a very rough Audi weekend

[Brett Dikeman]

At 10:47 AM -0400 7/21/03, Marc Swanson wrote:

>About 60 miles into the trip my dash lit up indicating the car wasn't
>charging.. looking down at the voltmeter showed this was the case.. so I
>pulled off at the next exit into a hotel parking lot and thought myself
>pretty smart for carrying a jack, spare belt, and a full complement of
>tools ;-)
>
>http://tinyurl.com/hk9x  shows the busted belt.

At least it didn't take the timing belt with it.  Sounds absurd...but
that very thing happened at The Glen to a 4000 turbo conversion about
a week ago.  The power steering belt was sucked under the timing
belt, t-belt slipped an estimated 15-30 degrees...engine was near
redline...and as the saying goes, that was all she wrote.

As for the suspension coming apart- that happened last year to Bonnie
Royal; her 90q20v's rear A-arm cracked, happened right after she had
finished a session, and was making her way to the garages.  CLUNK,
car's steering changed radically.  That was after a front brake line
burst earlier(I think she had just left the garages to get lunch in
town?).  Both were freak failures(Paul doesn't screw around in the
slightest when it comes to the mechanical condition of The Fleet- esp
Bonnie's car).

That same year, Felix Tang lost a wheel off into a cornfield on the
way back from lunch.  This year, someone sliced up two brand new
Hoosier tires on his fenders, backing his car off the trailer.  The
wierdest #@!$ happens when you get 100+ cars in one
place...thankfully, -most- of it happens everywhere but on the track.

If it's during a track event, hopefully a)you're dumb and tell
someone about it(or someone sees it) b)it was embarrassing, like
loosing a wheel into a cornfield and c)it happens on the first day
and d)everyone comes out ok...all so we get to give you a joke
award(which we thought was very clever when we all had heatstroke at
the track) at the banquet, and have a laugh at your expense.  Like
the Cornstalk Award Felix got as a reward :-)

Shit happens- and when it does, all you can do is thank your stars it
wasn't worse, because if it can't get any worse, you're dead- and it
isn't gonna make much of a difference to you now :-)

B
--
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"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/