# 2013 Allroad on Air. Lowroad...



## jsundell (Aug 15, 2005)

What started as a joke around the office at RPI turned into a project, turned into a nightmare, turned into something cool.

When we got rid of our APR K04 MK6 GTI, we started thinking of what would replace it. We thought about getting another B7 RS4, but those are starting to pop up everywhere and as cool as they are, they don’t wow me as much as they used to. Then, as a joke, I suggested. “Why don’t we get an A4 Allroad and do what everyone else is doing with their A6 Allroads. Big wheels and air ride.” So then we ordered an A4 Allroad…

Then, since there isn’t a kit for the B8 chassis yet, I ordered a B6/B7 Airlift kit from Bagriders. I had done some searching and found that some people had modified a B6/B7 kit to fit their B8, but not much more information than that. So I figured it wouldn’t be too hard of a task to modify slightly. I also got the Accuair e-level system for the car.

The parts for the car arrived before the actual car did…


















The car finally arrived about 2 months later, and it was stock for about 90 minutes, or 3.5km as that’s how far of a drive it is from the dealership to the shop.


















That afternoon, we decided to atleast get the car sitting properly while we sort out the air ride and what we need to modify to make the B6/B7 kit fit the B8.

A set of H&R sport springs and some BBS CH-R in 20x10.5 et25 were bolted on. I was thinking of doing some 3 piece Rotiform, but at the time, it was a 6-8 week wait time with SEMA on the way and there’s no way the car can stay rolling on stock wheels for that long… so good old BBS to the rescue.


























Our initial plan was to do 2 x 3gal tanks, but we changed our minds and decided to do a 5 gal tank in the trunk using an EXO mount when we talked with Ben at the Accuair booth during SEMA… So we played the waiting game a little longer for a white 5 gallon tank… Little did we know, the wait was in vain since we ended up getting sent a raw tank at the end of the wait… Oh well, no time to send it back and put the build behind another week.


















Somewhere in between all the waiting, I had a roof box sent to the body shop for paint to match the color of the car. I think it turned out great and makes the Allroad really look like an Allroad.


























So then came D-Day, We finally got our pieces finished that we had designed to adapt the B6/B7 kit to the front strut, and the spacer setup for the rear bag to fit the rear spring perch. Now is a good time to mention that we employed the expertise of two local air ride aficionados, Dean, and Bojan.










You might recognize some of their handy work on these cars.

https://vimeo.com/16556137
https://vimeo.com/48936841

Anyways...


































The basic idea of this install was to have the tank and compressors visible in the trunk using the EXO mount, but have everything else hidden… So we mounted the tank to the tool kit (which we emptied out) and we ended up being able to run all the lines and wires through the trunk panels without cutting anything and using factory grommets. Bonus! The only wires you can see when you lift the spare tire cover are the power, ground, and the drain for the tank…


























So, as of about 4:30am on Sunday, after two weekends of test fitting and part making, and e-levelling, the Allroad is finally a Lowroad. 

This is how it sat after we buttoned it up and rolled it outside for the first time.









The only thing that may have been a draw back to using a B6/B7 kit is the rear suspension. The rear bag limits the car ‘UP’ to about the same as it was with sport springs… the rear shock (which is a Bilstein Sport for a B8) limits the car down because of the shock length… I would assume that an actual B8 kit will have a different rear bag, maybe a little bit taller bag, and possibly a shorter strut that will compress short enough to allow max down. (the rear bag doesn’t even fully compress before the shock runs out of travel.) BUT, it still goes down enough to stuff the tires and keep it from rolling. Here are some pics during the day.


























































And here's a video the Dub Allstars put together of their build process on the car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTtQtyj87Hk&feature=plcp

We're gonna try and get out soon to get some actual footage of the car.


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## gli_russell (Oct 12, 2004)

Wow, looks great. 

Could you have hidden every thing if you wanted too? Is there room to hide twin tanks somewhere in the car?


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## SoSuMi (May 14, 2004)

gli_russell said:


> Wow, looks great.
> 
> Could you have hidden every thing if you wanted too? Is there room to hide twin tanks somewhere in the car?


Yeah, that's some impressive work. The car looks great.


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## G0to60 (Jun 23, 2003)

That looks great! Love the work you did on it.

My only beef is that this look has been done to death. Instead of copying what the C5 allroad crowd is doing I would have loved to see you go with a more off road approach. Stay with bags but go up instead of down. Make it what an allroad was meant (in theory) to do and go off the beaten path every once in a while.

Don't get me wrong. It turned out great. Nice work. :thumbup:


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## jsundell (Aug 15, 2005)

Initially, we were going to hide the tanks in the spare tire well, but we decided to use the EXO mount to show off the system instead.

Having an Allroad that went up and offroad would be pretty cool considering everyone lowers the allroad to make it have massive curb appeal. We also have a Q7 though, so making the Allroad do what the Q7 already does seemed a bit redundant. 

Appreciate the feedback. Mostly, we just wanted to make a new allroad look cool like the old A6 allroads do! That's also why we decided to order it with the grey bodykit instead of the bodycolor trim. Think of it as a an homage to the original Allroad, hehehe.:beer::beer:


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## GTI4ME (Feb 18, 1999)

VERY nice! Can't wait to see what's next :thumbup:


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## vwbeaner (Jun 4, 2007)

Damn you, now I have a boner at work.


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## jsundell (Aug 15, 2005)

Here's a video I made this weekend of the car.


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## bLeW-DuB (Oct 28, 2003)

:heart:


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