You Have Arrived

//SFest'09

As unusual a month has passed since we closed the gate 8/29 on yet another impossibly amazing //SFest and I’ve found mesself reflecting back on all things Awesome.  Eight Augusts ago I assembled 20+ urS cars and ~ 30+ ‘other’ cars in my unassuming yard here in sunny CT, delivering //SFest unto the world - and it was Awesome.  Seven successive successful events later and //SFest grew and evolved and adapted and impressed - but - one constant remained:  Awesome!

‘You all’ are sobeyond Awesome for making //SFest what it is.  Yeah sure I ‘made’ it I ‘make’ it.  Sure.  But you folks come from here and far - 20 states in all and 3 Canadian provinces to date - to Coventry Motorcar for the 3rd time now hosting //SFest.  And this year, you came despite an apocalyptic forecast of doom and gloom of galactic proportions, yet we persevered and proved Awesomeness can overcome perceived adversity.  Now, we’ve always promised we would forever strive to provide you all with something ‘new’ each year.  Welp we’ve not yet done rain so we figured what the hey and gave that a whirl.  The 20x40 Big Top provided shelter, yet out in the midst of the mist //SFest was in top gear hitting full stride despite steady 9-2 rain.  Smiles and laughter permeated and resonated and infected, //SFesters know how to //Fest regardless and the sky lifted early afternoon allowing the rest of the event to thaw unfettered.  Awesome!

“Rain be damned!” denounced the owners of the Aston Martin DBS, GT3MkII, Cayenne TT, 500E, and one of the 30 black interior’d e28 ///M5s imported - why not?  And the white ‘78 Carrera 3.0 Martini Targa failed to go undrooled upon, being one of well ONE Targa made of 8 total Carreras with ‘that’ disco crazed LSD induced Fuhrmann seated interior.  

Being an Audi gig afterall, hard to miss the dozens upon dozens (squared) of urS4/6s outlining the scene with many new faces behind the wheels joining the stalwart eight-timers.  More D2 //S8s than I’ve ever seen assembled, then pairs of RS6s and V8s, an //S5, some B5 //S4s, and heck a black B7 //S4 cabby with the top down flashing it’s taunting red gut in mockery of the cloudcover.  Rainbegone!  Awesome!  And privileged we are to honor all //Sdom mit some urQs, 200tqa20v’s, oh and an um er 10sec eS2, lions and tigers and bears - oh my! 

Multiple rounds firing up the 6’ grille throughout the day and apparent miles of banquet tables of eats ensured major mangia for all.  Raffle conclusion featured an uberRoast of Chicagoan //Fester Bill Mahoney for having driven as many //SFest miles as, um, 5 LeMans races/32 Indy 500s… heck in 5more //Fests he’ll have *circumferenced the Earth*. 

Dusk saw our staple //SFest Outdoor Theater projected up under the ceiling of the tent, warmed by the glow of a serene fire.  Rows and rows of longtime internet friends co-mingled, strengthening the bonds that are honed daily on the Lists and Forums.  Awesome!

*None* of this - mind you - would be at all possible… without the continued support of a wide array of most generous sponsors.  These kind folks ensured our raffle was overflowed to the hilt allowing winner winner chicken dinner to be exclamated among many-a-Fester.  The bounty was surreal, with gift certificates, parts kits, mods, Audi corporate schwag, clothes, tuning sessions, you name it our sponsors provided it YOU WON IT.  Considering such, please take the time to acknowledge this generosity and go out of your way to purchase your wares from those who make it all possible:  Coventry Motorcar, EFI Express, Apikol, Custom Auto Craft, Foreign Autopart, Quattrroworld, German Auto Parts, Detailers Domain, iBiquity Digital, The Original California Car Duster, Swift Performance Automotive, Audi of America, 034 Motorsport, Kryptonite Locks, Hamburg Technic, McBoost.com, Sports Car Workshop, Skydogs Kites, Danbury Audi Parts, Hoffman Audi New London, Where’s Weldo, and SPEC. 

//SFest is the bestfest and there is only one.  Those Who Have Fested - Know.  Full event pics can be found at http://www.sfest.com/gallery.html. 

