European impressions; I must vent my frustration

[Jenny Curtis]

Ed wrote:

"It was easy to see that the 1980s are a
forgotten era in Europe. I don't believe many people
even know or remember this wonderful engine over
there."

Humpf.  I'm not surprised seeing as how they are forgotten over here, at least if our monthly Quattro Club magazine has anything to say about it. They did a big puff piece on the upcoming V8 engine which will be in the new A6 and some other cars.  They didn't mention the older Audi V8s.  Some context would have been nice, I thought.

Graham and I are subscribers to three Car Club magazines (Saab Nines, Ricambi, the Fiat Magazine and Quattro Qarterly) and are getting really sick of the fact that the Quattro Quarterly is pretty much an extended, slick long form advertisement for new audi dealerships and the expensive shops that do mods on them. The other two magazines have alot more content than QQ.  I guess the vast majority of the Q club must own A4s or newer, but to me the thing I love about my boxy but good Princess, is that it is still a dependable, fun car to drive at nearly 300,000 miles. I think the fact that many new Audi owners also own several older Audis, which they maintain themselves, says more about the marque than the endless line of "look out BMW, here comes the new Audi blah blah, blah." I frankly don't care about the newest features on cars that won't be available for two more years that will cost more than a starter home.  I would love to read about cool mods to 1980s era Audis.  I'd love to see photos and read tech tips on Ur-Qs.

Sorry, but I had to vent this.  Maybe I should go start my own magazine already and shut up about it.  Actually, I wanted to write an article and am officially saying now that I'm doing a test drive piece on nice Audi 4000s in the Minneapolis area that have cool mods and look good on film.  Anyone willing to help me out on this?  I have a couple in mind already (not mine) but a few more would round it out.

As to your European impressions Ed, I agree it's a bummer that "classic" Audis aren't appreciated in their homeland.  I think part of it is that it's rare to see older cars on the road in Europe, period.  I don't know why.

Jenny
'86 4kQ, The Eurotrash Princess