I'm back!

[Tom Nas <tnas@euronet.nl>]

Hi all,

I've just returned from a week in Barcelona, having driven there and back.
Barcelona is a great city, and I've enjoyed myself tremendously.

The amount of Audis running around Barcelona is incredible. I've seen two
S2 coupes, two S6es, a non-turbo Coupe Q (rare!), two UrQs (one
appropriately parked in front of hotel 'Cuatro Naciones' permanently), a C2
200T and nearly every other Audi made since the early 80s- and most were in
fine condition. Plenty of A8s and a few V8s, C3-type 100s and 200s... The
only exception was the C3 Avant- as large station wagons aren't too popular
there, I've seen only a few 80 and A4 Avants.
A big surprise for me was the number of quattros running around Barcelona-
I've seen more in a week there than there are in Holland.
The A3, A4 and new A6 seem firm favourites there, but there were lots of B3
Coupes and 90s running around as well. On the way back I saw a
Swiss-registered Audi 90 Sport quattro 20V- with all these badges on the
trunklid, there's barely enough place for the rings!

The only things I've noticed about the Spanish-market cars in relation to
our Audis were that most Audis were badged as '2.2E', whereas in Holland
every 5-cylinder car has a '2.3E' badge, and that all 90s were running on
steel wheels with 80-type plastic hub caps. The 90 came with the aero
alloys as standard here (the land of stripped-out base-spec cars!).

Most Audis seemed to be well-maintained and free from body damage, which
most other cars there had to some degree.

Other cars spotted on the drive down: Subaru SVX, Mitsu 3000GT, Subaru 555,
several Boxsters, M-B CLKs and SLKs, a 996 Carrera, a V12 Jag E-type, RR
Silver Cloud I, lots of Jag XJ40s and XK8s, several Sierra Cosworths,
Ferrari 308 and 348, Renault Alpine turbo, Bentley Mulsanne turbo, Nissan
Skyline...

Well, that's it as far as the car-related side is concerned. For a full
report of my drive through Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Spain
and my stay in Barcelona drop me a line.

Driving around town in my own car (none the worse for standing still for a
week and a half) again last night made me see the relative side of low
performance BTW- the Iveco van took 15 mins to get from a standstill to 120
km/h, the Audi just seconds. And that stereo I was thinking of replacing
earlier- it sounds superb compared to the Iveco's setup. I'll hang on to it
a little longer.

Bye,

Tom

PS I managed to get the second issue of the UK magazine 'Audi driver' while
in Barcelona. Not entirely as much an enthusiasts' magazine as I'd like it,
but close enough. Very nice anyway.

 _______________________________________________________________________
 Tom Nas                                          Zeist, The Netherlands
 tnas@euronet.nl
 1988 Audi 80 1.8S, mostly Tizianrot metallic, 215,000km

    They all laughed at Albert Einstein. They all laughed at Columbus.
          Unfortunately, they also all laughed at Bozo the Clown.
                                      -- William H. Jefferys