Goodwood, sun tan cream and goggles.

[gnt@nhm.ac.uk (Graham Thackrah)]

Er. Never again am I going to underestimate the British weather. Being from
one of the wetter parts of this island I should have known. Anyway. The
chairman of the ukqc at least had a tent to hide in. My chip tray filled
with water in about ten seconds during the worst of it on the Sunday. My car
now has clods of earth situated randomly around my engine bay (time to check
the archive about engine bay cleaning methinks)

Wow. Apart from all the stupidly fast expensive (F1 fast and £2 million
classic Bently expensive before I get blasted by all you 20v owners) I was
humbled to see an immaculate B reg 80 sport with 120k on the clock, on the
club audi stand. It was in about ten times better nick than mine. The ukqc
stand provided my first view under the bonnet of a quattro turbo. Which was
fun. Seriously, I loved every minute of wondering how owners of these cars
manage to work on them. I thought it was tight changing the cam belt on my
car. I now have a problem however (and am REALLY looking forward to the
suggestions you may have) I would like a coupe quattro turbo, badly. My
overdraft is £4500 ish. 

There is another question I would ask, regarding the failure of the cam belt
on the S1, why do cars have rubber bands driving valve trains? Is there a
good reason why a chain isn't used? I realise that weight savings on rapidly
rotating engine components reduce frictional losses etc but surely the
avoidance of failure is something to be borne in mind? Do they figure that
one failure in so many races/years whatever, is worth the increased
performance in the mean time? 

Thats it, top weekend, great fun, loads of insane cars and a bit of a play
in the field on the friday evening with the hand brake and generous throttle
application. It was so wet the front pushed on at anything above 1500 revs
in first (hehehheh), learnt loads about how to handle the car in a slide
that I am seriously thinking about going to a skid pan to try it under tuition.

Cherio, 
Graham.