[V8] signing off

[Roger Woodbury]

Bill:  Sorry to see you do leave.  I did it once, too.

In my case, the proximate cause was practical and realistic.  I had a new
construction project going, was over my head with business activity that
seemed to make the V8 irrelevant, and I knew that I was going to have to
continue to "fix it", the next thing needing to be done at some point in the
not dim distant future was the heater motor. So I sold the nice '93 to
become the Gentleman's Express.

But I couldn't get by what I had lost.  And the painful search began and I
stumbled along, learning more and more each day from this list, and
pulverizing the attention span of too many V8 listers by my painful
bleatings of withdrawal.

Then there is the sound of the V8 winding.  Coming back from Belfast two
days ago, I was driving along Route 1 following a couple of obnoxious runt
cars and minisuvs from "away". They were filled with tourists the ass end of
their vehicles festooned with more bicycles than modern man has any right to
hang on the back of a motor vehicle.  

Just this side of Stocton Springs the road goes down a long gentle hill with
blueberry barrens on either side. The road has been resurfaced within the
past few years through this area, and although it wasn't actually, strictly,
intended to be a passing zone, I decided I had had enough plodding, so I let
the car have its head.

In this "new" 1990, the 110 that came up very fast was the most hustle that
I have put it to.  And it was marvelous.  I had a mile of straight on
visibility and I was back in my own lane, at sane speed before the first
approaching car appeared.  

It is what I missed.  

Perhaps you will find your way back here, too.  I hope so, because all the
nuts that love these cars, or at least appreciate that there are other nuts
who do, are needed here.  I fear our numbers are dwindling, though.

Here in Maine there are a LOT of Audis.  I am amazed at how the numbers of
Audis that I see every day is growing.  Most are A6's and A4's.  Now rarely
do I see anything older than 1998, and this year I have seen NOT ONE V8 all
summer.  The one V8 that I know of that is local may be gone, its elderly
owner not well, I think.  None from away.

But what I have noticed, and it is no illusion, is that when people driving
Audi's see my pearl car, they look and LOOK again:  they don't know what it
is exactly, except it is an Audi, that they know.  

So, best of luck, and I hope that you find whatever you drive to be
fulfilling to what you need and like.  But I'm not going to bet against the
idea that you may succumb to the siren song of the Type 44 V8 once again.

Roger