Audi Club meeting in Holland

[tnas@dtpdirect.nl (Tom Nas, DTP Direct bv)]

Hi y'all!

After some serious time away from work & the list (backlog of about 70
q-digests) just a quick note.
Last Saturday I went to the Audi Club 10th anniversary meeting I wrote
about some time ago. I didn't really know what to expect, although the
press release did say there would be Audis of all vintages present. I
wasn't really prepared for such a great display of Audis, among which 4
UrQs, 4 V8s, a lot of 100 coupes from the seventies (beautiful!), the
ex-Hans Stuck 90 Quattro and TransAm 200 (awesome!) from the eighties- in
short a spectacular showing. On top of that the Audi Club people seem a
friendly and non-snob lot. Although I came in my humble FWD 80, I was as
welcome as anyone. There appear to be quite a few US spec cars in Holland,
I saw a couple of 5000s and a 100 LS from the '70s, and they're all very
well cared for. There were even a couple of guys from Germany, who must
have driven hundreds of miles to get there.

Performance mods are much in evidence as well, there was even a very nice
Q-car (Q as in inconspicuous, not Quattro): an 1971 Audi 100, slightly
lowered, in beige (!) with a Porsche 924 engine. Coupled to the original
Audi gearbox, the owner said the thing was able to do 130 mph. Pity about
the four-speed, he thought fitting a five-speeder would get it up to 155!
He shakes up VW GTI drivers with it on a regular basis. Now this would be
my kind of car... with the new Dutch road tax laws (no tax for cars older
than 25 years) it's very cheap performance. The guy had also uprated the
brakes & suspension, so this thing would also stop and corner well.

There was a small sale of Audi-related things on, where I bought myself a
couple of original brochures from the early eighties ($ 0.60 each), two
factory videos about quattro rallying and an eighties general rallying
video featuring a lot of Audis for $ 10 each. These prices are well below
what you usually pay.

I've never been much of a club guy, although I enjoy talking cars with
others. My brother owns an MG, and I've been to the MG Club meetings a
couple of times. The atmosphere at MG Club meetings in general is not as
relaxed and friendly as that at the Audi Club meeting, the Dutch MG people
seem a little stuck up in comparison. In short, I'm considering joining the
Audi Club. Not a lot of track events in Holland, though, which is a shame.

I've test driven an '84 90 Quattro recently with a view to buying it. I was
a hoot to drive, I've never cornered this quick in absolute safety yet. The
2,2 litre I-5 is a great engine, it just kept on pulling. About everything
appeared to work, it was even on LPG so I could afford to run it. The snag?
The guy selling it seemed more than a little dodgy (fat slob, dobermann
pinscher drooling around the lot, some of the cars were bodged horribly and
overpriced) Although outwardly beautiful, the car had 146k miles, which is
a lot in our heavy traffic with a lot of stop-start driving. Coupled to
running on LPG (which makes the car run hotter and propagates valve seat
recession) I'm a little bit in doubt.

Love the leather upholstery, air con, ABS, central locking, electric
mirrors, alarm and of course Quattro though... Sigh!

In doubt,

Tom.  '88 80 1.8S

 _______________________________________________________________________
   Tom W. Nas, graphic design                        tnas@dtpdirect.nl
   DTP Direct bv                              Voice +31 (55) 5 790 799
   Apeldoorn, the Netherlands                   Fax +31 (55) 5 790 125

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