From the staffers that organize ‘this’ all, we are all looking forward to //SFest’10 (already rumored to be //SFest2010 an Enthusinut Odyssey)…  stay tooned to www.sfest.com for further word, and prepare to brace yourselfs for once again Awesomeness. 

Festivus Maximus.

GoF 9/26/09

1995 928 GTS 6,700mi - 63rd of last 79 made

Watkins Glen SVRA Vintage Festival

e28 ///M5

Then, and now… and *NOW* - 997 GT3 MkII

A late evening 930 blast over to my bud’s has me contemplating ‘Then’ via boosted revs thru the 4spd.  Then was ‘Now’ when the 930 debuted in late ’74, but Now was redefined with the ’04 arrival of the elemental supercar experience – back to basics with the 996GT3.  Six years later and ‘NOW!’ redefines redefinition and the 997GT3 awaits my invocation, sitting seductively in a willing friend’s… um… garage.  Yeah, garage that’s it.

It is sitting in all its Nordic Gold awesomeness amongst its lineage, silent and loud simultaneous.  The eye bounces fender flare to rear wing to front diffuser to alloy wheel – 930 to 996GT3 to 997GT3 – while the mind struggles to process the spectacle.  When your shrink tells you to Go To Your Happy Place *this* is what he means.

Oogling and ahhing, comparing and contrasting, it is interesting to note how different such similar things can be.  The 997 displays its PhD in Technical Sophistication, relegating the 996 afront it diminutive.  Nineteen inch centerlocks over Carbon Ceramics, the wheel arches and flares and wings and ducts stretch your pupils into realization of the 997’s substantiality.

Electroluminescent door sills welcome me as I slip me lucky keister into painted seatbacks fronted with Alcantara that then reaches everywhere in the cockpit broken only by carbon fiber.  Fire it up he says, back to back to back is the way to ponder these mmmkay?  Whattapal, whattapalwhattapal.

The 3.8 cracks to life with a display of unbridled eagerness.  Not audible enough?  Depress the shenanigan button in the lower left center console, engine noise is replaced by exhaust baritone.  I quickly determine the ‘normal’ mode to be quite abnormal, struggling to imagine anyone of sound mind electing effectively no sound.  The 996 clatters to life singing its rasp song through Fabspeed headers and cans.  BRAP!

Reverse lights light, squared… he’ll warm the 997 up while I ride gun as another pair of friends hop into the 996, and we troll out in tandem into blackness illuminated by steering-sensitive 997 bixenons.  The transitional response of the lights appear much more proactive than the reactive ///M5 units I’d previously experienced, which were more like bad stripper teets swinging in the breeze proving more a distraction than anything else.  These are surprisingly tauntingly effective – go figure – I’d always assumed ‘those things’ to be rather Lexus.  Nope, not here.

Oil temps are found and heat fills tread, a stop sign sees a Chinese Fire Drill in the 997 – shoot it has been ½ a lifetime since I’d done one of those.  A quick acclimation of the controls, I engage first and we’re off.  Quite surprised I am at the ease of driving here – clutch takeup is a sinch and upshifts snick snak’d with mechanical precision.  Until I employed a revmatched downshift – yikes that throttle is eeeeger, the tach seemingly electromagnified upward… have to be reeeeeeeal deliberate there I do. 

OK then I’ll just scrub some speed with the brak……ooops!  Sensitive suckers them PCCB’s are, nil pedal travel means nose meets windshield and fast.  More of Deliberate, Danielsan, Deliberate – gotchya.  Sport setting selected on the shock button to the left of the exhaust switch provides absence of body roll, steering feedback proving zero play.  The chassis seems hunkered into the tarmac with every rotation of the Pirellis, confidence is bestowed and how.  Odo of a few shy of 1k means we’re still under dealer suggested 1,200mi break-in… means nono to, er, ‘proper’ exploitation of ze 8400rpm Red and the accompanying banshee wail I’m yearning for.  Matters not, the getup and GO issues addictive primordial amusement and I’m more than entertained.

Time to swap ho’s and another Chinese Fire Drill but this time with a run back to the 996.

