[s-cars] RE: VT S-cars

[David Mackintosh]

Interesting that you've seen so many, and I've seen none on the road.  I
bought my UrS6 Avant a month ago, and just got back from a 2,800 mile
vacation trip up and down the west coast with my 12-year-old daughter.
(From home in Hood River, OR, to Idyllwild, CA, and back through LA, Pismo
Beach/SLO, Monterey, and Sacramento).  In fact there's one C4 A6 Avant that
I see regularly here in town, and another UrS6 Avant that's about 20 minutes
away, but I didn't see another C4 (sedan or Avant) anywhere on the trip.

The car was fantastic on the road!  I pulled one 940-mile day on the way
down, and a few other fairly long ones, including side trips.  I bought it
all stock and did the MRC Stage 2 ECU, BIRA Stage 1 brakes, and H&R/Bilstein
Sport suspension.  While the suspension is not ideal for long slogs on
choppy concrete freeways in SoCal, it's fine on most pavement and very good
when it counts.  This the first car I've had that really passes with
authority, even up long grades, and the miles flew by.  Surprisingly few
speed traps on I-5, although my V1 did catch a couple, including one laser
(I got lucky), on the way back up.  I normally drive at about 9 mph over the
posted speed until I get passed by a faster car, which yielded lots of
cruising at 90+ in SoCal, and normally 75-85 in NorCal and Oregon.

If I had to pick a single best feature of the car, it'd be the driver's
seat.  Fantastic for long days.  The worst feature is the price of premium
fuel.  The cheapest I found was near home (Portland area), at $2.33/gal (92
Octane) and the most expensive was in Idyllwild (resorty town in the
mountains), at $2.99/gal (91 Octane).  I never found better than 91 Octane
in CA, but the weather was mostly pretty cool and I didn't notice any
problems.  

The car was the perfect size for the two of us.  We carried more stuff than
we needed, but were able to move it all into the front seats and sleep in
the back (and I'm 6'-3") comfortably a couple of nights.  Definitely
couldn't have done that in an A4 Avant or WRX Wagon, which were two of the
other cars I had considered.

David Mackintosh
mackintosh at gorge.net