leaving the fold

[John Lagnese]

Good luck! Time for a new list?

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com] On
Behalf Of Brett Dikeman
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 1:33 PM
To: Audi List; 200q20V mailing list
Subject: leaving the fold

Well, it's time to move on.  There will be an Audi in the family (my
folk's A6), but it will soon be the only one. There's some new iron in
the family, literally- it's a Volvo!

After roughly 6 months of on-and-off emails with the previous owner,
culminating with a visual by an Audifans lister (thank you Ben!) and
mechanical by Glasgow Volvo (indie shop recommended in the Volvo
enthusiast community), I bought a car 'unseen', and flew out to MN to
drive it back home.

  I'm the proud new owner of an '07 Sonic Blue V70R, which the PO took
delivery in Sweden and did the special R-model euro delivery program,
which involves a trip to, and laps around, the Nurburgring!  It's
practical, insanely fun to drive, and definitely unusual- my three
major 'checkboxes' for a new-to-me car.  The great gearbox, stereo,
seats, brakes, looks, and stellar navigation&voice-activated bluetooth
don't hurt.  Neither does the noise out the back- 5 cylinders will
always sound the sweetest to these ears.

 It takes more room than the QE2 to turn, it's not "real" AWD (3rd gen
haldex, 10% preload, so not terrible) and there are little niggling
halo car "issues" with the model (like needing wheel spacers to keep
from rubbing the front tires at full lock, a fuel pump control module
that sits *very* exposed to the elements, etc) but the rest of the
package makes it worthwhile.  Also, the previous owner has performed a
bunch of mods that may put it past S4 V8 HP and torque (peak) levels,
so I'm definitely keeping an eye out for a northeast dyno day.

As excited as I am about the new car, I'm really sad that the 200q20v
is going to have to go.  No parking space, fewer tools, and no
workspace to get it back into shape.  Sigh :(

Brett
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