Wishlist Wednesday: It’s Fast, It’s Rare, and It’s Really Ugly
It important that we understand that Wishlist Wednesday is a living document that is meant to ebb and flow in dynamic ways to remain an ever-changing representation of the joys of the motoring world. What does that mean exactly? It means, you never know what will show up on this list, but you can bet it is for a specific, and monumental purpose. Which is why this very fun and very ugly Audi A4 ute conversion is joining the wishlist.
This one jumped about a mile off of Bring a Trailer’s page this morning. It’s hard to know whether this bastard A4 makes us happy smile or nervous smile; either way we are smiling.
The Audi A4 pick-up conversion
This glorious creature started life as a 2004 Audi A4. This one is all-wheel drive and powered by a turbocharged 1.8-liter inline-four paired with a six-speed manual transmission. The seller bought the A4 in 2017, where he immediately started the ute conversion.
Before this Audi A4’s glorious transformation, it was still a pretty decent car. For the time, A4s were well equipped and beautifully handling sedans. They had a firm suspension, a great all-wheel-drive system, and delivered a peppy 180 hp. All in all, not a bad little get around. Now, you take the back seats and turn them into a big bucket – Shoot; we really got something here.
Madness perfected
Smyth Performance makes this conversion kit which includes, the necessary structural reinforcements, fiberglass quarter panels and rear bodywork, and aluminum truck-bed flooring. If you can believe it, this is what Smyth Performance does. They make truck conversions from anything from a Jeep Cherokee to a Volkswagen Beetle. It is full-blown madness, and it makes my heart happy. The seller documented his conversion build on the Audi forum, Audizine.
The Bring a Trailer description goes on to say that the seller used Acura MDX taillights and repainted the entire car to match the factory black. Although it appears to be repaired now, the CarFax report shows there was damage on the right side of the vehicle.
Business in the front, party in the back
While the front of the cabin appears to be factory original with heated leather seats, aluminum trim, WeatherTech mats, and standard-issue radio, but it has been given a touch more power than the original. The seller added a stage 1 ECU tune, downpipe, APR Stealth Series cat-back exhaust, and 19-inch Rotiform wheels.
Take action on this Audi A4 ute
As of this writing, the Franken-Audi’s auction has five days left, and the bidding is currently at $5,500. This car needs to be bought by someone, so I don’t get it.
I really don’t even want to buy it just feels like something that would come in handy when you least expect it, like when you need to move a bunch of skateboards for some reason, or like your neighbor asks you to help him move his marble collection. The point is you never know when you’ll need an Audi A4 truck thing, and with 2020 going the way it is, you can never be too careful.
