Treser Hunter

Is it better to be first, or to be better? 

You could look at the Treser Hunter and wonder if they’d thought: “Why not both?”

Walter Treser was the project manager of the internal, pirate-like working group within Audi that took the Volkswagen Iltis and grafted its go-anywhere capabilities into a performance car, the ur-Quattro.

Treser and Ferdinand Piëch led the charge in many respects, both understanding the advantages of an efficient, smooth, and high-performance all-wheel-drive system on a road car. The two ensured the technology would find itself in motorsports, thus attracting other all-wheel-drive competition in order to prove Audi's quattro technology was superior. 

I'm not sure many drivers know why the quattro system may be ‘technically’ better than others —more that the name quattro is so damn catchy that has become more of a shorthand for having grip where one shouldn’t. Other engineers involved with the quattro program have largely gone off to bigger and better things — Piëch went on to father 25 more children, including the Bugatti Veyron, and Roland Gumpert got endurance racing wins and track day triumphs with his Apollo. 

After helping Audi to World Rally Championship dominance, Walter Treser formed his own firm, Treser, to turn period Audis into even more unique machines. 

Rather than focus on mastering one thing like his contemporaries, however, Treser sort of floated neatly from project to project; folding hardtop convertible Quattros, styling updates for Audi sedans, the kinda-revolutionary aluminum TR1 roadster, and this — ruggedizing the Audi 80/90 models into off-road beasts.

It may look like a creation As Seen On Facebook Marketplace, with detailing that’s just a bit…country? In a good way. Interest driven by customers from the Middle East convinced Treser that there was a market for an over-engineered off-road Audi sedan.

The Hunter is ultimately a tidy piece, and filled with period correct #VAGswag: a 5-cylinder engine with 160 horsepower, a top speed of more than 180 km/h (111 mph), and the Hunter could handle an up to 45% grade.