Introduced at the 1983 IAA in Frankfurt, the Treser Audi Quattro Roadster was one of the first and few attempts to make a convertible version of the Audi Ur-Quattro. Brainchild of Walter Treser, former Audi-Sport boss, the Treser Quattro Roadster was a convertible with a hardtop roof.

 

This hardtop roof was, in contrary to other hardtops like B+B's Magic-Top Mercedes SEC, a manually operated roof when the car was introduced in 1983. At the touch of a button the rear lid opened, all you had to do was to undo a pair of latches and flip the whole fibreglass roof in the trunk. However, later versions of Treser's Audi Quattro Roadster used a fully automatic system with hydraulic actuators that tilted the lid and made the roof dissapear in the trunk and vice versa. A hardtop roof usually takes a lot of space and especially when it's in one piece as is the case with the Treser Audi. This meant that the Audi Quattro, which was a 4-seater had to give up it's rear seats, and have them replaced with some very small seats, not suited to seat adults.

 

Naturally Walter Treser fitted the roofless Audi Quattro with all kinds of reinforcements to ensure the handling was exactly the same, or even better than the stock Quattro. The new ro. Extra horsepower could also be ordered in the shape of a 250BHP engine (instead of the stock 200)

 

A Treser Audi Quattro Roadster was yours for 142.000DM in 1983. Not exactly cheap, but by 1985, two years after the introduction in Frankfurt, Treser had already built and sold some 40 cars that went mostly to the Middle-East, the USA and the UK.

 

1983: An interesting design sketch of the Treser Quattro Roadster showing what it should look like.

 


 

And this is what it technically looks like to make a convertible. Lots of reinforcement is needed not to make a roofless car fall apart during cornering....

 


 

This is one of the first Treser Audi Quattro Roadsters, probably the first (prototype) vehicle. The car can be distinguished from the later production cars by means of the bigger, more chunky cover for the retractable roof. Also the rear wing is of a type only seen on this car.

 

 

A clear demonstration of the roof mechanism, clearly operated manually as was the case with these early versions. Later versions of the Treser Quattro Roadster were equipped with an automatically operated folding roof.

 

Another clear shot of the fibreglass cover of the early versions of the Quattro Roadster, which was quite lumpy.

 


 

This car, the EI-WT-6, is the same car as the above prototype, but in a second generation of it's life. The cover for the roof has modified to look more elegant and it uses the regular Treser trunk spoiler.

 

 

 


 

Although red as well, this car appears to be a metallic red one with a special beige/creme leather interior....

 

....and this one has the automatically operated roof, as demonstrated by Walter Treser himself in the following sequence.

 

 

 

 

 


 

A right-hand-drive Audi Quattro Roadster.

 

 


 

 

 


 

A tuner car tuned: this Treser Quattro Roadster was modified once more by German tuner Kerscher in the late 1980's / early 1990's. Fat wheels and tires fitted under an extreme widebody kit with Testarossa streaks and the nose of an Sport Quattro. Pretty insane!

 

 

 



Text: copyright Bram Corts 2013 - 2017

 

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