[V8] Drove a '99 A8

[toml99 at todomundo.com]

Hey, well I've got a friend who lives on the coast who I go fishing  
with.  His sister had passed on her '99 Pearl A8 to him a year or so  
ago.  I got the call to get out there for the last day of Halibut/ 
Lingcod and headed out.  He had left his car and borrowed a friend's  
truck to move the boat, so we got to drive the Audi out to Neah Bay.   
It's got 110K on it, and it just had the timing belt done(courtesy of  
the mechanic that I bought the 5-speed from).  The 100's of lit up  
buttons on the climate control/radio were a challenge after waking up  
@ 2 to drive 3 hrs.....It was smooth/powerful and rode  
nice....finally figured out the "downshift/upshift" part of the gear  
selector.  Would I trade the 5-speed for it?...Never!....Would I  
trade the Lago Auto with similar miles on  
it....ProbablyNever!....Does it seem to have even less room under the  
hood....Definatly!...However, I still loved the car, and I can't say  
anything bad about it, except that they just don't have the slightly  
edgier look to the V8(too rounded).   Only problem it had was that  
one of the fan's was constantly on.  Anyone know where the Radiator/ 
AC fan switch's would be on one of these?....I really didn't look too  
hard, as we'd just done a 90 mile round trip in semi-rough seas and  
had to hit the road.  Kinda getting me motivated after all these  
years to get the Vag-Com thing working.  Anyway, it was better than  
driving a truck(even if the truck in question was my friend's new  
Dodge Diesel shortbed 4x4 which I drove on the way home, and did  
drive like a car......Tom