Strapping into the 996 with GT2 Halos, size and quality realizations are near overwhelming with obviousness.  This thing’s small in comparison inside, dash and switchgear seeming nearly antiquated somehow.  Progress has been made, times have achanged.  23k trackmiles later and this one’s ready to astonish tho.   I quickly dive into the nether regions of the tach, 8200 redline invoking resplendent goosebumps, giggles, and puckerage.  Yeahbaby.

Immediate and blatant is how much the JZW suspension acting thru Fikse’s here has comPLETELY ironed out a ‘pedestrian’ 996GT3s inherent I’m Gonna Kill You bob ‘n dive ‘n squat ‘n tug ‘n weave.  White Knuckles need not apply in this iteration, a refreshing relief from the DE I’d done in a stocker a couple years back @ Lime Rock.  Set up OE, while it wouldn’t actually kill you it did pretty much feel like it would with every stab of the throttle with every bump in the road with every steering input.  Somehow the 997s steering response has demoted the 996s otherwise astounding feel to ‘loose’ – go figure.  The soundtrack is quite different, the 3.8 more deep and mellow with a downlow hit…  435horse pounds you hard.  Here the 381hp is more brass than bass, the horsies felt more than the torques.

Miles are ingested, I’m basking in each 997 downshift and throttle stab in front of me.  I could do this all night, but nope wee hours have me bombing home in the 930 and coming full circle back to ‘Then’.  Then doesn’t exactly suck, but ‘NOW!’ is a wholenother experience – capable and visceral and refined and smooth and gnarly and badass, wrapped up nicely in a superlative package.  Sign here:_________________.

full pics can be found:  http://picasaweb.google.com/pkrasusky/997GT3#

n/a in NA - Audi //S6Plus

Somehow I’ve found me slimyself trading cars for a few daze, my //S8 for another //Scar - seems fair and otherwise insignificant but…

BUT

 …the trade is for a 1997 //S6Plus Avant - *the* only one in North America no less.  Trade for a few?  If you insist…

Being the first product of Audi’s newly formed special interests arm Quattro GmbH, the //S6Plus is not insignificant.  While an //S4 4.2 Avant had been produced since the car’s debut in the early ’90s, a Plus it was not with a ‘mere’ 290 neigh.  While 290 ‘there’ came @  5800, 326 ‘here’ wails out @ 6500.  And although Mr. Torquey remains even @ 295 for each, the Plus twists it up for your amusement by 3500 vs. 4k.  Produced for ‘97 only and effectively that chassis’ Swan Song, 952 were assembled - 855 being Avants - and a total of 0 imported to North America.

After 5yrs & 80k in my former 22psi’d 6spd’d urS6, I’d garnered some steeped opinion on the mythos of ‘this’ car from the enthusiasts circles…

“It’s not a turbo”

“It’s just a C4 with a V8”

“It’s not that special”

“So what”

…all resounded true - yep sure did

Until…  that is… I racked me some WOT time in it.  Muwhahahaaa.  JNR.

Here’s a case where the whole is _entirely_ greater than the sum of the parts.  It just is.  One plus one equals 3 see.  Mmmya.

That svelte and now stalwart 4.2L motor completes the C4 chassis.  Especially being an Avant - the balance is just ‘there’.  The color combo here - stellar and quintessential - silver over black gut with alcantara inserts and door cards, carbon fiber trim.  The wheels - fook I like those!  They really look kinda lame in pics, until they spoke to me the other night - freakin’ gnarly lip’d awesomely spoked units with new 255 Pilot Sports - I likey.  Threetwentysix horse - pulls 7k+ redline with aplomb.  It’s verymuch like a chipped i5t - results are the same just acheived through differing methods.  It sorta sounds like a badass schoolbus @ the drags - if that makes any sense… and somehow that turns out to be good thing.  Snicketysnick shifter is very unAudi in shortness, crispness, and weight, and grabs each gear with reward.  All 6 gears summon Groundhog Day deja vu powerband, with 3-6 being particularly giddy. The Rancho suspension while appearing maybe somewhat too high (tho not nearly as abysmal as a regular //Scar) is a great match to the power / chassis / experience.  The HP2 brakes surprsingly have decent feel and arrest quite effectively without the expected dive.  Fender flair lip extensions front and rear - neato.  Height adjustable Xenon lights…  circa 1997???  Schwing! All the blacked out trim - against the silver / black gut… just spectacular.

