As a recent transplant to Austin, I’m fairly new to Texas and the Audi Club Lone Star chapter, but I brought a bucketload of memories with me from Minnesota (Glacier Lakes chapter).
I grew up in Minneapolis, MN – land of 10,000 lakes and four distinct seasons. Audis and motorsport came into my life through a chance purchase which pushed me down the slippery slope as I got involved with local clubs and driving events. In late 2015, I moved to Austin and discovered the joy of only having one set of tires to worry about.
My earliest car memory was helping my dad change the oil in our 1980s Ford van – the smell of used oil still takes me back to that. [Confession time: I never actually changed the oil in my first car – the 1994 Saturn SL2 I drove around in high school burned oil like crazy, so I just topped it up every now and then.]
I experienced a minor fender bender between that Saturn and an innocent lamp post due to slippery roads and inexperience. (Those plastic body panels didn’t stand a chance in freezing weather.) This led me to shopping all-wheel drive cars until I found my first Audi, a used 2002 A4 Avant 1.8T (shout out to my boyfriend Cary for his love of VWs & Audis and guiding me in that direction). My parents made fun of me for buying a “station wagon,” but at least my mom quit laughing so hard after I hauled a gigantic ottoman home for her in it without breaking a sweat.
Aside from the mundane grocery-getting activities, the Avant and I had lots of fun adventures together. Each made me a bigger Audi fan, a more confident driver, and a louder proponent of real driving education. Here are a few stories from when I owned the Avant:
- There was the time when Cary and I road tripped from MN to NJ for Waterfest, got my car chipped at the show, then drove home with the throttle body hose popping off every few hundred miles. Fond memories of being stalled at the intersection of two busy highways in NJ, opening up the hood not expecting to be able to figure out what was wrong, and seeing that this giant hose had come loose. Let’s just say it was a great opportunity to upgrade to a silicone hose.
- Then there was the time I tried an autocross school – it was a fun learning experience, and my first exposure to car control and cornering. The understeer in that car was REAL, though, and I didn’t feel compelled to do it again.
- There was my first official car control clinic, put on by the Audi Club Glacier Lakes chapter, where I first discovered the joy of drifting on the wet skid pad and feeling the car glide through a cone slalom.
- And the first unofficial fun drive I attended, where I learned what burning brakes smell like. I also learned to install new rotors and pads for my birthday that year. Oh yeah, and there’s that time I was co-driver for a TSD road rally and were almost hit by (yes, hit BY) a deer. I didn’t notice because my nose was buried in pace notes and calculator, but the driver (Cary) almost lost it!
- By the time I did my first HPDE (high performance driver education) event at BIR in Minnesota, I had attended many events as a spectator when Cary was driving, and had done more laps as a passenger than any of the other novices. The excitement of reaching 100+ mph speeds on the track in my daily driver drew me in, and learning the finer points of technique and incremental improvement kept me coming back [picture-top].
- My fondest memories of all were the times I got up at the crack of dawn on a weekend morning, bundled up in long underwear, parka, gloves, and hat, drove to a lake, then ON the lake, to attend ice driving clinics put on by ACGL [picture-middle]. I am ashamed to admit that I had no idea what I was doing at first. Come on, as a Minnesotan, one should know how to deal with slippery conditions, right? Through these events, I learned that driving is a skill that can be improved with diligent practice. Over time, executing a graceful 4-wheel slide around the giant ice oval was the closest as I have ever gotten to a spiritual experience.
- Entwined with this experience was the lesson that the right equipment can make all the difference. Winter tires for example, meant to handle snow and ice, are objectively better at helping a driver maintain control in icy Minnesota winters. Nice sticky performance tires (and decent brakes) are equally important in the summer. No more unexpected meetings between a vehicle under my control and any inanimate objects!
In 2014, I decided it was time to let the Avant go. My ideal vehicle would tick three boxes: manual, all wheel drive, wagon. Though I was shopping outside the Audi brand, options were limited. I found myself coming back to the B8.5 S4, which ticked all but the last box. Thanks to my Audi club membership and a salesman who is a fellow Audi enthusiast, I picked up a 2014 S4 in monsoon gray and never looked back [picture-bottom]. Wondering what happened to the beloved Avant? Don’t worry – it went to my dad who has finally caught the bug and started modding and tracking it himself.
My proudest automotive achievement was attaining sign-off status (approval to run laps without an instructor) at my first track day in the S4. Proudest achievement runners-up include becoming an instructor for low-speed car control clinics for new drivers, seeing my dad run laps in my old Avant for the first time, and serving as Secretary of the Audi Club Glacier Lakes chapter and member of the driver education committee.
Throughout my life in car culture, one thing has stood out above everything else: Nothing is more important than friends, except for friends with a sense of humor and the right tools to bail you out when things go awry.
Thank you for being so welcoming to us northerners. Here’s to a new set of adventures in Austin!