Chris

Date: Feb. 7, 1999<br>Time: 9:30 pm<br>Place: Empty School parking lot.<br>Conditions: Slight rain, wet pavement, under the glow of parking lot lights.<br>Car: 99 1.8T QMS (silver)<p>Last night I decided it was time to have some fun with my Quattro. I took my two roomates to the local school and tore it up in the empty parking lot! This parking lot was great because it had two large open areas connected by various medians and divders that added a variety of cornering possibilities, while allowing me to get upwards of 50mph in some areas. The pavement was damp from the nights rain so that added a hint of danger into the brew. MAN...going into these corners at 40mph, breaking slightly, feeling the Quattro bite hard and blasting out of the exits was AWESOME!!! Only occasionaly did I feel the car slide (thats becasue I was trying too hard). I just got more confidence with every pass. One of my friends decided to watch from outside, he said it looked like a scene from the movie Ronin...we are going to try and video tape it one night! Anyway....my other roomate has FULLY decided to buy this car now! I highly recommend trying this...though you need to watch out for the 'fuzz'. You will walk away trembling from the adrenaline...I garauntee it. The Rings Rule.<p>Another satisfied Audi enthusiast.

KostaT

Last time it snowed here, I took a couple co-workers out for a similar experience in the parking lot at work. I made sure to do an extra series of donuts below the windows of the executive wing before heading of to grab some lunch. YeeeeHaaaaa!!!! <p>kosta

Gaurav

It is a car that I can drive to work everyday, and not feel like I am dying. And on the weekends, I can (once the 1000 miles run out) drive it like it is meant to be driven (hard, fast, and with control), and enjoy it. For me, it gives me the best of both worlds, and is a liveable, fun car.<p>Oh, it has soul!

Butt-head

Uhhhhh, huh-huh huh-huh, he said &quot;bodies&quot;...

MichaelA

nt<br>

Ruben G

I believe that we transfer a bit of our own personality into the car we drive. The more time we spend with it the more it tends to become a part of us. Sometimes we modify the car in order to make it more towards our liking. Othertimes the factory makes something exactly the way we wanted it. Regardless of each others circumstances, we tend to bond to it eventhough it may very well be an inanimate object. The true meaning of the word "soul" may be used quite loosely, however the essential spirit of the word is (IMHO) what's being used for all of those objects we tend to regard so dear and close to us.<br>The best example I can give to everyone is the house I grew up in. After living in the same house for over 25 years, I looked at this house on moving day with a great sense of meloncholy and wondered if this wooden structure I once called "home" was somehow in it's own way as sad as I was. Being an engineer, I tend to look at things based on fact. If it can't be measured then it MAY not exist as we think it to exist. However, I felt the pain of the bond being broken between me and the house I grew up in. Does this mean the house has a soul? Of course not! I do believe, nontheless, I projected a part of me, over the years, into that home and the pain I had experienced was nothing more than parting ways with my old self. Ten years later, I drove by my old place and the memories of my childhood came to me in waves. I couldn't help to wonder if that house that now belonged to another family, somehow in it's own way recognized who I was and felt happy to see me. But how could it? It's only an inanimate object. It was a wonderfull home to me...and a good friend too.

GusS

And I sure am attached to my "baby".<br>What I was trying to point out how different the perceptions of the same car - not from an owner's perspective - can be on the other side of the pond. Heck, in the A4 review in our local newspaper the reviewer said that the 1.8T matched with the quattro and the Tiptronic is the A4 to get. And the fact is that for many people it is the most sensible choice.<p>GusS<br>98.5 30v

Ruben

Giving light, From my point of view, as to how the term "soul" gets attached to things. As far as perceptions, it all becomes very very subjective. It all comes down to the author's opinion based on how, what, and where of his driving impressions and then compare those to previous experiences. Give that same person a Diablo "SV" and put him in Los angeles traffic for a couple hours and I'm sure he'll write how uncomfortable...etc, etc..a 200k car can be. And he'll go on that the factory should do this and that for the money one spends on that vehicle. However, give the same car to Vittori somewhere in Italy, and he'll say "but this is the way it should be...it is perfecto..no change noting". Perhaps the authors who wrote about the A4 had just got thru driving a mclaren or CLK before they had stepped into an A4. If you had given the A4 to someone in the states who had just stepped out of say a jetta or a honda, I'm sure the article would have been much more favorable. I'm sure the 156 handles like a dream, however, it's the sum of the parts that make a car desirable for one reason or another. One of the reason's I chose the A4 quattro over the 328 was that I couldn't resist noticing how helpless the BMW looked in the snow with chains on. I was driving back from a ski trip and on the way back there were many cars puting on chains. I saw two BMW's, one was a lowered 328. They were both limping at no more than 20mph. The quattro in front pulled away from me and I was doing 50mph. I thought to myself that if I were alone or with a large family I would prefer the Audi over the BMW. It was more than just the quattro system or the styling or the handling for that matter. It was the sum of all these parts that edged out the Audi above the others. I'm sure if the author saw a 156 limping in the snow while a Quattro marched right by, his perceptions may have been different.