Again, each item = so the F what.  Stir them together and stand before it?  I wouldn’t change a thing.  Nope.  Not one.  It’s bonestock and it’s downright cool.  And there’s certainly some goofy mystique factor having the only one ‘here’.  Entirely likeable entirely appealing.

My time exploiting its merrits and vetting the mythos ended and had me returning home in Alumibitch pondering the blur of what just happened.  Some daze, I find myself pinching my arm or thigh just in case.  This was one of those daze. 

turboPALOOZA 2009

Elementary mathematical equation:  Fifteen 930s + Carolina Motorsports Park DE + WOT mountain caravan in and around Tail of the Dragon = Just Not Right.

Build It - And They Will Come….  the best events beat this drum.  2300mi added to my odo in 4 daze certainly says so.  I departed CT Thursday destined to join 15 fellow nutty 930 owners for turboPALOOZA 2009 in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Shredded 60mi of Skyline Drive in VA enroute, then met 7 guys @ Speedwerks http://www.speedwerksllc.com/index.html Friday to ingest their uberfacility, lined wall to wall to wall with outright Legends of the Sport of the most mindbendingnest degree - 934, (2) 935s, 962, (2) 907s - oh my!

The seven 930 caravan departs on the hour-long shenanigan run to another fabshop, Zuffenhaus http://www.eurowerks.us/defaultNew.html where 8 or so other maniacal owners await our arrival.  Coupla these 500rwhp beasts are running uncorked thru Zork tubes - 8 or so inches of pipe straight off the turbo.  The sounds and sights of a brace of 930s making fighterpilot lane changes as if stitched together struck awe amongst all we encountered.  Running toward the back of the ensemble proved the most entertaining seat in the house as you basked in the glory of whistles and whines and pops and shrieks and wails.  Serenity Now!  We arrive @ Zuff to assemble an array of awesomeness I’ve yet to behold in my enthusiast encounters.

Saturday dawn fuelstop and we’re off to a DE @ Carolina Motorsports Park in SC - there’s simply nothing like running hotlaps with a bunch of your comrades at arms, slicing and dicing it up out there, ribbing each other in the paddock, tightening bonds that have existed on forums but are only now being vetted face to face bumper to bumper for the first time.  

Instantly proven is outright coolness transcends the ownership experience and commonality of passion and humor is readily evident despite such diverse individuals.  Further proves my ‘internet friends’ are without question kindred brethren of the highest caliber to the furthest degree.

Sunrise Sunday has our gaggle of 930s heading west and into the NC mountains.  Via Fontana Dam and Cherohala Skyway, the Tail of the Dragon http://www.tailofthedragon.com is our Destiny.  One of life’s automotive resume items needing to be filled now that der Nordschleife has been tackled, this is a must-do experience for annnnnny gamer - 318 curves in 11 miles, most strewn together in a delectable sequence of esses and switchbacks and compression bends and fully bermed turns - oh mamma YEAH! 

Traffic and Johnny L. are rather present throughout our mountainous voyage yet there are many a schoolgirl giddy inducing moments.  I find myself chuckling bwhahahaa out loud on numerous occasions as the ‘ole warpig is hustled most righteously through late apex’d and trail brake’d madness. 

We conclude our schwaray on the NC Dragon terminus @ the Tree of Shame late day Sunday.  I let another hour pass as I decompress and fully embrace all of what we have just embarked upon over the past threeplus days – holding hands in a circle singing Kumbya Mylord nearly seems appropo - it’s that moving.

Suddenly I find myself alone - all alone - on the Dragon, faced with northbound prospects.  Best bet?  Exodus via TN… which means…  ride it again yeah!  Sunset Sunday, a 930, and The Dragon… all to me ratbastid self…  muwahahahaa is all that can be exclamated.

Full pics if yer interested can be found http://picasaweb.google.com/pkrasusky/TurboPALOOZA2009#.

Bizarroland: 4C19H or D3S8? Audi D3 S8

I knew my bud’d been alookin, I did.  But he’s always alookin.  Welp, he gone and done it…  ‘09 Daytona Gray over Black / Silver with deviated stitching.  Carbon Fiber baby.  Got the call it’d landed hours prior and RUN out the door dinner in hand I went (on kitchen plate, mind you - literally).

