new and old Audi's respectable times at Merrit Rallycross

[Livolsi, Stephane]

Most listers probably don't even know about this rallycross but thought I
would give a rundown anyway.  The Merrit Rallycross was held in Merrit, in
the interior of BC, Canada on Saturday Sept 14th.  It's a relatively small
event but well attended with about 20 cars. Most were newer Subarus, but
there were some Toyotas, older Subarus, 1 ..ahem...Mercury Topaz (totally
stock), 1...ahem...Honda prelude (totally stock), Geo, Sprint, and an Escort
Cosworth kit car kinda thing which looked like it outclassed everything
there but really was not ready (rear wheel drive only, open diff, and track
tires).  It looks good when you spin your tire in 4th gear, but doesn't make
for good times.

  Oh Yeah, there was an 86 4000 Quattro and an Audi TT...:)  We also had
Tihol's 90Q but we didn't rally as we still had a 3 hr drive home.
Considering the 115hp in the 4kq he had some impressive times and really
knew how to launch the car.  Also it was clear he was more interested in
having fun than preserving the mechanics of the car....made for a nice show
but he did need some tire service at one point.
The TT looked pretty good going around as well but you kinda got the
impression he had a little more respect for the car and was holding back
some.  We didn't stick around for the awards but it looked like a couple of
Subies would place 1 and 2 with the Audis close behind.
I think the best part of the day was watching that 4kq accelerating out of
the turns.  Really nice.

On an even more positive note, Tihol's 90Q ran flawlessly the whole 7 or so
hours of round trip driving time and we didn't see a single police car the
whole way (although at times they certainly would have had a reason to
"chat' with us :)

Later

Stephane