Throwback Thursday: German tuner's Audi Quattro estate and Audi 80-derived Quattro foor-door

This first conversion was Artz’s simplest. He simply “cut directly behind the B-pillar and back, parallel with the body crease that runs around the waist of the car. A fabricated sheet metal roof extension is grafted in a little forward of the doorpost and runs straight back to the new C-pillar, which drops sharply down and houses the small rear tailgate”.

A similar operation was carried out an Audi 200, with which Artz would provide you a Quattro four-wheel drive system if you so wished. Autocar considered the 200 Kombi “an attractive alternative to the current market, and at about £12,700 without the four-wheel drive, not ridiculously expensive”.

However, “the ultimate in cargo chic,” we reckoned, was the Audi Quattro Kombi. The operation to create this one went thus: “The complete C-pillar has been scrapped, the roof extended straight back and an acutely angled rear tailgate, originally a standard Volkswagen Scirocco part, finishes off the re-worked rear end.”

“The side windows are exceptionally long,” Laurence said, “in fact so long enough to suggest that the structural rigidity of the car may have been compromised.”

Of course, Artz refuted this claim, saying: “Certainly, the car would not be suitable for severe cross-country work, but we have installed spreaders across the B and C points of the roof, and a great deal of cross-floor strengthening.”

Autocar continued: “Additional strength seems all the more important after viewing the complex bends and angles of the tailgate glass, the weight of which must be a considerable burden on the rubber sealing strips.” In fact, Artz himself said he may incorporate a cross piece instead, as the glass used was “exceptionally expensive”.

The Quattro Kombi being a prototype, we speculated at a price of £6,700 – after you supplied the original sports coupé, of course. We were very impressed, in fact, saying: “Artz’s work is nicely understated – a contrast to most German tuning specialists. Finish is to exceptionally high standards. There is little, in fact, to suggest that these cars are not production line items."

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So, what else did we find “lurking in the shadows of Günter Artz’s workshop"? Well, a Quattro with four doors, bastardised from an Audi 80. Naturally.

It was built at the request of a customer, and with relative ease, too, seeing as the Quatto is based on the Audi 80’s ground group. This meant that “the Quattro’s mechanical entrails slotted neatly into the 80’s shell, with only changes to the floorplan's backbone needed to accommodate the new propshaft, and newly fabricated mountings for the location of the rear differential”.