To his amazement, the Tracers fitted under the stock fenders without any mods. "Before I bought the wheels, I was talking to Tunershop about a German A6 with the same wheels," he explained. "They'd seen the car and said the wheels poked out a little. When I got my wheels, I took the suspension to its highest adjustment but it was still too low. I finally added the stock rubber spring mount, which raised the car 3" and gave me room to play with. I had to adjust the camber and try two tire sizes before finding the perfect setup.
"Everybody on the Audi forums said it would rub. That's what made me think outside the box. I noticed the Audi community is narrow-minded, but I wanted to take a risk."
After the wheels were mounted, Matt's A4 was hit by debris on the freeway. It knocked the front bumper, tore off the left skirt and the kit on the rear. Being forced to repair everything, he decided to get more ambitious.
The Rieger RS4 front bumper was shaved, removing the European plate recess for a cleaner look. Rieger side skirts and roof spoiler were also added. Matt previously had a Rieger rear bumper as well, but after the accident he switched to a Kerscher part with a carbon splitter.
He further updated the front with a DTM Karbon bser hood, plus Top Secret flush hood pins. The Audi grille was replaced with a four-bar badgeless piece before European smoked bi-xenon headlamps were installed.
Updating the rear is a European trunk with a molded Ultra Sport lip spoiler. To finish the custom work, the door moldings were shaved.
Since the entire car was renovated, Matt had Angel Autobody & Paint respray it the original Ocean blue with a purple pearl added for an effect Matt named 'Blurple'.
Looking incredibly Euro, Matt continued with power upgrades. He knew the 1.8T was very potent but was unpleasantly surprised to discover few options were available at the time. "I did beta testing on Revo's software," he said. "I basically tried it for everybody else because they didn't have anything for the B6 A4 then. I started with a high-boost file that gave me 1.8bar (26psi). They then upgraded to their final file, which gave a more reliable 1.5bar, leveling out at 1.2bar."