[s-cars] Sciroccos and Audis

[Robert Rossato]

My Scirocco was an '81 S in Mars Red.  My first, and probably last, new car.  You're absolutely right.  These were wonderful in the snow.  I used to have a blast with that car in the snow.  I also had my brother's '79 Alpine White S, which he had also bought new, for a short period until it met an untimely demise.   I never really enjoyed my '86 Scirocco as much.  Didn't have the character of the Mk1.  From there I picked up the '93 Corrado, which I will never get rid of, and a few years later the S6.

My '81 S is now gone.  I miss her.  Sniff, sniff.  The shell went off to the junkyard a couple of years ago after 250k+ miles of wonderful ownership.  But she was dying of cancer.  I do still have some parts from her in the basement, which I occasionally reminisce over.


---- Steve Voit <stevevoit at comcast.net> wrote: 
> My Scirocco was a '77 which I bought new as a college kid after my bro
> totaled my Honda car, cobalt blue with tan inside; I even rented a garage
> off campus so I could lavish attention on it during the winter months. I was
> in Boulder CO and worked up at Winter Park 2 days per week - my winter
> driving skills were very well honed.  Used to take pride that I went 150k
> miles w/o snow tires, and used chains only once.  In those days the hwy dept
> used to place retirees in lawn chairs with blankets and thermos bottles in
> the middle of the 2 lane highway to stop traffic (can you believe that) and
> verify that snow tires were in place before heading over the pass.  I used
> to pull up and say, 'snows all around' and they would wave me through - I'm
> not sure they knew what a tire was, much less the snow version.  Handbrake
> turns were a marvelous aspect of this car, too, and I used to be able to
> spot a parallel parking spot on the other side of the road and execute a 180
> right into position.  It was very cool.  I recently attempted this on a biz
> trip in a rental Toyota Corolla - 30 years later -- in Spokane, WA right in
> front of a coffee shop I was to visit.  Bad idea: no damage, but no friends
> made either.  Fortunately my appointment had not yet arrived.
> 
> A BMW 3.0CS, 944, Turbo Volvo, Turbo Saab later I find that the S6 is the
> only car since that has rekindled the kind of fondness I had for the
> Scirocco.  It's the combination of engineering content and performance,
> sure, but there's somehow a soul to the car that I think stems from
> understated competence and exquisite design - all at once.
> 
> BTW, I can see why the S8 guys are getting  their rocks off.  I think the S8
> has much the same persona, but with V8 torque.  My concern is for mileage,
> and I don't think the trans has the personality of the new stuff, does it?
> Related, I drove a friend's VW Eos with the V6 and auto/manual transmission.
> Can't say enough about how well this trans worked - I really is a different
> experience from the auto-stick that we've all experienced in the rental
> fleet - nice (fast) 6 speed shifts, rev matched downshifts, multiple
> programs - an engaging driving experience.  While I'm a die-hard for
> manuals, I would consider the new VW/Audi boxes as an alternative and I
> NEVER thought I'd say that.
> 
> Thanks for the memories,
> 
> Steve, soundin' old but not so very old as I sound, V.
> 
> 95.5 S6 Seattle