RSDC 2003 report page

[TarmacTerrorist]

What an absolutely fantastic time - The people, the place, the hospitality. Thanks to all concerned for making it such a special event that I shall never forget. I don't usually keep a diary but though it would be appropiate to post one for my week.

Tuesday

Left home at 3.00pm for the drive South. I had arranged to meet up with TimJMS and do half of the drive to Dover with him. The journey didn't take us too long and we soon caught up with JR in the pub next to the lodge for a glass of wine and a chit chat. PhilT and Revo Kev arrived about an hour later and started their week off with a couple of brandys. After deciding we all had had enough alchol for one night we gathered in the car park outside to look over the go-faster decals that had been plastered all over Phil's and JR's cars - sweet! Tim for some reason had booked into the lodge on the Wednesday night instead of Tuesday so we all had to hang around the lobby for ten minutes until Colin decided that the easiest thing to do was to cancel the booking for Wednseday night and re-book for that evening - good old Colin!

Wednesday

Up at 6.30 for the short drive to the seacat check in at 7.00 and fill up with optimax before boarding. Met up with Ken (kcsun) and his passenger James and also james and his passenger John on the ferry to say our hellos. Phil issued us with our walkie talkies for us to keep in contact with each other during the drive to Hockeinheim. Departing the seacat in Calais it was raining, we all grouped up for a quick photo before heading off. Where's james?

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Phils satnav must have been telling him we were on an autobahn as soon as we got off the ferry as we didn't seem to drop below 100 mph through France and the Netherlands. We took a break for lunch at a large service station (in the Netherlands I think?) and Kev lovingly adhered the rs246 stickers to our cars to make us look the part. The weather by this time had turned very nice so we sat and ate our lunch on the picnic benches outside. I seemed to be dressed perfectly for the occasion and felt the lurvely warming glow of sunshine radiating on my legs!

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Next stop on the agenda was Frankfurt airport to collect the Brazilians - Jose and Junior. They had arrived there earlier in the morning and had been on the phone to Phil thoughout the day - 'We need rs4 rescue, rs4 rescue!' Their faces were a picture as 6 fully stickered up rs4's collected them from the terminal!

The hotel was about half an hour away in Walldorf. As we approached the digs it was a Holiday Inn and I immediately had my reservations. These were put to rest as soon as we checked in an went to our rooms, the accomodation was top-notch! Eric (Taipan) and his passenger Stephane arrived at the hotel an hour or so later while we were all testing the German beer in the lounge and later we all sat and had an evening meal in the restaurant together (onion soup was wicked).

Thursday

I was up nice and early and went to check out the swimming pool. Amazing, not a German towel in sight and there were at least six loungers around the pool, I had it all to myself! We all assembled around 10 in the reception and set off for the drive to the factory at Neckasulm. Where's james?

We arrived at the factory in convoy about half an hour later where we were meet by Uwe Gsanger (very nice man) and lead us around the factory site to building B6 (Quattro Gmbh Buliding). The drive through the site was pretty amazing, It was like a small self contained town - shops, bars, bistros etc. It was a hive of activity. I think all of us were in total awe as we approached the Quattro unit and saw a least 20 Lamborgini Gallardos sat in the parking area infront of the building, it is a picture that will live with me for quite a while.

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We were initially shown around the production facilty of the RS6 and Gallardo where we were allowed to roam around freely and ask questions. They were also hand crafting the cars for the Audi Exclusive range (dont think it's available to us british) in the same building. The trim levels on the cars were beautiful, full alcantara head linings and dashboard, special leather on door trim and seats etc - Gorjus!!! We also saw the new W12 engine in an A8. We had about an hour on the shop floor before sitting down for a round table Q+A on our cars and future models. Sorry Riz no RS3 on the cards yet, but good news for the next RS4 - There will be one!!!! Lighter, better brakes, more power, radical styling, limited prodution run and a manual gear box!! :drool: We squeezed as much info as they were willing to give! No confirmation on engine though. WE WANT TURBOS!!!!!!!

We all went into Heidlberg (sp?) to meet up with Carl to have an evening meal, the home brew beer they served was pretty good stuff! Not to sure how well the sucking pig went down though - Phil, JR? More alchol was consumed back at the hotel later that night and Tim found time to have a quick 5 mins kip in the reception area. Me, james and John all managing to last out till 3.30 am!

Friday

Lazy morning for most, I managed to get up earlier again and have another dip in the pool. It had been arranged last minute to go to Movit brakes production factory in Achern (sp?) so we all jumped into the cars and drove there. Again we were welcomed with very warm hospitality by Geido and his boys. I treated my self to a set of wheel spacers whilst others splashed the cash and bought brakes, we all took full advantage of the coffee machine and good coffee it was too! Thanks Movit for letting us take over your workshops and answering all our questions. The one's who weren't having brakes fitted tripped back to the hotel for the evening meal with the rest of the participants in the challenge who had arrived at the hotel while we were out. Thanks to the Audi boys who sat with us at dinner and got the drinks in. Those who arrived late after their brakes were being fitted were fed and watered by the kitchen while we sat and had a couple of night caps. We all went to bed to find a letter and a model of the R8 signed by Frank Biela and Marco Werner in our rooms.

Saturday

The big day!

Alarm calls for all enterants at 6.30am, our boys getting up to stick the car numbers on that they had given to us in our packs the night before.

