Saloons on steroids

INTERVIEW WOLFGANG KITZENEDER

'Win on Sunday, sell on Monday," is Wolfgang Kitzeneder's modest, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, reaction when I mention the glowing track record of the ABT factory team which boosted Audi cars to victory at no less than five of the DTM championships which have been held since 2002.

For those unfamiliar with the acronym, DTM stands for Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (German Touring Car Masters). Regarded as the top-level competition for rear-wheel-drive cars with 4.0-litre V8 engines (air-restricted to 470hp), it attracts TV audiences in excess of two million. And so many fans flock to this annual event that the organisers have no problem filling an 80,000-capacity stadium.

Kitzeneder is managing director of ABT Asia LLP, a premium accessory and engine-tuning specialist which draws on the accumulated motorsports know-how of three generations of the German Abt family.

The name has become closely linked with DTM championships of late. In the Singapore-based MD's (necessarily very subjective) opinion, ABT stands for "everything that makes a Volkswagen and an Audi nicer and faster.

"You can drive a regular Volkswagen Golf GTi or you can choose the ABT Golf. The ABT customer is someone who wants a bit more."

Kitzeneder's firm recently appointed Pasuphong Leenutaphong as its official distributor for the Kingdom, a move sure to whet the appetites of local Volkswagen enthusiasts. The distributorship will trade as ABT Sportsline (Thailand) from offices on the third floor of the Volkswagen dealership off Raminthra Soi 14.

"We opened our first wholly owned subsidiary in Asia in Singapore last year [November]," he volunteers. "Our decision to come to Thailand was based on big market plans [car production and new dealership networks] by Volkswagen and Audi.

"It's the right time to be here in Thailand. The market situation and demand from the Thai customer is very encouraging because about 70 to 80% of [Audi and Volkswagen] drivers want to modify.

"The potential here is much greater than in other parts of the Asia-Pacific region. It reminds me a lot of the Taiwanese market where motorists like to customise their cars."

ABT Sportsline (Thailand) will be emphasising what Kitzeneder calls the "complete-car concept" as it works towards its goal of becoming the top brand here after two years in operation. Its main products will be the Audi Q5, Audi TT, Volkswagen GTi and, eventually, the R8 and Q7.

Head spinning from all this super-positive PR, I decide to throw a spanner in the works by asking if Kitzeneder is not concerned about the amount of fake fibreglass flooding the auto market.

"Yes, we're worried, of course, because there's no way of getting rid of it. But that's why ABT relies on the complete-car concept and in-house financing and the fact that our products are made from polyurethane."

(ABT aeropart accessories are manufactured from polyurethane, a much more flexible substance than fibreglass which is prone to shattering or suffering serious damage if it receives a direct impact.)

"Anyway," he reasons, "if a guy wants a real Rolex, he'll buy a real Rolex!"

Is he not worried about the possibility of direct competition from likes of MTM (Thailand) - which, in common with the newly created ABT distributorship, is owned by a scion of the Leenutaphong clan (the same family which pioneered the import of premium European cars back in the 1960s)?

"There's no competition! We have a staff of 200, some of the best engineers in Munich and we generate an annual revenue of over 50 million."

Shifting gears back to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, I'm interested to learn that the ABT factory team for Audi race cars is spearheaded by Timo Scheider (who won the championship both this and last year) and Mattias Ekstrom (DTM champion in 2004 and again in 2007). The other two members of the team are Tom Kristensen and Martin Tomcyk.

"DTM is more difficult than Formula One racing. If you're used to the high speed, it's not difficult to race in F1 [a very team-oriented sport]. But quite a few F1 drivers don't have the high level of skill required for DTM racing," he asserts.

At this point we break off the interview and head outside to the parking lot of the Sukhothai Hotel where he points out an ABT race car decked out in its full regalia.

So let's put into perspective what an ABT package can do for your set of wheels. Take a 200hp Volkswagen Scirocco, say. The original price tag of somewhere between 2.46 and 2.69 million baht will jump to 3.2 million baht, but for the extra cash you get a 240hp engine, new sporty mags, exhaust, suspension, brakes and aeroparts for the front and rear.

For the VW Golf GTi, an ABT package will up the power department from the standard 200hp to either 260hp or 300hp. The asking price for an ABT Golf GTi is a cool 3.5 million baht but your new, improved VW on steroids will look considerably more appealing in the aesthetics department, too.

Relate Search: Pasuphong Leenutaphong, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, Volkswagen Golf GTi