4C19H, yeah that’s the ticket.  D3S8 just seems too similar to my D2S8, see.  It ain’t.  An enTIRELY different experience.  I kept reminding myself that my car is based upon a 1993 chassis and getting out of this 4C19H and into mine is akin to getting out of mine and into a car from 1977.

Parked next to mine it is an interesting paradigm shift.  Mine looking sleaker, more taught, more slung.  His looking neuvomodern, beefy, badass.  And them 20’s relegate me meager 18s to looking like 15inchers.  Interesting tho, he was quick to remark how gnarly mine looked next to his, and how much lower / slung he thought it was - funny how much difference 2” of hub height off ground makes.  Then there are things like the running lights - LED clusters in the ‘high beam’ area that dim to a less bright setting when the headlights come on.  Oh and exit lighting when you get out and shut the door - the fog lights come on.  Quite new fangled fersure.

After only sitting in one @ the Streets of Tomorrow RS4 whisker poke yearses back - the first thing that came to mind was OH MY how much stuff there is around you that can (WILL) break.  Well, all ‘that’ was immediately confirmed once again fast forward to this time.  SCARY complicated these things are.  Waytoomuch gizmonatry going on here for my tastes - but hey I’d SUFFER!  B&O speaker grilles are seemingly hewn from billet, and ‘ting’ a deep ting when flicked.  Fit, finish, and materials execution in here is specatabular.

Keyless Go or whatever Audi calls it leaves keys in your pocket, kinda cool.  Hit the START button and summon up 10cyl of fury.  Drive by wire elicits OMG rev response.  WTF’s this thing - a STREET BIKE?  Reciprocating innards made of antigravity?  Noweight flywheel possibly?  Goose REV goose REV… silly fun!  Man this thing sure emits *quite* the hooliganastic exhaust _bark!_… teee heee!  No secret what’s goin on here nope.

Select Tip and paddles are your friend.  I like the dedicated paddle arrangement here vs. BMW’s double-redundant system personally - lefty down righty up.  No throttle blippy on downshifts tho, that is a glaring omission IMnsHO - que sera sera.  Cut the wheel left @ the bottom of his driveway to depart… and…  “bling” - POOF appears an incandescentesque ‘turning’ light out left front yonder.  Without the turn signal on.  Eeerie.  It’s like Kazoo from the Jetsons is there illuminating your way, takes some getting used to certainly.

We troll along for warm up and meander down the road as I take in the suspension transitions side to side, brake feel, etc. Both beyond good.  In swerving so, the steering wheel shudders - oh yeah that’s the Lane Departure Warning googad thingamajig.  Wonder how it knows?  Cross the double yellow he tells me.  Nothing.  No, CROSS the double yellow he beckons again.  OK, there it is…  only… to immediately round the corner (nearly in other lane) to Johnny Law and a Click It Or Ticket checkpoint.  HaHA d’oh!  Turn left! he suggests…  car share’s a tag mit one of his other junkers for time being it seems.  Phew, escape unscathed but boy I bet ‘that’ didn’t look TOO obvious.

Backroad bliss here on out, it’s WOT time (my favorite time).  WOT snarls a deep and agitated intake bark - addictive.  Thrust is immense and tach sweep a blur.  At or about the 5k orso range golllllllyyyy is there a huge burst ‘o powah as I hurtle toward 7k.  Seven grand, 10cyl, and a thousand valves or there abouts - oh my.  Six speeds?  Scoff - I’ll take 3 thanks!

Fun’s over all too quick, no plate means no highway and we’ve both people to do things to see… hmmm… or something like that?  Return back to his cave.  His cave sucks - it’s like looking into the future for me.  We’ve effectively got the same ‘stuff’, just his is uber and mine’s, well - not:

That’s that, for now.  FULL Just Not Right 4C19H WOT run to follow - stay tooned for a D2/D3 chasedown and some proper compare / contrast fodder.  Should be, umm…  fun!

Paulie likey Paulie wanty.  Def. on ‘the list’ acoupla depreciative years down ze road yes…