Welcome to this week’s FC Throwback, where we take a look back at some of our favourite previous feature cars. This week it’s Steve Thom’s slammed Audi A4 from back in 2014…
After a long three years of ups and downs, Steve Thom’s patience has finally paid off as he nails it with his aired-out Audi.
William Edward Hickson, heard of him? Me neither. But thanks to the worldwide web, I now know that before he kicked the bucket, he was an educational writer, much like myself! (no, you’re a ‘writer’ that needs educating! – Dav). Why am I telling you this I hear you cry!? Well, he’s also the same geezer that came up with the popular saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again”. A proverb that Croydon-based modder, Steve Thom, has truly taken to heart.
You see Steve contacted us quite some time ago about featuring his Audi A4, but at the time it wasn’t quite up to scratch. We know a good egg when we see one, though, and had full faith that Steve would be back. Sure enough, Mr Thom came through and eventually nailed it hard with his aired-out Audi. Let’s not jump ahead though – a whole lot of jazzy stuff happened in-between.
Before the Audi came along, Steve was rocking around in a 320bhp Astra SRi Turbo. All was good in the hood and things got even better when his missus dropped the news that she was expecting a new addition to the Thom family, hurrah! It was bad news for the stripped out Astra though – it had to go, boo! A family-friendly four-door A4 replaced it, and whilst Steve had all the intentions of leaving it standard, things soon changed!
Almost everything you see done to the car is thanks to Steve’s own fair hands. The front bumper and indicators have all been smoothed off and combined with a SEAT Cupra-R Splitter for a tidy finish. The rear end has had just as much love with the boot being smoothed and relieved of all its badges, nice.
After that things turned a bit sour. The Audi was shipped off to a local bodyshop where it lived for no less than 6 months! Eventually the car came out with a less than fresh three-stage pearl red paint job. In no time at all the paint started to crack and flake and the bodyshop had disappeared into liquidation. So Steve dropped the car off at another bodyshop to get the shoddy work sorted.
But bad luck followed him, and whilst in the second bodyshop the car was damaged. However, Steve isn’t one to give up easily. The car was then handed over to Jamie at Taboo Wraps who treated it to an eye-popping Hornet Metallic wrap. The end result is almost as good as a paint job – top stuff.
The A4 has had plenty of different rims bolted up to it, but the latest set are killer! Staggered 8.5x19in and 10x19in Rotiform TMB wheels were wrapped in 215/35×18 and 225/35×18 Falken rubber before being tucked up into the Audi’s arches. Sorting out the lows is a full Air Lift suspension kit complete with the lightweight 5-gallon tank and finished off with a custom install.
Of course no build would be complete without an awesome interior. Corbeau have taken care of things thanks to a pair of RRX seats that have been stitched with colour coded thread to match the exterior. The rear bench and door cards have been done to match. There’s even a touch of flocking on the centre console and to finish off a TT flat-bottom wheel. Lovely.
Steve has proven that as long as you stick to it anything is possible. Despite his setbacks, he’s come out shining thanks to a lot of hard work and dedication, well done matey!
TECH SPEC AUDI A4
Styling
Smoothed front bumper, boot and wings, SEAT Cupra-R splitter, Hydro dipped carbon wing mirrors, Fly eye headlights, 15000k HIDs, LED fog lights, wrapped in Hornet Metallic vinyl
Chassis
Air Lift V2 performance suspension, lightweight 5-gallon tank, 2 compressors, 3/8 lines, 8.5x19in and 10x19in Rotiform TMB wheels
215/35×18 and 225/35×18 Falken tyres
Interior
Custom-made boot build, re-trim from Corbeau with colour coded stitching, flocked centre console, Audi TT flat-bottom wheel
Audio
Bose sound system, Kenwood TV/radio/DVD player, 1200w sub and amp
Tuning
Stage 2 R-Tech map – 230bhp 280lb/ft, custom exhaust system, decat, front mount intercooler, Forge recirc valve,
Ram Air filter
Thanks
Matt at Corbeau, Mat and Andy the ‘Shining Monkey’ guys, Nick at Tarox, Jamie at Taboo Wraps/Spyder Creative, Jon at Intermotiv
Words Nick Turner Photography Dan Pullen