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The circuit was only about 10 miles away from the hotel so didn't take us long to get there. The drive onto site was quite exciting with all the large grandstands towering over the track. Scrutineering followed shortly after arriving followed by the issue of our transponders. We were split into 2 groups of approx. 30 cars each. The first group of RS's to go out were complete nutters! I must admit I was a little dubious about the safety and consideration for other drivers that was being shown by the first group. They were totally mad, 2/3 abreast round corners!! They also seemed to be out there for an awful long time, I was worried about my standard brakes lasting the duration. All worries semed to dissapear though once we were out on track. We were guided around for the first four laps by the safety cars driven by Beila and the other dude, I was quite lucky in the fact that I was sitting in the middle of the pack on the outlap and had the second pace car placed in front of me. He gently brought the speed up over the four laps setting a good pace for me to follow for the rest of our first session. Using the brakes progressively and not hammering the car to the red line I was feeling very comfortable with the drive and had little fade on the brakes after about 12-15 laps. Breaking up for dinner I was informed by Tim that I was sitting in second place overall - yee har! The first placed person from group one was sitting in 11th position overall against our group with Carl posting the fastest lap (looney tune [img]images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]). There were other orangised track events going on in between our morning and afternoon sessions with a good variety of different cars going around the circuit which was good to watch from the grandstands. The afternoon session went well for me also, I think my pace had slightly speeded up though as I got use to the track. End of the day I came third overall and was awarded with a trophy and A teddy bear wearing an Audi racing suit. Well chuffed!!! James and Eric both had an intesting momment on the same section of the track, I didn't witness either but Eric caught his moment on tape and everyone else was doing a bit of rally-cross from the dirt that james kicked up. Thankfully though we all returned (and our cars) in one peice and sporting large smiles.

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Plenty of fluid consumed at the hotel that night whilst we watch the video's taken over the last couple days on the tv in the bar!

Sunday

Me, JR, Phil and Kev all getting up at 6.30am to go out and do some high speed driving along the autobahn. Jr got upto 185+ on the clock (181 satnav) with me doing the camera work. Phil I think may have possibly exceeded this?? I'm sure he will report! We all got our bits toghether by 10.30am and left Hockeinmeim for the trip home. Where's james?

An interesting way home it was aswell! I must get a satnav the same as Ken's! It led us straight into the red light district of Koln and kept on sending us around and around it! We all managed to get onto the boat in time with the minimum amount of fuss and hit the UK shores at 7.00 pm. I finally got home at 11.30 pm and have been sleeping since!

Standard power rocks!!! [img]images/graemlins/rocker.gif[/img]


Garvin 'Street Pilot'

[kcsun]

Well done mate 10/10 for the report [img]images/graemlins/clap.gif[/img] [img]images/graemlins/clap.gif[/img] [img]images/graemlins/clap.gif[/img]

kc [img]images/graemlins/s4anogaro.gif[/img]

PS I can let you have the Garmin Porn Pilot software at reasonable cost [img]images/graemlins/033102bigblink_1_prv.gif[/img]

[johneroberts]

SWEET [img]images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
dude
jr

[Taipan]

Great report and Quattro GmbH was on par indeed.
Stephane has a smile from ear right to ear left and he's now working on some pix/videos to come later.

I can only add a BIG SPECIAL thanks to Phil and John for organising the logistics, the visits, the dedicated T-shirts/stickers and all the rest. Simply perfect and smooth, you guys know how to make things happen [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img] [img]images/graemlins/bowdown.gif[/img] [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

Eric
PS : Sweet... Dude...

[wazza]

Dude, that's a sweet report [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]
I need an RS for next year [img]images/graemlins/boots.gif[/img]

[Chubby]

Great report, sound fantastic, [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img] I'm going green as we speak.

What are the spacers for? and how much cheaper were the brakes system from Movit?

[johneroberts]

and how much cheaper were the brakes system from Movit?

Been sworn to secrecy [img]images/graemlins/sekret.gif[/img]
Guido asked not to repeat
Cheers
jr

[Conti]

9/10 you didn't even mention me!

[TimJMS]

Great report Gav.

Reckon you just missed out the fact that while the jury is still undecided when it comes to Gallardo vs Murcielago debate, we did all agree that German porn is the best! [img]images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I give you 20 out of 10 [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

[TarmacTerrorist]

Sorry Conti

Nice to meet you and your father.

[img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

Chubby, spacers are for the wheels - 15mm rear, 10mm front, just to make the car look that little bit fatter!

Vinny.

[rs4steve]

wicked! [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

[johnRS4]

Sounds like you had a brilliant time - next year, count me in!!

[img]images/graemlins/boots.gif[/img]John

[Carl]

Dude, sweet!

thx garvin street pilot! cool report!

i think i found the right name for you, garvin street pilot...

i had the brasilian guys and phil hanging around with me and we had some more fun too. went to oettinger and movit again, where the ronaldos could speak their native language with three other employees from movit. had a nice time with them and i am heading to sao paolo next year february or march! how will join? jr will...

[img]images/graemlins/audiS4black.gif[/img]

[Chubby]

H'm ! Very interesting - Can we get them over here?

Will they be on the car for Oulton Park?

[JAMES]

well done gavin. [img]images/graemlins/jump_clap.gif[/img]
those who travelled in 1st class may have seen the porn,i hope it was good at 11.50 euros.
sorry about my sleeping habits guys,and gav did you have to mention the grass cutting exercise.
anyway did get to try out the revo experiance,gives a great smile thanks to kev,only trouble was no traction,no abs and standard brakes was not a good combination. [img]images/graemlins/062802beat_prv.gif[/img]