Audi Club of North America celebrates 25th Anniversary at BIR

[mngolfer]

Audi of America President John de Nysschen and many staff from Audi AG were present at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Audi Club of North America. John gave a very interesting speech about the future of the auto industry and what part electric, hybrid, hydrogen and diesel technology will play now and for the next 25 years.

The Audi Club of North America was founded by Frank Beddor. It was originally named the Quattro Club. Our local chapter, Franks chapter, is the Glacier Lakes Quattro Club. There is something to the name "Glacier" as can be seen in the attached photos.

Even though it snowed Friday night we had a great time Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There were five R8's present. Three of them were on the track. There were two PPI cars. One was a fully prepared track race car. There was more CF on this car then I thought possible. They had a professional driver to show other Audi enthusiasts how the R8 should be driven.

Audi had their Chief driver for the Audi driving experience, Uwe Fricker give rides and discuss safe driving. Was a GREAT person to meet and speak with about Audi's. I asked him to drive my car to show me how it could truly perform, but he had to leave at 1PM on Sunday.

This was the first track day I had in 41 years. We had one Panos (spelling), three Corvette's, ~ten Porsche's and ~50 Audis of various vintage and models. It was great to see the red and yellow driving groups drive the cars the way they were meant to be driven. I was in the blue group. My son was in the green group. It was just plain fun.

In 21 days the CD of professional pictures will arrive. I will post them when they are available.

[MikeB]

Glad you had a good time! Your son is obviously a bit older than my daughter, but I bet he still enjoyed the sweeties!

Tell me, what did the Pres say about the electric version? 154 miles on one charge will hardly turn it into a GT. It would take me 4 days to get to my sisters just down the road! I cannot see the point of spending all the cash to turn it into a production car and putting it out with such a limited range.

A bit more on the PPI sound? Were they all V8's? I am not sure how much development has gone into modding the V10 yet.

Looking forward to seeing the photos.

[mngolfer]

The PPI's were both V8's.

The etron is being used to keep current and for political reasons. He does not see electric being viable for at least 20 years. He believes diesel will save 1.5 million barrels of oil per day if all cars switched to TDI.

[mngolfer]

Check out this video of turn 10 at BIR. There are many scenes of the PPI R8 and two of my R8. The PPI exhaust is amazing.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aya0ZHPMk-g[/ame]

[drbf]

Thanks for the great video. BTW what camera did you use?

[mngolfer]

Not my camera, but I will check and report back.

[mngolfer]

New video of PPI R8 at BIR.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ALHUqdYiQ[/ame]