September 2009

E-Zine

WOW!!!

Well the summer is just about over, but what a summer it was. And this should make for a great September e-zine. Woohoo!!!

In this report you'll find my personal write up from the annual meet, but you'll also find a write up covering various other events where the A8OC have attended; Gti International, Audis in the Park and the A8-Freunde meet in Germany.

Membership numbers are up, the trip to Germany proved to be very fruitful in that respect, and this means that more can be done for the community as a whole. Can't be bad.

Thanks for those that have supported the events throughout the summer, here's looking forward to 2010.

Tony

Thanks

A big "thank you" to Audi Driver Magazine, for all of their support for the A8OC so far this year, I'm looking forward to working closely with them over the next 12 months to really get this club up and off its feet.

Another great big thanks to Ben at AV Performance. Bens enthusiasm and support for the club has proven second to none, and his support for the club, can be seen through his attendance alongside us at a couple of events this year, and also the shameless plugging he gives us to anyone who brings an '8 into his workshop!!

A8 Parts also deserve a thank you too, as they are continuing to provide a superb service to all of our members, which again is second to none.

I look forward to working with you all more closely over the next 12 months to really put us all in the public eye.

A8OC Annual Meet

It’s Sunday 7th June 2009, it’s 6 o’clock in the morning, and I’ve been awake for a while worrying about the turnout for the meet. Why am I worried? It’s raining, heavily. Oh well, it’s only been about 5 months organisation that’s got us here.

I get to site at around 7:30 am. There’s a couple of us around, making sure everything’s in place, and watching out of the windows as the rain continues to pour from the heavens. It’s not looking promising.

This pretty much carried on for the next couple of hours. 9.30am arrived, and we had about 16 cars. Not bad, we’ve still beaten the numbers from last year. We want more though, and the rain is still coming. The weather report is checked regularly to see if there’s any hope of it getting better. We’re concerned, as there are a number of conflicting reports out there.

10.30 am. I needn’t have worried. We’ve got the best part of 20 cars, and there’s a few more en-route. It’s been worth it. I opened up the proceedings with an opening speech about what I hope the A8 Owners Club will offer. The service to its members, the quality of its merchandise, and the discounts with reputable companies that will offer us even more value for money. The rain’s still coming, but it is lightening up.

The day kicked off with a great detailing demonstration on a spare boot lid that had been brought down for us. This proved popular, and I’m sure I heard people muttering about the condition of their cars outside.

So what about the cars then? This is, after all, why we’ve all met up. Well what can I say? Almost every model was represented from a 15-year period of Audi’s flagship model. D2’s from 1994-2002 were represented in great numbers, ranging from the ‘humble’ 2.8 V6 right up to the mightily powerful 4.2 V8 S8. D3’s were represented too, albeit in smaller numbers, but a 6.0 W12 and a 5.2L V10 S8 were in attendance. So the line-up was mightily impressive. The colour range was equally as impressive, Kingfisher Blue S8 anyone? This was the first time I’d seen one, and this particular model was a left hand drive, 6 speed manual too. Imported from Germany a number of years ago, it drew the attention of every UK sourced car owner for quite some time.

There were modified cars in attendance too. Yet the modifications were never extreme, merely suggestive at the heart that beats beneath the bonnet of each and every one of these cars. Custom exhausts, aftermarket alloys, upgraded ICE and many more modifications were evident, and showed how much variety could be achieved with a car not really catered for by UK tuners. It was testament to the imagination that ‘8 owners have, that you’d have been hard pushed to find two cars that were identical.

Gti International

Although not an Audi specific event, Gti International (Inters from here on in), does attract a large contingent of non-VW vehicles. And this year the A8OC turned up with 7 of its finest motors on the Sunday.

Our Events Secretary, Mike, pitched up the night before to ensure that we knew where our site was, and to guide the rest of us in.

We turned up, at around 9am, and made our way to the site, which was closely situated near a very large jumbo (someone will tell me what it is I'm sure), which made for an interesting backdrop for some of the photos.

