By: Ryan Ponto, photos by Hoonigan
Editor’s Note: This article originally ran in the Q2_2022 issue of quattro Magazine. If you would like to subscribe to quattro Magazine, please join Audi Club here.
Where to start with Brian Scotto and his Coupe quattro.
More recently, the Audi faithful will instantly recognize his Lago Blue with its unique Votex dual rounds and beautiful crafted widebody that was displayed at SEMA in 2021… but it has been a long road to get to this point. Brian first spotted a coupe in the back of a body shop down in Long Island and instantly had visions of grandeur and given there were only about 1,700 or so of these in North America, it was quite rare if not terribly fast. At the time, circa 2004, Brian had his first real job with Rides Magazine and decided to treat himself. He went on the hunt and ultimately found a Coupe in Lago Blue, which in all honesty wasn’t his ideal color as he lusted for the ubiquitous 90s pearl white.
Brian drove the coupe for about 6 months, enjoying every moment of it before the itch to modify took over and he started dismantling it… fast forward a few years, 16 to be precise, and he finally had it back on the road, basically stock with some minor upgrades. Even still, the coupe was painfully slow.
So, to take it to the next step, Brian turned to Hank Iroz for some proper love in the power department. Scotto figures the new motor should be around 850-1,1000 hp or so on depending on boost, and it’ll rev to 8,000 rpm. Seems like a nice responsible number for the coupe.
Hank hadn’t turned his focus on Audi’s original 20-valve 5-cylinder engines in a while and was super excited for the build given all the new technology that has been released since the earlier days of I5 tuning. This particular motor is a 3B from a 1991 200 20V, stroked to 2.6-liters and fitted with FFE x Beam Rods, JE Pistons, an Iroz CNCed 3B head, Supertech valvetrain, 7A cams INA billet valve cover, and MTM intake manifold. Iroz was able to update it with a ton of new technology. It’s now been converted to drive by wire, upgraded to individual spark, including a plethora of monitoring that modern day motors come with. It features a Xona rotor footprint 8264S turbo that can be changed from the 850hp setup to 1100 hp output quite easily without changing the main set up. It’s running Syvecs throughout for the ECU and for the PDM to control the entire chassis harness.
Brian admits, it would have likely been easier to put in a newer generation Audi 07K 5-cylinder in the car, but he had already saved a ton of cool parts like an MTM manifold and the visuals of a more period correct motor just felt right. And, well if we are being honest, the classic 3B just sounds better.
On the four corners the Coupe is supported by KW ST coilovers. To get the power to the ground, the transmission is a drivesport CA dogbox connected to an MME paddle shift. Brian admits infamous project creep really got out of hand fast, given he originally planned to build this car a modest 350hp with an 01E 6 Speed and now it’s basically full racecar spec. Stopping comes from Porsche 996 calipers at the front and Touareg rears.
Growing up on the East Coast, Brian really wanted to race in the Pennsylvania Hill Climb Association and the New England Hill Climb Association. For a New Yorker, as he was at the time, one can easily race 12 or 15 races within a 5-hour tow away with these two series. This was part of Brian’s inspiration for the build; to finish what the original goal was. Because of this, the car now has an FIA spec cage, with double a bars, basically able to handle a full rally car stage. Brian noted that after becoming a dad, his thoughts on safety really changed from the past decade.
Inside the cockpit sits a pair of Sparco seats, which are the biggest seats ever made called the Pilot. Given Brian is 6’8,” these were a must. For a more average-sized individual, the harness holes in Brian’s seat are at or above their head. The setup proved to be a challenge to fit in the car because it’s not an overly big car. Rob Parsons at Cage Kits 3D scanned the entire interior of the car to fit the tightest roll cage, with only millimeter of room between the cage and the body to give Brian as much room as possible.
Switching to the exterior, Scotto ended up with a body kit from Prior which was a bit of a surprise given the coupe is a 30-year-old car and not something you’d expect new body kits to be available. When the limited edition (40 each) kit was released, the internet basically exploded. Hype Beast caught the story of the kit and frankly shocked Brian, because who even knows about these old coupes? This updated body really elevated the coupe’s aesthetics giving it cues of the Sport quattro that really made that car stand out. Some might think it’s over the top and garish, but that’s part of what makes it so awesome.
The secondary benefit of this body kit is the fact that from factory you can only stuff 235 series tires under the stock fenders, which frankly wouldn’t handle the 800+ hp without simply melting away. Now the car has Rotiform’s all-new ROC-H designed specifically for this car and fitted Toyo R888 315 series rubber on all four corners, which Brian admits could be a little too much from a drivability standpoint but at least it can now put down the power.
While Brian had initially done the typical B4 hood update, the Prior body kit inspired him to go back to the B3, also fitting the rare Kamei dual-round headlights for a unique nod to his old Volkswagen days in the 90s.
We could easily continue to ramble on about this build, but we will let the photos do the rest of the work, be sure to check out our Unfair Advantage Podcast where you can hear Brian go over every little detail and flip through all the photos past and present of this beautiful build.
Links:
Unfair Advantage Podcast: Brian Scotto Part 1: https://anchor.fm/audi-club-north-america/episodes/Brian-Scotto-Part-1–Hoonigan-Chief-Creative-Officer–Talks-SEMA-Cars-and-Audi-Addiction-e1ekklc
Unfair Advantage Podcast: Brian Scotto Part 2: https://anchor.fm/audi-club-north-america/episodes/Brian-Scotto-Part-2–Hoonigan-Chief-Creative-Officer–Talks-Wheels–Art-of-Youtube–Electrikhana-e1ers79
