Facelift "Serial" S3 Owner from Athens/Greece

B0ufisG

Registered User
Joined
Oct 27, 2017
Messages
12
Reaction score
9
Points
3
Location
Athens
Hello everyone!

My name is George (Boufis) and I am very excited to finally properly join ASN :)

I am Greek/American -sorry i can't help it, either way politically messed up- , Audi "serial" owner & enthusiast!

My first Audi was a MY2000 S3 8L in "Dolphin Grey" as they used to call it back then, which I bought used. The car was heavily neglected, but I was looking for an early 2000 model with an APY engine specifically so that I could tune. Three years into ownership the car was resprayed , and from the outside it was in mint condition. Under the hood everything looked OEM, but looking closely at some details one would notice a Jabbasport turbo kit consisting of a "hybrid" VF34 turbo. At the time the car made approx 300Whp and about 430NM of torque. The cool factor of the car was the fact that it look and sounded stock, and unless you pushed it, it drove like a stock S3. Unfortunately this car was stolen from my house and was later recovered by the police. After it was recovered I didn't feel like getting into it and driving it anymore. It felt like something that was mine had been taken away from me, abused and later returned. I decided to sell it, and within a few hours of my decision a close friend was literally banging on my door and asking for the keys of the car. Sold it to my mate, and ever since he has maintained it in excellently. The positive outcome is that I get to see it once in a while.

TBC...
 
Few months later, I walked into an Audi dealership looking for yet ANOTHER S3, this time an 8P. I was looking for a "noggy blue" 3door with a few specific options. Right around that time the facelift had just been announced and in the dealership I visited happened to have an 8P Ibis White Sportback S3 with the pano roof and the titanium colored wheels on it. The black on white contrast stole my heart and I insisted to buy the dealership floor model. I was given a decent quote and a week later I took delivery of the car. At that time most of the S3's in Greece were 3-doors, so the sportback was very rare at the time. To this day -as we have pretty much messed up our economy from 2009 onward- 5 door S3's weren't too common to come by. Back to my Ibis White 8P S3, being a floor model it had the entire options list on it. After a few months of ownership I decided that I wouldn't modify it heavily as I had done with my 8L. I had a Giac Stage 1 flash done and that was it. It produced 317hp and 420NM of torque and I was more than happy with it. Kept it until last Friday when I traded it in to the same dealer. 80K Miles later, the car ran completely trouble free and I never had ANY warranty claims. Needless to say, i put a lot of TLC into it, service book in the Audi dealer every 10K miles and every 5K miles an oil change at a friendly garage down the street from my house. Drove half way across Europe with the 8P and to be honest, i almost cried when I dropped it off at the dealer.

TBC...
 
Currently I am awaiting delivery on my new 8V Sedan S3 in Navarra Blue. :) As a matter of fact, dealer rang me a few hours ago to let me know that it would arrive at the local customs terminal this Friday so I should have it by Nov 10th. :) As enjoyed the factory options on my 8P, i went crazy with the options list on the 8V as well , and it ended up costing me what an base S4 costs in the UK. We have our leftist government to thank for all the added taxes to cars. Also the salesperson at the dealership twisted my arm by giving me a fully spec'ed S3 sportback for 3 days to "evaluate" so upon returning the vehicle to him, I pretty much said "shut up and take my money away" with the new order ...

In the next days I will go through my archives and I will publish some photos of my S3's, i must warn you the 8L one's won't be pretty -camera's at the time- and a few of my 8P. but I am really looking forward to my "new car day" .

Very excited to be a member of the "proper" owners forum then, and hopefully I can contribute as much as I can! Afraid I can't add much to the 8V section as I haven't taken delivery of the car yet, but I plan to as my experience with the car grows!

Once again, happy to join!

Regards,

George
 
  • Like
Reactions: Flying Scotsman and Tom.H
Welcome along! Interested to see your photos when they are posted!
 
Some pictures of my S3 8L when i took it in for the Stage 3 JabbaSport kit:

A3BT8h.jpg


7dPEh0.jpg


And on the Dyno... that night ran late, i still remember issues that came up, the wastegate acting up, boost leaks, pretty much everything! That's the exact moment when I decided that I would never put myself through any conversions again. Just buy the car spec'ed up to begin with:

iMyGMY.jpg
 
And a couple, really crappy resolution from what I see now of my 8P S3 .

New car resolution: take better pictures!

leo5Mu.jpg


H0KmXH.jpg