MH 99 REPORT - TEAM LT1Q

[QSHIPQ@aol.com]

Back from a great adventure at the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca CA.  
Many stories, lots of great times, beer and meetings.  I'll keep this in 
summary form for now, details to follow on a couple of the best.  

Our ride:
1987 5000tq converted to 95 Trans Am LT1 with aluminum heads.  Big Red 
brakes, 17in wheels, 4 ringed graydon exhaust, full coil over suspension.  
Can you say TORQUE?  6000 miles of it makes you giddy, btdt.

Mouseketeers:
Ingo Rautenburg - WARATAP@aol.com (Irsish ya know, he was in Riverdance:), 
Bob Dupree - rdupree@sidley.com (King of the mice), Scott Justusson - 
QSHIPQ@aol.com.  David Hackl gets half an ear, for his chicago to CA leg, he 
returned hans solo, due to a porsche purchase...

Mission:  MH 99

HIGHLIGHTS:

*  LT1Q.  Flawless ride, fantasically fast, *always* the center of attention. 
 Even our stops in the boondocks for gas, got billy-bob and his brother out 
from the bays and under the hood.  "So that's a vette motor, eh?" X infinity. 
 Fully loaded it rode very well, and sounded quiet until WFOT.  Everyone that 
wanted to race got pretty easily whipped by massive torque and 4X4 3.89 
gearset.  Everyone that got a ride, came away smiling.  Ingo, Bob and myself 
are still...  Rumors of 140mph in Nevada, and 3 hours of 100+ (and how bout 
that deer at 110?)...

*  Concours comments:  Please.  For those who wanted a real concours, you 
should have been at the BMW nationals with 10,000 qtips, or just gone to the 
C D'el only a couple miles away.  This 'concours' was a smile to anyone that 
knows what even the simplist really are.  The award for best convertible 
should put this in perspective (a beat to death fox with no roof).  

*  Best in the Corral.  Well, I'm surprised at the S2 drooling, why weren't 
they with John Rek at the MN rally?   My favorites (with photos to boot) was 
the S3 (H&R, with valid WA plates, great story, but it's here and titled), 
and the silver S8 (meticulously transformed - imported parts piece by piece). 
 Kent Anderson's flawless '83 Urq (with original tires) in Mars red.  Best 
crowd award still goes to the LT1Q.  We fired her up every half hour or so, 
and the small block magnet transcends marque...

*  Audi race cars.  A great thanks to both Scott M and Ingo Rautenburg for 
overturning the hoods up requests originally denied.  Ingo spoke German to 
the pit boys, Scott got to an audi tent boss about the same time.  All hoods 
up (except for the V8 DTM and the R8's).  Kudos to Ingo later as he got the 
DTM hood up later that day by joking with a tech in German ("keep talking to 
him Ingo, I'm almost done":)

*  Best meeting.  I convinced Ingo to invite the audi pit crew to visit the 
LT1Q.  About 5 on Sunday afternoon, they came by.  Ingo gave them the car 
tour in German, lots of laughs and nods.  "Torque", "Porsche" - nodding at 
the brakes, all 4 approved of the graydon exhaust tips.  The crew chief 
called us crazy (in german), but a great shot of him blipping the throttle 
with a big grin, it got bigger when Bob leaned over and really gunned it for 
him.  A shot of them with Team LT1Q the highlight of the visit.  The best 
question (translated) from the crew chief, "What made think to do this 
project?"  Ingo, "Lots of beer".  Laughs from them all.

*  Best car at the event.  959 in the Michelen tent

*  Best shots.  Race cars at Andretti Hairpin.  Those boys were putting the 
TransAM, the rally cars and the DTM pretty close to each other coming in.  
Got the corral pix in the same turn, the 4 Sport quattros all entering the 
turn looked awesome.  3 rolls of film of the race cars in the audi paddock 
also great

*  Best of show.  The audi hospitality tent.  Classy food amongst the plebes 
really made one feel good.  Real silverware, lots of iced bottled water, and 
a great view of the track really made you want to come back there for escapes 
from sensory overload.  Great food to boot.

