Observations in Monterey

[Buchholz, Steven]

I arrived pretty early in the morning at Laguna Seca last Saturday to set up
the corral.  There really wasn't very much to do and things were pretty
quiet except for the folks preparing the track for the races later that day.
Laguna Seca uses Vipers for pace cars ... there were a couple out testing
the course in the morning (boy, how does one sign up for THAT job? :) and I
had a good view of them as they came into the Andretti hairpin and as they
powered up the hill to the Corkscrew.  While the Viper isn't a particularly
loud car, I did notice a distinctive note in the exhaust that sure sounded a
lot like the sound of an older Audi I5 on cam.  I wonder if it isn't
something to the nature of an engine that has a multiple of five cylinders?


Audi had a tent set up just across the Maserati corral from where we were.
The biggest surprise I found inside was a real S8 ... and the people inside
said that it was indeed to be sold in the USA.  They also had an Allroad
there, I still don't see one in my driveway, but I do think it looks better
than the early pictures I saw of it.  Let's see, they had an A6 4.2, and
another with the 2.7t and 6-speed, an S4 and both a TT and a TT Roadster.
They also had a Quattro Sport and a V8 DTM car in the tent on display.  

Obviously MH2K was nowhere near the event it was last year for Audi fans,
but it was good to be able to see some old Audi friends and meet a few new
ones too.  Overall, I appreciated the fact that it was a lot less crowded
there than it had been the past few years.  As always for me, it was great
to see the older cars back out on the track doing what they were built to
do.  

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)