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[John Larson <jdlarson@ix.netcom.com>]

IMHO, nearly anyone can drive a Bimmer, or a Honda, or whatever, and
they usually do. Drive down any street in my town of about 80,000
(including the immediate surrounding area), and you'll see a Bimmer in a
garage, covered with dust because the poseur who "just had to have it"
can't afford to keep it running.
We choose to drive Audis, and quattros in particular for a lot of
reasons, but I suspect that being a little (or a lot) different is
hidden somewhere right near the top of that list. I live in an area with
what could be called severely moderate weather. It gets hot a little
bit, and never too cold. It snowed here once that I can remember, but it
was gone by 9 or 10 in the morning. Rains some. I looked for more than 2
years for a 90Q 20V, not because I needed it, but because I wanted it.
My SO, who probably thought I was crazy, has grown to like it's road
feel so much we're looking for another. We're gonna sit back and wait,
find the right car, and pounce on it. We'll keep driving the Mazda, or
the Golf, or whatever until it comes along. We could get a Honda, a
tricked out Mitsu, a Bimmer, but we're not into having something just
because everyone thinks it's cool. The 2CV may have precipitated this
way of thinking.
The fact remains that the protests of other teams and manufacturers did
cause the organizers of the Trans AM and other racing series to remove
Audi from the list of eligible competitors, first by weighting them down
and restricting the intake area, and then by legislating them away. The
concept of perceived "unfair advantage" is clear here, and IMHO, the
actions of the sanctioning bodies were wrong. Jack Roush obviously
couldn't take the idea of another manufacturer taking away his virtual
monopoly on winning, so he threatened to "take his ball and go home",
another great tradition from the country that holds a "World
Championship" and doesn't invite teams from other countries. Must be
catching, now they're doing it in the UK and Europe too.
Remember, there are plenty of Bimmers to go around,  only the chosen can
drive Quattros.
Just my $.02, John