*  Greatest laugh.  Sneaking the LT1Q around the check-in island at the 
Hyatt.  Squeezing between no less than 4 Diablos in concours condition is a 
driving memory I won't forget.  I joked about how one would explain the 
damage of a broken tie rod to the insurance company....  Only 500,000USD 
damage :)

*  Lister Meets.  I can't even start here.  Dan Simoes, after 6 years, the 
most memorable.  I met more listers than I can remember.  Thanks to all for 
stopping by the LT, we were glad to make this the inauguration of the 
promised conversion.

*  The fixers, sometimes listers.  Enjoyed meeting others who also tweek and 
fix our committed addictions.  John Larson, Ron Wood, Ned Ritchie, George 
Baxter, Scott Mockry, Keith Anderson,  Ben Howell, Dave Jones, Eurorspec 
boys, Audis own race techs.  John L has the BEST food recommendations by far. 
 Not forgetting Cole at Modern Specialists - Boulder CO and Dave at Revsport 
- Colo Springs, for the lending of respective shops during our outbound and 
inbound trips.

*  Windward ho.  My conversation with Max at AVS.  2 minutes after arriving 
with the LT, he "claims" to have done a "couple conversions on 4kqs".  Bob 
incredulous, me laughing.  Bob:  "Really, how did you get the radiators to 
fit?"  Max: "proprietary".  Me: "Bob, do you know what "proprietary" means?  
BFS"...  The next day, second round.  Max comes up to the car: "Hey I can set 
you up with a quaife front differential for this, if you want better 
traction".  (Insert my glee at a differential discussion, a better silver 
platter could not be served).  Bottom Line:  Several specific questions 
evaded, the mud got deep, and he was asked to leave.  Why EC uses this guy as 
their "audi expert" defies all logic to me.  Thanks, to those who gave me 
stories after the fact, for not cluing me in to this guy.

*  Best road on the trip.  Nevada-Utah 6/50.  Great views, fast speeds, and 
exellent turns.  Shouldn't be any carbon left in the LT1 motor after that 
road.

*  Best press.  Hurley Haywood deserves the gold star for the best 
performance at a quattro club gathering.  His personality and dedication to 
the audi sponsors, was almost too funny.  Great stories shared in lieu of 
serious pointed questions, I smiled through all of the answers.  Our own Paul 
Rivera gets a close second, his standup during the raffle deserves special 
mention.  

*  Tom Nas.  Great audi enthusiast, best trinkets.  Wish I had just given him 
the ckbook, and got it all...  His grin certainly topped all others who 
didn't travel half as far...  Chad Clark.  I'm not sure I want to know what 
your fedex bill is to get that knock sensor to do the parade lap, but your 
determination deserves mention.  I'm sure you made up for the lack of power 
on your return trip :).  Hey does that "thgir peek ciffart rewols" on the 
windshield really work?:)

*  Cars in town.  More ferrari marque parked at the curb, than I've seen 
anywhere.  The F40 in the shell station next to our Friday restaurant (that 
was gone when we left), a real eye opener.  The "makes you think about who 
you're with award" = the guy who parked his 456 on the hill facing hundreds 
of audis, most of which we all know, likely weren't with functioning parking 
brakes... :0

*  Food.  Excellent.  From Sushi to eggs.  I could live there easily.  

*  Weather.  Freezing fog in the morning, burning sun midday, then fog in the 
evening.  Sure got used to it quickly though.

That's it for now, sensory overload without question.  First and foremost in 
the Thank You department: To my bride of 15 years (anniversary the day after 
I left) for the extra work and scheduling she did to make this happen for me 
(and a great last supper to send us off into 10 days of restaurant land). To 
Cole at Modern Specialists and Dave at Revsport Motors and Ben Howell, your 
immediate and gracious responses to my requests for help are mucho 
appreciato.  Thanks to Dan S, and all the qlisters, the internet is a great 
virtual bond, so many friendships even before shaking hands.  Great to do the 
latter with so many.  To both Ingo and Bob, thanks for making the memory an 
adventure of laughter, brotherhood and torque.  Bob, your calmness wilst 
approaching the deer at supersonic speeds deserves a special award.  To Karen 
and the QC, a great job, a good meld to the Audi Corporate objectives.  To 
Audi AG, a great show, we hope it just gets better from here.

End of Report.  

Scott Justussson
QSHIPQ@aol.com
TEAM LT1Q
'87 5ktqwRS2 -10vt
'84 RS2URQ - 20vt
'87 4Runner turbo