RE: 100LS

[steveb@falcon.kla-tencor.com (Steven Buchholz)]

 # They are simple cars, but they are terribly designed, especially the
 # head and the crappy front brakes.  One would think Audi would have
 # learned before they cursed the '91 200TQ with those ;-).  It's no wonder
 # that there aren't many LS's on the road anymore.
 # 
... I can't speak to the head, but you have fallen into the inboard brakes 
vs. inside caliper brakes misunderstanding ...

It turns out that inboard brakes are one of them nice features that some 
racers LIKE as it moves the heavy braking mechanism to a place where it 
is "sprung" as opposed to "unsprung."  The other thing that's nice about 
it is that there is no worry about squeezing the braking mechanicals in-
side the I.D. of the road wheel.  

Why must we be so condescending upon the history that led up to the 
vaunted quattro?  Vorsprung durch Technik has been the motto for many 
years, and I see this as a definite statement in that direction.  How 
many other cars of that vintage can claim inboard disk brakes ... 
especially on the front wheels?  It's funny, I know of a guy that is 
hesitant to join in any Audi groups because of this "quattro" oriented 
superiority complex.  He's got a Super 90 that I'm as interested to see 
as some of the newer cars.  

BTW, I was talking to a contractor at work some time back; when he 
found out I was an Audi fan, he told me of this 100LS that he got to 
work on for a friend every once in a while.  He said that other than 
getting parts they really aren't that bad to work on ... which just 
so happens to be one of the reasons I got Audi fever after buying 
that Audi Fox 20 years ago.  Who'd have thought of putting fuel 
injection in that kind of car ...

Yes it is true that there are cases where the vorsprung is not 
apparent ... but where would we be without trying?

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)
... has it really been 20 years? ... yup, AAMOF almost to the day! :)