Snow Report from inside the Q

[Stephen Williams <mannlaw@indy.net>]

	The sleet started yesterday about noon.  By 6:00 p.m., about 4 
inches of snow on the ground.  Wind at a steady 20-30 m.p.h, gusts reported
at 50.  Snowed HARD all night & the wind increased.  By dawn, between 10 
& 12 inches in accumulation, drifts, in places, over the hood of the car.

	In the area where I live, gravel roads far outnumber paved roads and
the country is flat.  Snow blows for miles--until it hits the fences 
alongside the roads and begins to drift.  This ain't no suburb, if you know
what I mean.  About 200 yards from the driveway, hit a drift that I couldn't
see [wipers couldn't keep up w/ the blowing snow] until it was too late.  
Top of drift was over the hood but, thankfully, drift was thin, only 
about 3 feet across. No problem. Remaining road to nearest paved / plowed 
road approx. 6 miles and blanketed w/ snow up to mid-calf [got out to 
help a lady stuck in the ditch in a new peeJ].  Bottom of car dragging 
every inch of the way.  Nary a problem.  Truly lost count of the pickup 
trucks abandoned along the way.  BTW this snow is that wet heavy s***, 
not the light powder.  Hard to believe it can drift like it does.

	The point to all of this is that, at least sometimes, we quattro
people have to be reminded of the greatness of these cars.  My 89 100 Q 
is an old warhorse.  Lifters sometimes talk amongst themselves, temp guage
will take a rest every now and again while the other guages work, the nearest
Audi dealer is a d*** to work with, and high speeds are a stranger to 
this car.  BUT, when the ducks fly south and the wind picks up, she knows
what to do!  Don't get me wrong, I love reading about the high HP tricks 
[BTDT: Mopar's 426, 340-6, etc.,etc.,] in some of the Q's you guys run 
[in fact, still looking for the right TQ to play with] but even bone 
stock these cars have some bitchin' ability.

	Never been to snow driving school [loved your article about 
Colorado, PDSQ] but here is my real world $.02 for driving where plows 
haven't been:  MOMENTUM is your friend; use the gears God gave ya and stay
away from the brakes [they barely work anyway after miles of drifts]; 
keep a scoop shovel and dry gloves in the trunk--yep, sometimes even plow 
horses need a shove to get moving.

	Sorry for the wasted bandwidth, but wanted to relate a story 
about why some of us pilgrims drive a Q.

Thanks,

Bruce

89 100q that could use new show shoes