You'll never know how much you'll miss your quattro until...

[Antti Piirainen]

...it's gone. Thankfully not for good, though.

Here's the deal: the car's rear end received a bit of bending treatment 
courtesy of a B5 Passat. I had to leave it at the body shop for repairs 
- covered by the Passat driver's insurance - last monday, and hop into 
my secondary beater, an E21 Bimmer.

Well, wouldn't you know, that very day it finally started snowing. A 
lot. And it got cold. Which is actually not that much fun because the 
Bimmer doesn't go about anywhere in snow (stops well, though), and it 
has a difficult time starting without even the slightest dose of 
preheating. Monday night I realized the keys to the heater socket at my 
parking slot were still in the Audi's keyring.

Well, no problem so far. I miraculously managed to start the car Tuesday 
morning, and drove to the shop to fetch the key. The Audi was already 
straightened and primed and the bumper fixed, and it was promised to be 
ready by Wednesday evening.

Well, yesterday it began to snow again, except this time it grew into a 
storm. Okay, this would mean serious quattro fun even though I'd miss 
the start by a few hours. Except that when I called the body shop in 
late afternoon, I was told that it won't be ready until Thursday. This 
sucked, as the quattros were again on the prowl. As a quick fix I got a 
ride in an S2 for an hour or so as it was hunting virgin snow with an 
A4q on remote forest roads.

Well.

This morning it was still snowy and icy outside, although the streets 
had already been plowed, somewhat lessening the q factor. The day went 
on and while I was already suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms, 
there was no call from the shop. Just simply no call. Some half an hour 
ago I picked up the phone and called the mechanic myself, and - here 
comes the good part - he hadn't had the opportunity to finish my car 
because of having to spend most of the day evaluating damage to cars 
crashed in yesterday's snow storm!!!

The mechanic promised he'd paint the Audi's rear end today and 
re-assemble it tomorrow.

Guess what? The forecast predicts _above zero_ for tomorrow!

This is when I finally printed an "I'd rather be driving my Audi" banner 
and attached it onto the rear window of the Bimmer.

--
Antti Piirainen
87 Cq