[s-cars] Of Audis and others...

[CaptMagu at aol.com]

s-heads

I thought I'd jump into this debate based on some observations on a recent 
snowy Evahboost weekend. A couple of weeks ago, our daughter that lives in 
Kansas City was in for a visit. She had been summoned by her Mom to come and get 
some stuff or out it goes. Anyway, the weather was very cold, 15-25 degrees, and 
snowy.

As a review, my wife drives a 2001 A6 4.2 with non-sport suspension, 
tiptronic, and Nokiian WR snow tires. That non-sport suspension was upgraded with 
Bilstein HDs and H-Sport sway bars. My daughter drives a 2001 A6 2.7tt with 
non-sport suspension, tiptronic, and allweather tires. I drive a 1993 urS4 with tons 
of mods, a CRB 6-speed, and Nokiian WR snow tires. On this weekend, the road 
conditions were terrible with ice, icy slush, packed snow, and lots of yuck.

I was running lots of errands to get things ready for our daughter's return 
to KC in all 3 cars and had a chance to evaluate them all for bad road driving 
which is one of the main reasons Icame to Audis in the first place. Starting 
with my car, I'll go over all three. My car is always very engaging to drive. 
This is not a car you can sit back with and let your mind wander, it won't let 
you do that. It constantly wants you to explore the boundaries. This sort of 
focussed driving is not for everyone but it sure beckons me into the cockpit 
whenever I can get there. With its lowered stance, it can go anywhere through 
anything as long as the snow isn't deep enough to high center the car. The only 
time this has ever happened was Denver and Evahboost's 100 year storm of 2003. 
The Nokiians work great and the car just handles slippery conditions without 
issue. Turn-in is sharp, well as good as can be expected, and oversteer is 
easily moderated with your right foot. A driving enthusiast's kind of winter car.

Next was my wife's A6. This car is really nice to drive in these conditions. 
The ESP works great. I was in and out of ESP all day long as I experimented to 
just have a little fun. Although not as engaging as my car, it sure can get 
you from one point to another with absolutely no issues. When my wife and I go 
anywhere together, this is the car we drive. The addition of the Euro Nav Plus 
GPS navigation system with integrated iPod makes finding and getting 
somewhere a real pleasure. Its really cool to be able to go back and forth between 
luxury with attitude and the green track monstah.

Finally, was my daughter's A6. This car was amazingly capable in the winter 
conditons. The only mods on this car are a set of 710N bypass valves and a 
kevlar wrapped Y-hose. Even with only allweather tires, the quattro and ESP did 
their jobs amazingly well. Never a slip or a problem. The only thing that would 
have been a better test would have been a set of WRs on her car but that 
wasn't to be. 

So there you have it. Three cars with 3 levels of mods and equipment. I'll 
take my car any day but it is nice to kick back a little and settle into the lap 
of luxury every once in a while. Audis all day long. Nothing else comes 
close.

Hap, wit da kine thoughts in Evahboost, Maguire