Because this show is very much VW oriented, there was an absolute plethora of VW cars, some extremely modified, and some more subtly modified. But all offering something interesting to view.

Some of us took our cars up the drag strip too, and Darren Stables took away the trophy for fasted S8 of the day. Something I'm sure will crop up elsewhere (Audi Driver this month? ;o))

For those who couldn't make it, it is an event worth attending, so add it to your calendar for next year now.

Audis In The Park

It was the first year for this event, and I don't think the organisers really expected to see such a huge turnout. Again the A8OC represented themselves well, with 10 cars pitching up for the days events. From the picture below you can see just some of the cars that turned up, the array of 4-ringed machinery on display at the event was simply awesome, and a great display of what can be achieved with the right kind of commitment from the various communities involved.

This was also the first outing for Architex_Mateys 21" Kahn RS-X rims, and they really did suit the car an absolute treat. I'm surprised he made it out of there with them still attached to the car!!!

As mentioned there was some simply awesome machinery. There were some very tastefully done Audi 80's, some beautiful S2's, an RS2 which was run by Ben from AVP, which is still being run in, but sounded awesome when he cruised by on the M1!

Once again, the success of this show, should mean that it'll be a definite date to attend in the new year.

A8-Freunde Treffen 2009

Where do I start? I could write a whole page (!) on this event, which, to put it bluntly, was simply superb.

Thursday 13th August.

It started, for me, at 6pm on Thursday evening. A long day at work, which seemed to fly by as I was looking forward to this trip so much. So, Darren Stables (darrenjoe90) picked me up from my house and off we set. A trip from Pocklington (nr York) to Dover, on a Thursday evening didn't hold too much fear for us, it could have been worse, it could have been Friday. 25 minutes later, and we're on the M62, the first of many motorways we'd be travelling on just to get to the south coast of Blighty, no problems so far, we're stil on schedule to arrive in Dover at around 11pm....crackin'.

Darren stayed at the wheel all the way down, the M62, followed by the M18, followed by a long stretch on the A1 all followed without any incident, and the miles just seemed to be eaten up by his glorious car, without so much as a 'by your leave'. Then we hit the first of only 2 traffic jams. Traffic slowed down to a painful, but still moving 40mph, we had been advised by TMC that this was coming, but by the time we had it was over. Phew! We can continue on. So continue we did. But we were advised again that there was slow moving traffic between two junctions on the A1. Bear in mind I said "slow moving", we hit the queues about 15 miles north of where the incident was. We didn't know what incident had occurred at this time, but we found out some 1 1/2 hours later as we drove off, then back on, at a junction. A truck had gone through the central reservation, and shut down the A1 at this point. Great, what a delay :(, hope the ferry's still there when we arrive.

Following the incident, we soon made it down to the M20 and met up with Mike (Figure 11/Conan the Librarian), so that we could convoy down the rest of the way to Dover.

So, we had a fairly rapid blast down the last stretch of motorway before we hit the white cliffs, and awaited the ferry. A tired, but eminently happy trio.

We boarded the ferry with grins on our faces, the plan was to get about 1 1/2 hours sleep whilst travelling, such that we could then drive for another 3-4 hours on the other side without having to stop. Bear in mind that at this point we'd all had zero hours sleep in 17 hours. Not bad right now, but it'll get worse.

The ferry trip turned into a "how much caffeine can we get into our systems" trip, many thanks to the various car alarms and small children that allowed us to get absolutely no sleep whatsoever on the trip. Oh, I have to say a special thank you to the rather smelly individual who decided to pitch up directly behind me.........Sure never let him down, as he'd obviously not used it!!!

Friday 14th August.

So we reach the other side, we sensibly decide that once on the other side, we should stop to refuel, and then drive for an hour to get right out of Calais, then pitch up for some sleep. That was the sensible decision, but we were driven, by something which kept us going far more than the caffeine which we'd introduced into our systems. Darren gave me the keys, and said "drive it like you stole it", I would never have made a great getaway driver, not using someone else's car anyway, as I drove like I'd merely borrowed without permission, temporarily! And for the next 3 hours we drove, out of France across the border into Belgium, and then we decided we should probably pull over and get some much needed sleep. We were now at the point of 22 hours without sleep, and a fair few hundred miles under our belt.

