OEM+ 8L Audi S3

Visitors to last year’s Audi Driver international at Castle Combe will undoubtedly have admired Jit Vara’s Nogaro blue series 1 s3 on display in the show ’n’ shine area. Jit, from Hitchin in Hertfordshire, tells us that he was actually quite shy about putting the car on show alongside top-notch concours cars like Andy stevenson’s yellow tt roadster and Chris Wood’s Kingfisher blue Coupé but, as we told him, there are not many entries who aren’t in awe of the incredible quality of those cars. But, like any competition, it’s more about taking part than winning prizes, and Jit’s s3 was more than good enough for the show ’n’ shine, especially considering that it is driven regularly and is modified more for ‘go’ than show. indeed, we’re hoping that we’ll see his s3 out on the circuit at this year’s event, as well as in the show ’n’ shine, because it clearly has performance on a much higher level than the standard s3, and – as we all know – the stock s3 isn’t exactly a slouch. We met up again with Jit while he was on a recent visit to the tt shop near Bedford, to have a Milltek sport exhaust system fitted, and while the car was up on the ramps it seemed a good time to have a chat and find out more about the man and his machine… in fact, he tells us that this is his third series 1 s3 – it seems that Jit is, in his own words, ‘a proper petrolhead’, having owned over 80 cars so far, with a particular penchant for Audis. As well as the current s3, he also has a 65,000-mile 80 Cabriolet, and an A4 Avant quattro sport for family duties – ‘to say that we are a Audi family is a understatement!’ Jit’s previous cars include BMW M3s, AMG Mercedes and Alpina BMWs, but before that he’d owned several generations of Golf Gtis, from Mk 1 and Mk 2 to a Mk 3 Vr6 and a couple of Mk 5 Gtis, so the foundation was there for a switch to Volkswagen Group models and it just needed the right button to be pushed… ‘i was really only into my rear-wheel- drive cars, but then a friend asked whether i’d tried a premium hot hatch, so i testdrove an s3 and i was hooked – that was over 10 years ago and i’ve never looked back!’  ‘i bought my current 2001 s3 about three years ago. i wasn’t even looking for one at the time, but i saw this for sale and the list of factory options had me hooked, so i asked my brother to check it out for me. i took his word for it and didn’t even drive it until i had already bought it, but when i first saw it i could tell that it’d been loved by its three owners from new, even with 109,000 on the clock – just about run-in for a VW Group car! ‘As well as virtually all the factory options, it came with a massive file of service history, but it wasn’t without its problems. The Haldex rear-drive coupling wasn’t working, but my brother hadn’t noticed – he obviously hadn’t driven it hard enough to lose traction at the front wheels. ‘i took it to a local Audi Centre to have it repaired and at great expense they replaced just about everything associated with the quattro system, but still couldn’t get the rear drive to operate! i got my money back and ended up taking the car to VAGtech near Milton Keynes, as they’d come highly recommended and clearly had lots of experience with their own turbo’d r32 and tt quattro. ‘Even they were scratching their heads at first, but after checking everything he possibly could Jon decided that it could be a fault in the ABs pump that was to blame and so i bought a good secondhand one, had it fitted and that sorted it out, at last… ‘i also had VAGtech replace all the suspension bushes and fit a set of H&r springs, as well as the engine and gearbox mounts, and it drove just like new again. rather than use aftermarket polyurethane bushes, i decided to have standard oEM rubber bushes fitted throughout, although i did change the dampers to AP sports units.

