Audi Tuning | VW Tuning

It was time for John and Lisa’s B7 Audi A4 avant to receive an updated look and they knew who to come to. For over a decade John has been a long time friend to Hartmann Wheels & Achtuning.

John is an internationally recognized automotive and product designer and was part of the original design team at the VW/Audi Advanced Concept Studio in Southern California. While he was visiting our showroom, he mentioned that “Everyone in the VW/Audi studio was an automobile fanatic. We all had gasoline in our veins and love the VW, Audi, and Porsche brands. We were constantly tuning our cars’ stance, wheels, engines, and trim. To this day, I feel that changing the car’s wheels is the most dramatic, yet easiest and least expensive change a person can make to their car.”

The VW/Audi Advanced Concept Studio has been behind numerous automotive successes. John was a key contributor on one of the most notable, the Concept One which eventually became the VW New Beetle. The design team was honored for their contributions by the IDSA in 2000, with the first ever gold automotive Design of the Decade Award. (http://www.jidpo.or.jp/worlddesign/backnumber/usd/tenji_e/tenji02.html)

John is a graduate of the prestigious Art Center College of Design, where many of today’s automotive design visionaries have graduated from. During his time there in the late 80′s and early 90′s, John conceived of a high performance Porsche SUV and presented it to Porsche a full 12 years before Porsche launched the Cayenne!

One of John’s latest design projects was customizing a high performance BMW K1200S with a full carbon fiber fairing, custom graphics and paint. His work took almost 40 lbs off of the bike and the engine modification, including a full titanium exhaust system, put its output at 190 HP.

Check out more of John’s designs in our gallery.

Good taste usually comes hand in hand with being an automotive designer so we are flattered we were chosen to provide better running gear for their Audi A4. Factory 17″ wheels on a B7 Audi A4 isn’t a bad thing but it’s clear the factory stance, the result of North American specifications, has much room for improvement. These cars can easily sit on a set of 19″ wheels and our Hartmann wheels allowed Lisa to get the factory “upgrade” look for a fraction of the cost! Not to mention our more aggressive offsets make the over-all stance just that much better. Below are pictures that were provided to us by John and Lisa.

The 19×8.5 Hartmann B7 HRS4-252B was selected with the 38mm offset. The rear wheels were just barely pushed out using H&R’s 5mm DR spacer, leaving just enough hub lip to keep the wheels hubcentric. Then wrapped with 245/35-19 Falken FK452s, the wheel & tire package fills the fenders nicely.

John, thank you for taking the time to share your great experiences and story with us, and for the opportunity to help you and Lisa spice up the look of your avant! We look forward to your next visit!

… whatever they end up on, they look fantastic!!

It was a sad day when we learned Jake had found his car left in his parking garage without wheels on it. He was once rockin’ the HS5-209 Wheels on his B7 A4 – in fact he was the first local A4 to run the new look. Rather than going with the same look this time around, he took the situation and used it to his favor and picked up a different set of Hartmann Wheels.

Again a first for our local scene, Jake is now running the Mesh 305s with H&R spacers to correct the offset and final stance and we have to say while we knew it would be a good look, the end result is just stunning!

H&R 10mm spacers were used to push the 19×8.5 et48 wheels to a final offset of 38mm where most of the Hartmann 19″ wheels sit on B7 A4s. Jake also made sure to pick up a set of RAD wheel locks in a longer length to clear the spacers, and to further deter thieves from picking on his wheels again.

Everyone is dusting off their summer wheels and bringing them out from storage! When Jacob finally put the Hartmann HRS6-204 Wheels he purchased late last Fall on his car, we asked him to stop by so we could update our gallery.

We haven’t been able to show off any decent shots of the Hartmann HRS6-204s on a B7 until now!