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From YourSITE.com Technical Features With its aggressive design, Audi has already bestowed the A3 sportback with aggressive and sporty lines, but sometimes an owner wants to accentuate those lines even further through the use of a body kit. Body kits can go either way, improving the look of the car or ruining the design. Often, whether the look is better or worse is purely up to the subjective eye, though looking for something more aggressive, we were confident we could find a solution that would give the A3 a more bold appearance without detracting from the car’s original look.
Tunershop was a critical factor in obtaining the full Nothelle kit. The shop was critical in sourcing the first full kit exported from Germany to the United States. I will also say that the mention of the SEMA show played a huge part in this as well. Up until this car, Nothelle had built at least two cars - one silver and one red example for display at European shows like Frankfurt, but it has been some years since Nothelle was a major player here in the USA, with their N-spoke wheels a relatively distant memory. At one time. For years, Nothelle turned to a growing Jaguar business and had let their focus on cars like Audis lessen. Now, the company seems back with a vengeance with products for the A3, Q7, A6 and more. The kit was ordered in early October leaving only two to three weeks before the car would be eventually leave for SEMA. The wheels and brakes were already on the car awaiting their new arches and trim pieces to complete the look. With the kit coming from across the Atlantic, this was also the first time customs could become an issue. Concern over importation was for naught though, as Steve from Tunershop was a huge help in leading me through the process. With the kit finally in my possession, I headed over to Exklusiv Motorsports once again. Exklusiv had done all of the previous installs and work on the car and I knew they had an extra ace up their sleeve with Jeff Campbell doing the body work. His attention to detail and 10 years of experience in body work allow many of the local car enthusiasts to trust him with everything from minor touchups to complete custom work and full re-sprays Over the course of the next week, the kit would be primed, painted, clear coated, and installed before I left for Vegas just 7 days later. The pictures will explain the basics of the install but there were some necessary modifications that needed to take place for fitment. After completion, Jeff couldn’t comment enough on how well the kit fit the car, the quality of the materials, and the lack of prep time that was needed in order to get it ready for paint. The full kit is made of fiberglass pieces that fit the car flawlessly. Most of the time, a fiberglass or polyurethane piece will need a lot of sanding and priming to fill in divots and smooth out bumps in the surface. However, this was not the case with the Nothelle pieces.
Included with the body kit pieces was also the adhesive needed to attach the components to the car. Using what looks like a caulking gun to dispense the adhesive, the substance is applied precisely where you want it. Jeff commented that it appeared to be the same stuff that is used to installed car windshields and windows and promptly used all 6 provided tubes of it to install the kit.
On a visit to Exklusiv I was greeted by the awful noise of a metal cutter and the sight of sparks flying all over the shop. Jeff was just starting the necessary cutting of the front fenders to install the flares. Per the Nothelle instructions, the front fenders need to be cut about 1” almost all the way around the whole arch to properly fit the flares to the car. Doing this allows for about 1-1.5” more of width to the front fenders for wider wheel and brake clearance. Luckily the same task did not have to be replicated to the rear fenders. The front fender consists of only one panel of metal but the rear quarter panels are actually two panels of steel with a very tiny amount of space between them. Jeff commented that cutting into a rear fender is a much more difficult task than the front pieces because you have to keep two panels with nice even lines on them instead of one. Other than the cutting, the rest of the kit was fairly easy to install. A lot of blue painters tape was used to hold pieces in place while the adhesive dried and adhered correctly. After a few hours of work everything was done. Much like a television build-out show. Project A3 was coming down to the wire. This was all taking place on Saturday night after 6pm and I was scheduled to leave the following morning to make the drive to Vegas. Fortunately, I had extreme confidence in Jeff, Derek, and Paolo to get the job done.
Project A3 DSG’s Murano Green hue is no easy color to match. The different pearl colors make it everything from green to gray to blue depending on the angle by which it is viewed – no easy match for any body shop. Fortunately, Jeff matched the pieces quite well, even taking the initiative to mix one color for pieces that would fit against metal and alter it slightly for pieces that would fit against plastic because of the different characteristics of how they show color. Of course, those who went to Vegas in November know the end of the story. The A3 was completed and made its date at the Convention Center at the SEMA Show. Since then, time and mileage have given a better indication as to the long-term durability of the setup. The kit still looks good, the adhesive holding up well to the hot Arizona winter, with few rock chips at the front. Exklusiv added some extra flex additive in an effort to help the paint endure the pebble-ridden highways of the Phoenix area.
The overall look of the car is everything I hoped it would be while mentally trying to picture the wheels, brakes, and body kit together in my mind. Schmidt did an excellent job at taking the dimensions of the brakes and the flares to maximize the wheels and in return the flares add just enough to the car to make the wheels look right at home. I think the extra width of the flares adds just enough to the car to give it a more prominent and aggressive look but still keeps the overall flow of the car very nicely. Body kits aren’t for everyone, but this one does its fair share of making friends. This was particularly evident at SEMA, where tame cars are essentially invisible. Not so with Project A3 DSG.
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