Miscellaneous q-list ramblings (too long)

[Tom Nas <tnas@euronet.nl>]

Last week's visit of good friend Eric Renneisen and his better half
Elizabeth to my place (I'll leave the description of that visit to Eric,
sorry Elizabeth for my slightly immature high-speed rotary showoff!) have
yielded another week-long backlog of q-digests, so this thread is likely to
already have died the death as I get around to contributing my Dfl 0.02.
Nevertheless, you won't be able to escape my insights, unless you've hit
'Delete'. ;-)

I've been subscribed to the q-list for about three years now, and have been
contributing the occasional snippet, varying in relevancy and usefulness,
for about two and a half years. I've been through a job change (and another
one coming soon) in the process, losing Internet access in the process and
re-arranging about everything else in my life. I've been subscribed to
several mailing lists in the past, but the only one that I kept on coming
back to was the quattro list. Why? No shortage of knowledgeable, friendly
people, willing to share their insights with the rest- and the possibility
of the occasional off-topic (but fun!) excursion. Thanks to you
contributors- you know who you are.

I've acquired more than a few real friends from the q-list. Since visiting
Pikes Peak last year, enjoying the wonderful hospitality of James Marriott
and Mike Del Tergo and seeing the beauty of the US, getting to know a lot
of very nice people and talking about my favourite subject(s?), I feel that
I've become part of this wonderful 'Internet family'. Time and money
permitting, I will surely return to PP in '99, bringing my 'ohmygod' bag of
anoraky stuff, and maybe a used headlight or two.

Also, when I was looking for something more exciting to replace my
ultra-reliable and cheap-to-run (but dead slow) FWD Audi 80 recently, I
felt that the technical knowledge I've acquired on the 'list was sufficient
to do my own pre-sale inspection on a very used 90 quattro in FWD
Audi-infested Holland, buy the thing and do the stuff that needed doing. So
far it hasn't let me down and I feel I've made a good buy- thanks to the
assistance of lots of people on this list! This quattro thing takes some
getting used to, but it's been a lot of fun so far, and now I (as a
convinced hater of cold) am even hoping for some snow this winter! Hmmm...
and the summer's yet to arrive...

I knew a bit about cars when I joined the list- or so I thought. In fact,
my knowledge (and tech-English vocabulary) has increased beyond belief
since joining, and I owe all of that to you people. Thanks. As a side
effect, I can explain what's wrong with my car perfectly- as long as it's
in English. (Still struggling to learn the Dutch terms for all these
parts...) Now I'm reading workshop manuals instead of the latest Joseph
Wambaugh. Hmmm indeed.

So, hats off to Dan, who somehow seems to find the time to run all this
(and even think about improvements) _and_ give tech advice at the same
time. I know all about biting off more than you can chew, and this is
incredible to me. Also, hats off to those who keep on sharing their
knowledge and opinions, free of charge, day in day out. You are the people
who make this list worth being part of, whatever it'll be called after the
'changeover'.

To those of you who haven't received an answer to your queries and don't
feel welcome- you've obviously never owned a carb-fed FWD Audi 80 which you
had tech questions about... ;-) - please do as I do, ignore the occasional
impossible-to-kill thread or tantrum and persist- in fact, tell all your
friends to join the list and make it an even better resource, so that even
Audi AG itself might eventually take some notice.

OK, so now it's time to get away from the stupid computer and enjoy the
first actual day of summer with good weather (and the last?). Sorry for all
this low-relevancy banter, I just wanted to tell you people what an
incredible group you are. I'll be back, as the man said...

Tom (feeling proud of the old heap that's parked outside, while he could
have driven a '92 Golf for the same money)

PS I get better fuel mileage on my 'new' 2.3 90q than on my old 1.8 80 FWD
in the same driving circumstances, even though this car invites the
occasional traffic-light sprint more than the 80 did. Huh? 11 km/litre on
my daily one-traffic-light-to-the-other commute, where the 80 struggled to
better 10...

 _______________________________________________________________________
 Tom Nas                                          Zeist, The Netherlands
 tnas@euronet.nl
 1987 Audi 90q 2.3E, Tizianrot metallic, 164,000km

Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe
you.                     Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll
have to touch to be sure.