Fellow ACNA and ACFL Members
A quick reminder of a few up coming events in April. Don’t forget the Gulf Coast Region’s first weeknight meet on April 3rd at the Hofbrauhaus in St Pete, info below and the Gold Coast Region’s meet up at Barrette-Jackson. The guys from the First Coast Region will be doing their Schnitzelhaus luncheon and of course the Gulf Coast Region Cars and Coffee on the first and second Saturdays of the month at Reeves Motorsport and Audi Clearwater. A busy month for the ACFL.
I would also like to express my appreciation to the two members who dropped me a line and offered to assist, we will definitely be enlisting your help and services as we try to keep things moving forward with the shinny side up.
I guess none of you took the challenge and spent about the same amount and made it to Europe and the Nordschleife. Nevertheless one of our members not only made it to Sebring but was a member of one of the Audi teams and was kind enough to send us a short report, which is below.
Recently I received the announcement that four of our dealerships in Kirk’s region have received the prestigious Magna Society Award. To earn Magna Society recognition, dealers must demonstrate an exceptional level of customer service as well as strong business performance. These dealerships were Audi Clearwater, Audi Sarasota, Audi North Orlando and Audi South Orlando. The competition is tough really tough and these fellows did a great job in serving our ACFL members. Nice to see they have been recognized.
Finally, though Audi will not be racing at LeMans this year, Reeves Motorsport and specifically Kim Rogers, one of the principles at Reeves, has specifically reached out with an invitation to the ACFL members to join them at their “Dropping of the Flag” event to be held at their Porsche venue for the start of this historic racing event, Thank you Kim. Additional information in the May newsletter.
“Bericht aus Sebring” (Report from Sebring)
One of our ACFL members, Steve Zongker, had the opportunity to get an up close and personal viewing of the 12 hours of Sebring, as a team member for Land Motorsports Audi R8 LMS and here is his report.
Being able to see how a world class motorsports organization works, especially Audi, is something to behold. Each team member has a specific job duty, from inserting the air hose that lifts the car, to the person responsible for pulling the tear-off from the windshield. These team members have trained and practiced multiple times to provide a pit stop to rival any team up and down the lane.
The engineers, the car chief, the crew chief, all monitor a bank of monitors that rival any military operation in scale. The men, and women, keep track of the amount of fuel in the car, the oil pressures, the tire pressures, and various other sensors that will allow the R8 to operate at optimal conditions for 12 hours.
In the end, Land Motorsports did not win a podium position in this years Sebring 12 hours, but I promise you, this team will win races, and championships no matter where in the world they decide to race.
Down the Road
April 1, 2017
Gulf Coast Region
Cars and Coffee Reeves Motorsport 6:30-8:30 Reeves Motorsport Tampa April 3, 2017
Gulf Coast Region Brats and Beer Hofbrauhaus St Pete
7:00 PM RSVP by noon April 1, to [email protected] for our first week night meet Hofbräuhaus St. Petersburg April 8. 2017
First Coast Region
Luncheon Schnitzel Haus German Restaurant 13475 Atlantic Blvd, Jacksonville Email Kerry Green by Friday 12:00 noon April 7 [email protected], to RSVP for a head count Gulf Coast Region
Cars and Coffee Audi Clearwater 8:00-9:30 Gold Coast Region
Barrett-Jackson Auction Palm Beach Meet up at the front gate Time TBD Contact Andreas at [email protected], for additional information June
Gulf Coast Region
Drop the Flag for the 24 Hours of LeMans at Reeves Some final thoughts “Coal Fired Cars”
Unfortunately, until such point that wind farms take over the generating of electricity from coal, most electric cars will at least be partially coal fired. Now with a little tongue in cheek, below is an example of a real self contained coal fired German Adler limousine of World War II vintage. The electric generator, battery and electric motor were left out of this vehicle. Not needed, here is an example of the real McCoy, which is on display in the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum, München just up the hill from where the Oktoberfest is held. . Note the coal bags on the roof, totally self contained operation with a gas generator canister at the rear. The car runs on gas vapors generated from heating the coal thus creating the volatile coal gas then feeding it to the front where it is mixed with air in a carburetor prior to being fed to the engine. In addition, an example of a Ford Model A coal fired flat bed truck is at this museum. There were also cars that ran on charcoal using the same principle but I do not recall any at this museum though I believe there is one in Sinsheim not far from Neckarsulm.
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Cheers and Safe Motoring