The car already came with a set of Forge Motorsport adjustable tie-bars in place, presumably fitted as a preventative measure as i believe that there were some problems with the standard tie-bars breaking on the early models. ‘Mine is one of these early models, with the 210 Ps AMK unit, rather than the 225 Ps BAM engine. When i first drove the s3, it was oK power-wise, and i did the usual modifications like a Badger5 turbo intake pipe and Forge 008 diverter valve, but it still didn’t feel fast enough, having previously had a 356 bhp M3 E46 just beforehand. it was at this point that i started looking at the options for big turbos that are capable of 400 bhp plus, although i wanted to keep it really useable on the road, without the turbo lag and narrow power band that can be associated with big turbos on a small capacity engine like the 1.8t. ‘in the end, after discussing it at great length with Bill Brockbank at Badger5, my heart was set on a hybrid K04 set-up, hoping for 350 bhp. i had to have a really hard think about whether this modification was what i really wanted, as it wasn’t cheap!  After all, i could have sold up and bought a much more recent 8P s3 and made some simple mods to it and have over 400 bhp, but i just love the look of the ‘old skool’ series 1 s3, so i took the plunge and dropped it off in the capable hands of Bill at Badger5.

‘He completed all the performance modifications, which included a bottomend rebuild with forged conrods, a Badger5 sports manifold and a BBt K04 hybrid turbo, which was built to Bill’s spec. A custom 3.5inch downpipe and a race cat was installed, and a toyosports front-mount intercooler was mounted upside-down, with custom pipework so that the stock fog lights could be kept. Painted black, instead of the standard shiny polished chrome, it is barely noticeable behind the standard front bumper. ‘i also had a Devil’s own WMi (Water Methanol injection) system installed so that engine temperatures are kept low, with the water bottle and pump unit fitted neatly in the corner of the boot space. As anyone with a K04 turbo 1.8t knows, they are like heat pumps and the WMi really keeps temperatures down, so that you not only get consistent reliable power output but also reduce the
heat that kills turbos, manifolds and heads! ‘she rolled out of Bill’s workshop with a consistent 336 bhp recorded on back-toback dyno runs – that’s genuine, regular, reliable power, not just a one good run of say 360 bhp and then the heat brings the real power down to 320 bhp. i won’t lie, i was a little disappointed that it didn’t make 350 bhp, but once i drove it for the first time i forgot all about that last 14 bhp, as it pulls strongly from 2600 rpm all the way to the increased rev limiter at 7000 rpm, and the way the power comes in is amazing – the mapping is superb. Bill did say that as the new engine’s piston rings bed-in the power output should go up, so i need to get it back on the dyno rollers at some point. it’s now booked in with Badger5 during early July for an sEM Motorsport inlet manifold and an additional WMi nozzle as this can add an extra 20 bhp.

‘But, whatever the numbers on the dyno graph, the actual performance is quite sensational and on a number of occasions, while out fully enjoying the car’s increased performance, i’ve had a motorbike rider struggling to keep up and then saying to me, ‘Wow, that has got some serious get-up-andgo!’ i really appreciated that, coming from a biker.  ‘The most recent modification is the Miltek sport exhaust system, with shaun at the tt shop having a special adapter fabricated to mate it to the 3.5-inch downpipe. it has been very effective as it has made the car feel like it breathes better and the response from the turbo is much quicker – it seems to spool up faster – and the exhaust note is amazing, not too loud – just right, and with no drone whatsoever. ‘Apart from the engine upgrades, i wanted to keep the rest of the car pretty much oEM+ by only using parts from other Volkswagen Group models, so the brakes have also been upgraded using sEAt Leon Cupra r (LCr) Brembo four-pot brakes and brand-new discs but fitted with Ferodo Ds2500 high-performance pads. The stopping power is unbelievable, even by modern standards. The wheels are 18-inch tt rs rims finished in shadow chrome and fitted with Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres, so they not only look great, but also provide very high levels of grip whether the road is dry or wet. ‘For the interior i wanted a flat-bottomed steering wheel but i didn’t want any old s-line wheel, i wanted a chunky rs one. i had already installed an rNs-E from an A4, so when i got the rs 4 steering wheel i also wanted the multi-function buttons to work. i contacted Gareth at HazzyDayz and he and the rest of the team wired it all up, getting it all working just as if it had left the factory with this spec. ‘i’ve since made a few more oEM+ modifications to bring the interior all together, including an 8P gearknob, tt pedal covers and the ambient lighting modification.
oEm