eS2 II -- Lurker to Poster, finally

[T. Vandervoort]

Now that the qlist is back up (Thanks, Dan), it's time the lurking stopped
and a post is made.  As some of you may have seen on the 20v or s-cars
lists, I've been hanging out on all three lists for much of 2000 learning
from all of you about quattros and their quirks.  So, sorry for the
duplication for those of you who have read some of this already.  I met a
number of you (Steve, Dan, Stefan, Igor, Brett) when picking up my
rebuilt/restored eS2 II (ex '91 CQ) at George Baxter's AJP Tuning in
Bristol, PA last January.  Since Audi didn't import S2's to North America,
Brandon Hull and I were lucky enuf to find George to build to build ours,
just as Dean Treadway's lago blue one was built and modified and modified on
the West Coast.  Mine is the twin to Brandon Hull's great car with a few
differences: particularly the extra step ($$ but worth it) of resleeving and
rebuilding the 3B turbo engine from a donor 200TQ so it's basically new,
urS4 transmission/clutch/flywheel and Alcon brakes instead of the BIRA
system or the similar system Anderson Motorsports builds (The Alcons have
been fine on the track, but I would've done the Porsche-based system had I
known more a year ago).

At QCUSA events (BIR, Mid-Ohio, Blackhawk, Road America including three
cheap Saturday ones at the Rosemount Tech College test track -- 15 turns in
a mile -- whew!), I met more of you and benefited from your generous advice
and seeing/riding in your cars in addition to the excellent QC instruction.
Anderson Motosports here in Minnesota gradually upgraded handling and
suspension during the season (after reading lots of your posts, we went with
H&R's, sport Koni's, Tilton proportioning valve, stress bar [beefier rear
sway bar still to come]-- all mods discussed at length on the lists),
helping me take more and more advantage of the car's power and increasing
driving experience thanks to instruction and on-track seat time.  Scott's
extensive tire tests and prolonged tire discussions on the lists, led me to
the superb HTRZ II's (Hakka NRW-H's now, thanks again to the lists).
Anderson's custom 3" (actually 65mm -- 2.75"?) SS turbo back exhaust system
gave me more power as I was learning how to use it (again, as the lists and
sites like Graydon's indicated with high quality and lower cost).

Since I'm a quattro enthusiast without a lot of technical or mechanical
skills (and the need to earn a living in my own business), I've learned a
lot from so many of your posts about subjects like the forbidden Tor*en and
much more from all parts of the U. S. (IL, MN, WI, the CO q mafia, the TX
boys Jimmy P and Rob, NY, TN, GA, MD, WV, CA, FL, Eastern Seaboard all the
way up into New England, Orygun, WA and more), Europe (UK esp Phil, Finland,
Norway, Sweden, Germany where I spent 8 years getting the German car
disease, Greece, France and Holland (thanks, Landsman Tom Nas). And who can
forget NZ, AU and my other ancestral land, Canada?

I continue to benefit from and enjoy all your serious rants (let's hope the
"fuelishness" problem gets worked out by AoA fast!) and humor.  Re the ugly
and commented on US license plate on the S2 bumper which you can see in the
feature on the car at s-cars.org, what can I say?  It protects the bumper in
the few instances where I'm forced to parallel park (Sorry, Wylie!).  Maybe
I'll take the plate and bracket off at track events.

My bottom line on 2000?  Great QC events and instruction.  Great work by AJP
Turning and Anderson Motorsports.  Three great lists devoted to Audi
quattros (Thanks, Dan, Darin, Eric and others!).  Great eS2.  Exactly what I
wanted when I decided to not buy a superb 4-door urS-car because I love
coupes and the CQ: new daily driver, high speed touring car for road trips
capable of (as Brandon Hull said in the quattro quarterly a few years ago)
extreme performance on the track and donuts in our snowy Minnesota parking
lots (get that CQ fixed, Luke!).  Sorry, Brandon, but I'm keeping the
sunroof and the rest of the luxury -- some of the HP will be used to haul it
around!)

BTW, Supercharged Rob et al, in case you don't have this info, you can
procure a subscription to Audi Driver at 800-392-4454 or at www.ewacars.com
in addition to all their models (cars that is).  Excuse the long post and
thanks for all the great info this past year!  Waiting for a Minnesota
Region ice event, and if I get lucky, Watkins Glen, Roebling Road and the
West Coast this year.

Tom Vandervoort
eS2 II