We managed about 1 hour and 15 minutes of sleep, before we were woken, not by trucks, nor by truckers leaving their smutty mags on the windscreen (shame), nor by birds waking up to a new day. But by the knowledge that we were on a trip that would be impregnated on our memories for a very long time. A quick breakfast of bacon and eggs (roughly translated into a bacon bits omelette) more coffee (damned good coffee admittedly), and we were on our way again. Rock on Germany.

But Germany was still a way away. And we were 3 tired Englishmen in a foreign country, driving a speeds we felt comfortable at, but weren't getting pulled over for......awesome. So another coffee stop was in order, 4 hours later and we pull int every travellers dream, McDonalds!!! We arrive here at about 8:30am local time, and decide it's a good time to phone Chris (our German liaison) to see how he's getting on. No answer, so we indulge in more coffee, and then crack on once more.

We don't look bad considering the major lack of sleep

At this point I jump in the car with Mike, surprisingly he's not the lunatic we all perceive him to be, he's a very sedate driver, who does sometimes like to take it gently. Sometimes.

We eventually get a little closer, Chris has called back to confirm that the Northern contingent of the A8-Freunde community will be arriving at around 4pm, we're estimating an arrival time of approx 2pm, so this should give us a couple of hours to 'freshen up'.

Here's my first 'arty' shot of the trip through Germany. We'd come off the main dual carriageways, and had found ourselves on local roads. We were in the final stages of our journey, and the sat nav in Darrens car seemed to be taking us the long way around to our destination, this was after consulting Googlemaps, on our phones, and finally finding out that the disk Darren had didn't display any of the minor roads, only major routes. This would have added about 40+ miles to the trip, and more time, when we could see a more direct route......or so we thought.

The shot below was the second viewing of the church ahead, it was so beautiful, Darren insisted we drove around in a loop and looked at it again!

So the trip down the minor roads was uneventful, but we became very familiar with the local villages, which would hold us in good stead should we get lost over the weekend.

And so we continued on. Edersee was close, we didn't realise how close until we stumbled upon an A8 driver pulled up on the side of the road, with his car in pieces....this turned out to be the bi-turbo PF S8 which Mike had eluded to in a recent trip across the water. He pointed us in the right direction, which we then decided to ignore, and we ended up turning around in the hotel car park that Mike and I were staying in, and going back the way we came!!! Doh!!

We found Darrens hotel, this turned into a bit of a farce, as the hotelier didn't speak a word of English, and our German left a lot to be desired! But Darren was booked in, and we returned to the other hotel, which was to be the centrifugal point for the weekends events. We'd got here, and in one piece it seemed, but we were doing ok. About 2 1/2 hours sleep in 40 hours, this was before the nights events started.

We were greeted by two A8 drivers, René whom you've met via A8 Parts forum, and another guys who's name escapes me. So we sat down for the obligatory German Beer (good beer here) and a proper meal, before choosing to take a shower, and freshen up proper.

You can see to the left, the kind of view we had from the front of the hotel, and my picture probably doesn't do it any justice, as it was simply stunning.

Mike decided he'd take a bit of a sleep, I resisted for as long as I could (the beer really was good), but did succumb to 20 minutes on the top of my bed, before making some serious effort to get showered, and changed out of the clothes we'd worn throughout the trip.

Then I made my way back downstairs, just in time to see Chris and the rest of the northern contingent make their way into the car park. And what a sight. A stream of '8's driving into the hotel car park, and such a variety too. Incredible to think they're all based on the same car!!

And so the 'festivities' begin. Chris offers me the chance to drive his S8, which I take him up on. This took a little getting used to, a left hand drive S8, with a manual gearbox, on unknown roads. I'm ashamed to say I did clip a kerb stone, but fortunately it was angled away from the car, so no damage done! Phew! Then Chris took over. OH, MY, GOD!!!! (Can't use the words I wanted to), I've never been that terrified in an '8. He really does drive it to within an inch of its life, and I came back a couple of shades lighter than when I went out I'm sure. Many thanks for the experience though Chris, remind me to return the favour in the UK.

