My relationships with cars could seriously be dramatized in something like the O.C. I am not one to shy from my heart, which usually makes my brain take a back seat to my choices in these matters. Chubbs was a mix of the two, but a choice mostly made with my heart. Who wouldn’t want a beautiful Audi A6 4.2-liter V8 with a six-speed manual swap? While this car would ride flatbeds more than it would drive. It wasn’t entirely the cars fault. My pockets aren’t deep enough for a car of this caliber.

Chubbs started in my life as a daily bought from a good friend who builds and maintains Audis. He’s quite brilliant and when I was looking for my next car, he was there with Chubbs. A 2002 Audi A6 manual swap with an exhaust note that rivaled Freddy Mercury’s ability to sing. He had an ecu flash and a V8; and with the manual, rich leather interior, sunroof, and smooth ride I was pretty much the fastest thing around. If I was in traffic just the burl would have people hang out their windows and ask about the car. But over time, hiccup after hiccup, I needed to get a daily that just ran. So Chubbs went into our garage for a new purpose. I was going to learn with him and try some things out. I designed a wide body kit.

Next, I would reduce as much weight as possible, get a roll cage, racing seats, and finally, crazy wide Rotiform rims with aero discs. He would be beautiful with that wide body I would craft out of fiber glass. I picked a way to paint the car that allowed me to add or change parts over time and have everything match. Elephant indigo is what I called the blue paint I made at work. Industrial enamel fast dry that I would roll on two coats then wet sand for days. It gave the car a satin shine.

Next order was more weight reduction, I had a bad alternator poke up its head so I was like might as well take off the front end around the motor. Put new seals on the valve covers with love since it was also leaking oil all over the alternator. While the front was off, I had fun and painted everything red and made elephant logos for Chubbs on the timing covers. Chubbs Looked great and I was super proud of how much I was getting to see what I had envisioned coming to fruition.

I finally bolted it all back together and it was test drive time. I went out and it was epic, so light, so powerful and the racing bucket just held my ass in place. I got back home after about thirty minutes and put it in reverse and BAM the car died. I am not even kind of good at electrical work, which this car needed the most. The dashboard went out and all the windows stayed down. It would crank but wouldn’t catch. Damn… I had to push the car over to road parking since our garage is up hill (I hate slanted driveways!). I put a cover from my Plymouth on it and there it sat.

Months go by, we’ve got bills to pay, I can’t afford to put any mechanic time into my car. With no end to it sight we have a couple teenage boys needing to drive and park at our house. That parking spot was at a premium. I looked into selling Chubbs, and finally some one found me and was willing to take a stripped Audi A6 that didn’t run. He lives super far away and when I found out how much he was paying for shipping I just gave him the car for free. He told me he would finish building it. That is all I wanted. A future for this amazing car. The day he received it in Chicago he had it up and running. The problem happened to be a bad ignition. It’s now on its way to have a cage put in. To me that’s a happy ending, and I get updates on how Chubbs is doing.

Thank You Chubbs for the learning experience, and all those nutty memories. Fun fact my A6 with a manual swap topped out at 178mph because of redline, and it didn’t take long to get there. That was before it dropped 500lbs. What a cool entry level super car.