darn...pathetic test drive timing! :(

[Gerard]

Colleague sends me an e-mail this morning of an ad from the local
paper for a 92/93 S4 quattro (only 100 or 200 in the country I think)
in dark blue, 120,000km, 1 owner, full service history, going for
$11,000 (pretty cheap locally). I call and say I'm coming for a
test drive. All excited about my first S4 drive. The colleague wants
in too and my girlfriend (who works with me) tags along. We're on
the way, come to a robot cross the main road, and about 50m away
I spot a blue Audi crossing the main road and heading away
from us (driver nearly takes out kerb as he turns wide). It's the
S4 and I think I'm going to have to wait 30 minutes for it to come
back from the test drive. Not so. It has just been sold. :( Darn.
Oh well... it always happens like that. There's another one for
sale around here, same details, but $15,500. These guys say they
can get me another S4 for $16,000 (didn't realise I know which one
it is). :) These are the same guys that once sold a pristine
Audi Coupe quattro 2.3 LHD a year and a half or so ago. I got told
by a friend about it, checked it out that night and went in the
next day to see it ... but it was sold. Still see it now and again.
It was a "mere" $5700 and it was a 1990 or something. :( Rare.
 
To top it off, on the way back to work, my sister's '88 Toyota
Corolla kills its spedometer cable.

Oh well, I'll get an S4 one day. :) In the mean time, who has a
3B 20-valve head and manifolds for sale? I've e-mailed a ton of
USA-based scrapyards/dismantlers with little response. Anyone
want to help and call some for me? :)

G.