The car park soon filled up, and there were various '8's, lots of family members and a great atmosphere around us all. This was going to be a great weekend, and it had only just begun.

Even more cars turned up and filled the hotel frontage, and again the variety proved simply amazing, it was hard to believe that the German TUV system is so stringent, as these guys really do make the most of what they've got, and the regulations they have to stick to to keep their vehicle licences.

And so we settled down for an evening meal, this turned out to be the sensible part of the evening, and the meal was thoroughly enjoyable. I think we found some chicken for Darren :o)

This sensibility soon turned into something a little less sensible. Imagine 30 people, all A8 fans, sat around drinking beer, and having a good, multi-lingual, natter. Then Scotty, from here on in known as Ouzo Scotty, turned up in his stunning, matt black, vinyl covered, S8. With a boot full of Ouzo cocktails!!!! Uh Oh!!!!

This turned what I'm sure is normally a quiet little car park, in a very scenic part of Germany, into the ultimate A8 party zone. 2 stereos pumping out different music, lots of friendly people, and alcohol which should have been stamped with a skull and crossbones. Awesome!!!!

The party continued on until Mike retired at around 11:30, and I found my way up to my room at shortly before 1am (according to reliable sources)....this meant that I'd been up for 43 hours, with only 2 1/2 hours sleep!!!! Fantastic!!

Let's see what tomorrow brings.......

Saturday 15th August

The plan; leave the hotel at 11am, drive to a restaurant in the countryside, have some nosh, drive to a stately home for a photoshoot. Cool.

The day starts with Frank (the A8-Freunde founder) giving a short speech as to what the plan for the day is. This sounded great, we 3 Englishmen cheered and laughed at all the right points (with a little nudge from Chris) but didn't understand a word, all in German :o)

It was nice to see that almost everyone was wearing their tour t-shirt, and this remained the case for almost all of the weekend.

Following the opening speech for the day, we all milled around a little before preparing for the trek out to the restaurant.

Again Darren let me drive and we soon set off on the short trip, Darren thoroughly enjoying the trip as he was able to take in the glorious scenery, me enjoying driving the simply awesome German roads amongst a convoy of 40 Audi '8's. A convoy which stretched some 1500m in length. It was impressive to see the organisation that had gone into trying to keep the convoy together. With the lead drivers blocking junctions, which if we'd been in this country would have been more than frowned upon by anyone who'd been stopped from making their way to wherever they were going, but was met with facefuls of smiles as the general public enjoyed the awesome sight of 40 beautiful '8's passing by.

We arrived at the restaurant and parked up, interestingly there was an old Skoda parked in the area where all of the '8's were parking, and, without any prompting, they moved in order to allow more '8's to park up. Nice.

As you can see from the picture on the left, it was a truly impressive view, seeing so many Audi '8's in one place. We browsed around the cars, checking out the modifications that some had done, the standard cars that others had, it wasn't possible to get bored, there was just too much gorgeous metal on display.

We sat down to a gorgeous meal of traditional German fare, we found chicken for Darren, and basked in the sun that was beating down upon us. Mike took the opportunity to phone Ben at AVP, and I also had a chat describing to him the sight before us. To say he seemed jealous would be an understatement! But I could see why.

After lunch, everyone gathered in the car park once more, and those with modified exhausts gathered together for a sound off, oh how I was missing my beauty!! It was a glorious crescendo of aural and visual entertainment to be sat there on such a glorious day, with such a great turnout of people and cars.

I took the opportunity at this time to cadge a ride in the 4.2 bi-turbo'd mota that had been lurking around too, and I can happily say that these beauties really are capable of a great turn of speed given the right kind of mechanical boost!! Shockingly quick for such a big car!!!

We soon lined up once again for the convoy out of the restaurant, and onto our final destination for the day, for a final photoshoot.

