I met Sunny many years ago when I was sporting around in a new-to-me 1983 Ur-Quattro (above) I’d picked up from Tennessee. The low-mileage but run hard 10-valve 5-cylinder turbo in my UrQ was having some issues and I needed someone to help me figure out what was wrong. This was actually the first turbo-charged vehicle we’d ever owned in our family, making it a bit alien to us.
At the time, the internet was still littered with homebrew websites like geosites and angelfire, the best search engine was “altavista” and there was something called “Audifans.com” on the World-Wide-Web. Through what limited resources were available then, a friend through the BBS system we were using on Gran Touring Audi (GTA) recommended I seek out Sunny for help.
Sunny, modest and reserved, started his wrench turning much like I did, helping his father – who in his case was already a mechanic. The family trade continued, and as Sunny grew of age he joined his father in maintaining the fleet of vehicles owned by the King of Bahrain at the time. After many years of working on a plethora of sports cars, exotics and luxury vehicles, they immigrated to the US. Soon after, they opened R&T – specializing in the same kinds of cars they were used to working on overseas: Audi, BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen & Mercedes-Benz.
Admittedly, despite everything he’s worked on Sunny’s passion for European cars has always been centered around Audi’s. Especially the specialty models – the true “S” cars. Back when I met him, the UrQs were already scarce and the Mk2 Quattros (1990-91 Quattro Coupes – seen below) were becoming more affordable and were all the rage in the “audi tuner world” with shops like Blaufergnugen and 2bennett taking center stage. Back then the community was so close nit, I had many idea exchanges and emails with Javad Shadzi while he was building his 4000 Quattro. – btw, You might know Javad better as the CEO of what is now 034-motorsport. Still, #thehotness was “S2” and “RS2” conversions and Sunny was part of that. All the while, the new A4’s and 2nd generation S4’s were still coming up in rank.
Skipping back to today, I was quite pleased to see two Mk2 Quattro Coupes sitting outside R&T. After speaking with Sunny for quite some time, and despite his father’s passing last year, he hasn’t lost the drive to continue working with the specialty Audi’s. He says he’s not much for the newer cars, and prefers anything manual and would love a TT-RS, but spends a lot of his time nowadays working on “swaps.”
“Swaps are in… especially with Wagons” – He’s converted plenty of automatic-only cars to 6-speed manuals and seems to have that down to a science. One of his most recent projects is converting an S6 Avant (normally 2.7-litre V6 turbo automatic) to a 4.2-litre S8 engine strapped to a 6-speed manual. “It takes time, but it’s not that bad” – he says.
With respect to this project, Sunny says “this one will be easier than others” since the donor S8 was already converted to a manual. Honestly, I was impressed with “s8 manual” since those were never made available in the US- but the Avant does make it that much more. When he’s done, the Avant should put out “somewhere around 380 hp with the tune.” Not quite up modern sports car metrics, but it’s more than enough to put a smile on your face on the way to the grocery store!
Sunny’s passion for cars started from a young age, and remains to this day. And I think the video (below) from his website helps summarize the experience at R&T. It was an absolute pleasure to reconnect with him and GTM looks forward to seeing his completed Avant and other upcoming projects.
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