his job is at Integrated Engineering. Being an accountant, Dave is always looking for the best deal and best way to get these cars back together… but for less. This sometimes means a decent profit which then goes back into the buy/restore fund. Dave’s garage (and two storage sheds) are full of parts from cars he couldn’t save but, thanks to their sacrifice, will go on to save other cars from the scrap yard.

When he considers the cars he’s owned, there have been over 55 1995 or older Audis that have either been saved, helped others to save, or have given up parts to help save others. With the decline in available vintage parts, Dave has been doing what is needed to help source and store those components. This even includes picking up parts when overseas in order to bring home. Let’s be real, are you even serious about vintage cars if you aren’t buying and shipping parts to friends or family in other countries then bringing them home in your suitcase? I know I’ve done it…. and his doing it too was definitely one of the moments when Dave’s wife realized his dedication.

As was customary at the time, Dave was a key player on discussion forums. For all of those of the forum age, I’m sure we can all relate to the “forum friends” made in that time. While some of them are online only, there are some that we have met in person. One of these “forum friends” for Dave was Brian Scotto. They were both into the older cars and trying to build their Audi. This friendship would eventually take Dave down an exciting path. While he likes being an accountant, who would say no to a local job doing car stuff every day? Brian kept trying to get him to move to California in order to help with Hoonigan, but Dave had a family in Utah. He couldn’t just pack up and make that move. So, when Scotto told him there’s something local he hopped on it! This is how Dave became the VP of Hoonigan Racing Divisionand about the same time Ken Block signed on with Audi and needed someone who knew the older quattros. Who better than Dave, @broken_quattros, to help with all the Audi things Brian Scotto and Ken Block wanted to do?

Some of his most memorable moments from his time at HRD included the build of Lia Block’s first car, to helping import Brian Scotto’s cars from the Carcaine Abroad trip to Europe. This has led him to become great friends with the folks at the DMV with all the cars he’s had to register. In fact, the S2 Avant brought over from that trip, initially purchased by Brian Scotto, was one Dave fell in love with and would later come to own. It became the closing chapter of Dave’s time working at Hoonigan.

One of the things I enjoyed most about my long chat with Dave was his ability to find humor in most things, especially to help through some tough situations. One of these moments, while not funny at the time, was an accident that totaled his rare S6 Avant. Someone had barreled over a hill and rear-ended Dave, hitting him so hard that the car’s roof buckled. At the moment, the only thing Dave could think was to cut the wheel and save the front end. This quick thinking allowed for his motor to be saved, which is the very same motor that would later be used for the build of Lia Block’s first car. Looking back on the situation, he couldn’t help but laugh a little despite it ruining a rare car and dealing with one thing after another trying to get everything resolved.

Towards the end of our chat, I got to check out some of his garage. He’s got a large steering wheel collection. There’s plenty of miscellaneous parts like motors and transmissions to help him keep 5-cylinder 20-valve cars on the road. While “walking” around his garage, I checked out his S2 Avant and his ur quattro… and we got into future plans for their build.

The S2 will be receiving an upgraded turbo. In the early 2000’s Volvo came out with the S60R and V70R, which are also turbo 5-cylinder motors that used a K series turbo. Shortly after their release, someone noticed that there were a lot of similarities between the Volvo and the old-school Audis. It just so happens that they bolted up to an Audi hot side.  With this knowledge, Dave started toying around with ideas to integrate this into one of his builds. From there he pioneered a Volvo turbo swap. This ends up better than the RS2 turbo because of the more modern design. The RS2 turbo doesn’t start to spool until 4,000 rpm but this turbo allows for an integrated diverter valve and starts spooling at 2,500 rpm. 

Besides the turbo, the S2 will also get a built motor with a tubular manifold that he has in his garage. It’s still up in the air where that motor and big turbo will end up though. 

Dave has a few ideas for the ur quattro as well, but they are slower going. He likes to do his modifications in steps, which helps keep his motivation for modding going. Since the quattro has been sitting for so long (and he already did a build when helping Lia with hers) the motivation isn’t there like it was when he first picked it up. He has continued collecting parts for it and recently started working on it again. The end goal is to have it done for summer. 

He wanted to strip the car and paint it to have a pristine car when he’s done, but he’s moving away from that idea as he already “scratched that itch” with Lia’s car. He has a built 5-cylinder motor ready to drop in, but he also has six other 20-valve motors to choose from. The engine bay will be getting some fresh paint to help clean it up after some recent mods. Once this is done and he starts enjoying it, he will start planning for the next stage of the build… or maybe other vintage four-ringers to save.

If you ever need some parts or ideas for your older Audi, Dave is your guy. And if you get a chance to sit down with Dave, I would definitely recommend it.  He has some great stories where his passion for all things Audi, especially the older ones really comes through.