General observations & a question

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

Hi all,

After 1.5 years I've finally tired of the green backlighting on my JVC
radio CD head unit. Looks stupid in an all-red dash lighting. So I opened
the removable front panel up, fully expecting it to be lit by green LEDs.
Imagine my surprise when I saw three tiny bulbs, soldered onto the PC
board, covered by green rubber thingies. Great! If there are green
thingies, I must be able to get red thingies, too... now, let's head for
the electronics store!

Last night, while channel-surfing I happened upon a report on the history
of Koni, the well-known Dutch shock absorber manufacturer. An interview
with Mr. de Koning, the founder ('I dismantled lots of broken shock
absorbers, and found that there were only a few things wrong with them. I
tonld my brother that if we fixed those things and beefed up a few parts,
we'd make the best shock absorber in the world'). Nice stuff.

Audi-related: I was recently quoted for new (affordable) front shocks for
my 80, on the basis of Gabriel shocks, a US-made brand. Anybody know their
rep?

On the general subject of cars, last night I saw a report on NBC of a US
crash test, held recently by the insurers association or somthing like
that. No Audis, but they did a 40 mph offset crash on MPVs. This confirmed
my opinion that these cars are unsafe in a crash, the results were
shocking. Only one car, the Ford Windstar, came out OK with no damage to
the 'driver' dummy. Other ones, in particular the Toyota Previa (steering
wheel broke off) and the brand new Pontiac Trans Sport/ Opel Sintra fared
much worse. In the Pontiac the (steel) leg of the dummy broke off! The
tester was almost certain that this would have resulted in fatal injuries
for the driver. Comment of the association of motor manufacturers: 'these
cars are generally driven by the safest drivers, who have very low accident
rates'. Yeah, but what if they meet some moron head-on, or have to swerve
to avoid an accident?
I know that Audi was working on an MPV some time ago, but I wouldn't buy
one myself. It's nice to have something to take the blow- in an MPV your
feet are just too near to the accident! For the same reason I wouldn't buy
anything smaller than my car for high-mileage driving. I know it isn't
totally down to size, and monocoque stiffness does come into it, but still-
the Audi gives me a safe feeling with its bulky, stiff body. Part of my
decision to buy it was based on the good crash test results. I've seen
enough accidents and their gruesome results (luckily managed to avoid them
myself so far) to have a definate opinion on this subject.

Sorry for the length of this post, just a few general remarks. I'd like
your collective comments on these subjects, off-list for the non-Audi
stuff.

Bye,

Tom
1988 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

      He who dies with the most toys, is, nonetheless, still dead.