[V8] Cult status for the V8?

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Well, I have been pondering the future of the Audi Type 44 series cars in
all their variants.  This has been a logical exercise since the Black Mariah
decided to let her right front inner universal joint self destruct.  (Ok,
ok:  it was old and failed due to old age!).  

Eventually it may become impossible to continue to drive the old girl, and
that brings me to the whole idea of keeping one of these cars running into
the future.  How many twenty year old Audis are regularly seen running in
daily service?

I began to think about this a bit a couple of years ago when a search of all
the normal sites revealed only five 20-valve Type 44 Avants for sale country
wide.  Most had more than 150,000 miles and although they all looked ok, a
close examination of the photographs showed that almost all were missing the
usual chrome strips off the nose or had other visible age/use wear items
showing.  I began to think about buying another one of these cars and
perhaps even a third to create a "bank" of parts that could be hoarded
against the inevitable obsolescence.

Since the Black Mariah has returned to the shop until next week sometime, I
have had occasion to drive my wife's '94 Avant Quattro and although it is a
very, very smooth and comfortable car and in terms of "state of the art",
far superior to the Type 44 Avant known as The Black Mariah, it just doesn't
seem to fit me properly.  The seating position is just not quite the same,
although the seats are infinitely variable and the steering wheel is
adjustable, I sit in the car just differently.  After all, it does seem that
replacing the Type 44 Mariah with, say, an S6 of similar vintage won't work
for me.

And of course since I write here ad nauseum about wanting another V8, I am
wondering if one V8 is enough.  Or if in my search for the "next" V8, I
should find two, and create a "bank" of V8 pieces. 

Because isn't it likely that both the 20-valve Avant, of which there were
only about 250 ever imported, and the late V8 4.2 litre cars of which there
were only about twice that many, might become true cult cars? 

Fifty degrees here along the eastern Maine coast with brisk winds and heavy
rain this morning.  Pretty unusual for Maine in mid January, and certainly
could lull one into thinking that one does not really need Quattro here at
all.  

That is until the ice and snow starts tonight, when we are supposed to get
an inch of ice...

Roger