Audis ‘N Coffee with Audi Club Sierra

words and photos: Thompson Smith, Audi Club member #870

Our first Audi’s ’n Coffee event of the year kicked off in style, April 17th, 2021, located in Reno, NV in the parking lot near the Whole Foods. Our location was set up in front of Legends Grill, Sports & Spirits. In anticipation of a nice turnout, social media invitations were sent out early and newly designed T-Shirts were ready for sale.

Starting out early from South Lake Tahoe on a crisp morning, my wife Donna and I jumped in our 2012 Audi A4 Avant Sport with the new T-shirts and headed down to help set up. Sierra Nevada snow capped peaks lingering into spring made for a beautiful 1.25 hour drive twisting around the east shore of Lake Tahoe on Hwy 89. Cresting over 7,146 ft Spooner Summit on Hwy 50 is one of the nicest tarmac drives down the eastern flank of the Sierras. Utilizing sport mode in the Avant helps engine braking down Spooner — a few blips of the paddle shifters made the drive more entertaining.

We arrived a tick early to help set up the site. The chapter were already there with the tent up, tables ready and fresh brewed coffee from our sponsor Legends Grill, Sports & Spirits. Club Treasurer Mary Ann McCauley arrived early with the R8 tachometer T-shirts. Club Secretary Joe Lesch, Club VP Tom Luciano and member Seth Rubin helped set up the display. Fellow members Brian Hall zoomed over with Douglas Smith to pick up the display vehicle courtesy of Audi Reno Tahoe.

A few cups of java later, I was out and about shooting photos of new arrivals showing up. The display vehicle arrived, a 2021 Audi A6 allroad in Firmament Blue metallic with an interior wood textured dashboard is a nice touch. Next to the A6 allroad was our President’s track-ready Nardo Gray RS5 and Joe Lesch’s stunning red S5. Participants started arriving in all directions — two Audi R8s, several Porsche 911s, a couple of nice AMG Mercedes Benz’s sneaked in, a lowered A4 allroad on air bags, several RS3s and some TTs. Audi Reno Tahoe staff came with a B8.5 A4, along with an SQ5, both Glacier White metallic. Past board member Rory Keeney’s white C5 RS6 Avant, Douglas Smith’s silver Q7 S line and Mary Ann McCauley’s yellow A3 cabriolet added for a full visual treat.

Audi talk between enthusiasts and plenty of quattros to gaze at made for a pleasant turnout. Morning treats included delicious tarts, cookies [the kids seemed to dig on these the most] and Turkey roll ups. Typical spring Reno weather kicked in with solid sunshine and a strong cold wind, creating a hold down situation for the pop-up tent. Our President handled it with stout tie-downs that would take a tractor to move. Glad I kept my fleece on from our early drive down from the Lake.

Some of the featured swag items we had for sale are new T-shirt designs I created for our chapter, Sierra Chapter mountain T-shirt and an Audi R8 tachometer T-shirt. We have a special love for the R8 in our chapter — our President takes his tuned R8 out at Thunderhill track, Willows, CA on most weekends; sometimes we catch Joel in our remote BoD Zoom meetings from the track. Our Treasurer is donating a limited edition poster signed by Hurley Haywood, framed and ready to mount, from the 1999 Audi Club 100 Years of Automotive Tradition event at Laguna Seca. The poster is being raffled off (over the course of several Coffee events) and final raffle will be later this fall. Sierra chapter hats and t-shirts were raffled off at the event.

We are changing the venue name to quattros ’n Coffee and will always try to have some cool stickers and T-shirts to offer for sale to participants at the event or online. The Sierra chapter is trying to offer quattros ’n Coffee around the middle of every month during summer-fall. If you are in the area, bring your kids, family and your cool cars. Check out our schedule online [audiclubna.org/sierra] for additional events — even with cool Sierra temps, you’ll definitely get a warm welcome from fellow quattro enthusiasts.

To help support our chapter, see our merchandise page for T-shirt designs, stickers and gear. https://audiclubna.org/sierra/merchandise/ -ed.