[V8] The ultimate V8?

[Roger M. Woodbury]

EVERYTHING, and I MEAN, EVERYTHING that has been said on this list regarding
the "ultimate" V8 being a five speed, I have heard before, both here and on
the other lists that I subscribe to, and the arguments and expostulations
are all identical. 

What's even funny, in my view, is that I have said them all myself.  I
clearly remember once saying that I would NEVER own a car to drive myself
that had an automatic transmission.  I think it was around the time that I
had taken delivery of a new, 1979 BMW 320i.  

Now, the heaviest traffic that I have had to endure on a daily basis was
when I was driving into or leaving the city of Portland, Maine during the
1980's.  Most of my clients in those days were well outside of the city, so
the vast majority of my driving was to rural areas.  And here in Maine, when
we say "rural" we MEAN rural.  The BMW aged and became an Audi Coupe, which
was so awful that it became a Volkswagen Rabbit, which was insufficient for
my needs, and which became a BMW 318, which was so terrible that it became a
Mercedes 190D, which began my slide down the slippery slope of automatics
for daily driving.

With that car, I had committed an unpardonable foul for a car enthusiast:  I
had not only bought a car with an automatic (no stick available), but I had
bought a car with so little power that I wondered how I could stand it.  I
cured part of the problem two and a half years later by buying a 190D-Turbo,
but it was still an automatic.

After that a bunch of entertaining little cars came and went, as I had
succeeded in dropping out of "the rat race".  

The most fun car was a Rabbit "S", which had a gazillion miles on it when I
bought it, and I paid a pittance for it. The "S" was a basically stock
Rabbit that was produced with most of the underpinnings of the GTI, which
came a year or two later.  I drove it about fifty thousand miles and sold it
to a Mexican immigrant laborer who "had to have it"...for what I paid for
it.  I imagine that it is still running somewhere "south of the border", and
I don't mean in South Carolina.

Then there were several Mercedes 300D's. Now, the W-123 Mercedes is one of
the best automobiles ever made.  The only thing that will kill one is rust
and maintenance neglect, but it will take a long time of neglecting
maintenance to kill one.  But they are rear wheel drive, and when elderly
don't like starting in the cold, and ultimately, I replaced my last one with
an aging Audi 5000CS Turbo Quattro Avant....1987 flavor.  And thus I haunt
the Audi lists to this day.

I had a meeting in Portland yesterday.  It was just about three hundred
miles between eight A.M. and supper time, and the car of choice yesterday
was the '91 Audi 20-valve Avant.  I will remind you guys that you have to
shift that car.  

The summer folks have all returned to whatever squalid, crowded bin they
habit when they are not clogging Maine's scenic roads, so Route 3 from
Belast to Augusta and then I-95 to Portland were remarkably free of traffic.
I followed an idiot from Pennsylvania down I-95 who was going much to fast
for quite a long way, enjoying the secret knowledged that he would get
bagged by the State Police around 1/2 mile before me.  He didn't but it says
a lot for the congestion on the Interstate yesterday.

The five speed in the 20-valve feels right.  Come to that, I suppose if I
drove a V8 with a five speed, I would think that felt "right", too.  But
then, I feel that the Type 44 Audi's just feel "right" to me.  My wife has a
'94 Avant Quattro, with automatic, naturally.  I am not particularly in love
with that car.  It doesn't "fit" me as well as the earlier body does, but
the automatic with the relatively anemic V6 is the right combination.  I
doubt that a five speed with that engine would do anything but produce
frustration:  the engine is pretty slow turning it seems, and I believe that
it was intended to be exactly what it is.  I have written before that it is
the worlds best car for driving here, but is overmatched in other
places....down I-95 in West Palm Beach, for instance.

All of which brings me to my "next" V8.  And, yes, I have begun the hunt,
officially, which means I am making "inquiries" but am not telling my wife.
(you see, there were two excellent examples of late V8's that recently went
through eBay, including one in New Hampshire that had had a complete repaint
and change of color that was so yummy that I almost went mad because I
couldn't just jaunt one state away to see it:  it went for four grand!)

So, I have begun the search for the "next" and ultimate V8.  This might
actually be two cars, when I get down to it.  The first will be the "real"
car, and the second might well be a parts car.  IF I find the "right" car
with the right color exterior with the wrong color interior, I might buy an
extra and swap the interior, keeping the extra engine for that station wagon
project that my wrench and I chat about from time to time....but I digress.

When this next V8 comes along, it will be a car with which I will exercise
patience.  I plan to think a lot about what to do with it, and how far to
take it.  Might I do cams and some polishing, and maybe some tweaking of the
ECU, or exhaust...not too loud, mind you, but something, ah, tasteful?  The
goal would be, say, 325 horsepower with complete tractability.  Maybe.  Yes,
and the brakes, too, of course.

But the transmission?  I'll leave that as an automatic, thanks very much.
If my wife can think of driving it herself, there will be much less "wind"
resistance to the whole concept, and a manual transmission would "X" it out
right away.  Besides, I have a 45 degree leg press and my legs don't need
any extra work.

Roger