"New" V8q 5-speed, Part 1: the story (long)

[ekellock@juno.com]

Without having even seen the car, I flew to NY a week ago last Friday and
met my "new" car and it's seller for the first time.  He drove us back to
his home in CT and I gave the car a thorough going over.  I paid the man
and drove up the road to Paul Krumins house and followed him to Mt
Washington.  Thanks to Dan Simoes and Neil Swanson for their invaluable
assistance in providing me their opinions of the car.

The car drove pretty well, but it was clear it needed some TLC.  The trip
was punctuated when the front of the belly pan let loose and hit the
pavement at about 90mph.  Turns out the last time it was off, it wasn't
reinstalled correctly.  It is now held up by shoe strings... temporarily.

I had a terrific time at MW.  Once again a stellar experience of meeting
people face-to-face and not being disappointed.  The NE is home to a
great group of Audi nuts.  

On the way back, I stayed overnight Sunday night near Pawling NY so that
I could drop in on a mechanic that Dan recommended highly.  Greg Hayman
of Autofirme found me waiting for him Monday morning.  He obliged me and
gave the car the once over and gave me a great sense of confidence for
the rest of my trip home.  I sure wish he was closer.

He reported some codes that indicated the thermostat was bad.  The temp
gauge should normally read just under 100C.  It is about half that.  When
he drove it he observed that the car was way down on power, which I was
relieved to hear since I thought so too, but had nothing to compare it
to.  He also said I wasn't getting full throttle, another observation I
had made, but was unsure of.  Otherwise, he gave it a thumbs up, accepted
a small sum for his time, and I was on my way.  Thanks Greg, and thanks
Dan for the great referral.

On the way home, a bottle of Techron really made a difference.  I believe
a combination of very sedate driver, running to cool (too rich), and
being used primarily as a winter car, served to really load this thing up
internally.  

BTW, it was offered as Lago Blue.  I have since learned it's not.  Dave
Flagg says Minerva, but that color wan't shown in the 1991 color brochure
that is but one of many pieces of literature stored in Chris Miller's
trunk.  The closest match on the brochure is Opal Mica.
I compared the paint code with that of Pete Rose's Lago '91 200q and my
code is different.  No matter at this point, I'm very pleased with this
car.  

Ed Kellock
Greenville, SC  USA
91 V8q 5-speed
87 Coupe GT
91 200q Avant, in limbo

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