I'm going to use few words to describe the next pictures, but suffice it to say that the trip, whilst leisurely, proved very enjoyable. People standing out of sunroofs to take pictures, the camera cars of the professionals nipping by every now and then to add footage to their video, the whole experience was exhilarating to say the least. There was one particularly comical moment of the trip, when 40 '8's pulled into a petrol station, as one of the cars needed fuel. The owners face must have been an absolute picture, quite possibly better than coming up on the lottery, but alas there was only one tank of fuel he was selling that day. I'll let the pictures do the talking from here on in.

And so our final destination was reached. There seemed to be some kind of wedding-based shenanigans going on in the grounds, but we found out that there was a real wedding going on. Phew!

We stayed here for a few photos, and then eventually made our way back to the hotel, to freshen up for the evenings events, which included a superb BBQ, all you can eat for not a lot of money.

And so Saturday evening descended upon us, and it was a much more sedate evening than the Friday. Frank gave a wonderful speech, thanking all for attending, and was particularly thankful to the A8OC team that had journeyed across. He also spoke at great length about the A8OC and what it can do for our community, encouraging others to follow his lead and join up. Increasing the community further, and extending the borders for our membership. He then had to retire for the evening, as he'd been struck down with over exhaustion, and needed to recuperate for the days ahead.

Sunday 16th August

It was agreed that a trip to the Nurburgring was in order whilst we were here, as it seemed such a pity to miss the opportunity. And so we left our German friends, bade farewell, and headed off into the beautiful German sunny day.

Now, you know when you check something on the internet, and you don't believe what it's telling you? Sometimes it's worthwhile.

Mike had checked the availability of the 'Ring prior to us setting off, it seemed to suggest there was a DTM race on, but Darren was confident that there wasn't and so we headed off. Well, the trek was a fair few hours, and surprisingly more than we'd expected when originally checking the route out. And so we arrived to this:

But it turned out to be a worthwhile trip. Audi, obviously sensing the A8OC, put in a sterling performance and won the day!! A fitting tribute to the trip we'd put in getting here. This meant that the Audi stand inside the Welcome Center was surrounded by fans, wallowing in everything that was being celebrated. Oh, and catching freebie toiletry bags, courtesy of the Audi staff. Yes, I did get one :)

And so our visiting of the Audi fatherland ended. We headed back to our cars and started the trip back to Calais. There were a couple of highlights, Mikes statement after we pulled into a fuel station of "drive another 1000 yards and fuels cheaper (we were approaching Holland I think)", was met with a response about 15 minutes later of "oh crikey, we're in Belgium" (geography may not be right, but you get the drift!!). This led to much hilarity, and Michael taking when we did eventually stop for some food and fuel. That was until Mike came to pay for such goodies. His credit card refused because he'd travelled through 3 different countries rather rapidly!! Hey ho, all was soon sorted, and we were on the final leg to Calais.

We arrived an hour early, and luckily got the earlier ferry, so arrived back in Blighty earlier than expected. This was despite Mike making a customs official blush, and Darren almost getting us emptying our boot after commenting "don't mind the arms and legs in there, it's just the kids". Timing was perhaps not his forté that night!!

The time came for us to board our ferry, and we obliged, perhaps over-tired, but perhaps a little emotional that our weekend was over. We settled down for coffee and a couple of winks (40 would have been sooooo nice!), before docking in Dover, and then heading off in our separate directions.

It was an emotional weekend. We, three total strangers to the German community, were welcomed in a way which could only be described as, emotional. We made good friends, drank great beer, drove excellent cars, and had a thoroughly awesome time doing it.

I have to thank Darren and Mike, for making this weekend possible for me, without them, I wouldn't be writing this article.

Thanks also to the A8-Freunde community for welcoming us so warmly, and for showing us how good an annual meeting can be. The gauntlet has been firmly laid down for the UK meet next year.

If you haven't guessed already, I'd definitely recommend putting this one in your calendar for next year, plans are already being drawn up for 2 convoys heading across, and the A8OC will also be putting together packages for ferry crossings etc.

ROCK ON A8-FREUNDE 2010!!!!