Copyright 1999 Don Pavlik, A4 Quattro owner<p>A Rainy Day Quattro Tale<p>Here's a good quattro tale for ya...<p>I was coming back from lunch one day in a lovely houston rain (a light rain just enough for delay wipers). Anyway, I usually leave lights quicker than most... not hard launches but brisk. Well, I guess my "normal" driving looks aggressive when it's raining and everybody else is just inchworming away from the lights cuz a HPD cop found my behavior interesting and started following me. I was not speeding or breaking the law in any way... I was just faster than everybody else (gee, is that breaking the law these days?). He followed me for several miles including a short jaunt on the freeway during which time I'm sure he ran my plates just to see what kind of felon I was -- I'm squeaky clean without a single blemish on my driving record. I exited the freeway and took the U-turn lane under the freeway. Mr. Man-o-the-law did the same. When traffic was clear I jumped onto the feeder road with a 2,500 rpm launch and a quick run through the gears up to the posted 45 mph limit. Ok, here's the GREAT part... he attempted to follow me and while powering out of the U-turn lane he spun the car about 110 degrees!!! I watched in the mirror as he got the car pointed in the right direction and attempted to blast down the feeder in my direction... the car was all over the place and with the tail out while the Crown Vic clawed at the wet road for traction. He RACED up next to me and pointed in my face with his arm fully extended. I looked at him blankly with a "What the hell?" expression on my face. He shook his head and powered off with the tail end of the car doing a little wiggle.<p>No, I was not driving dangerously or irresponsibly... <p>Man I love this car!

 

nt

 

That's pretty funny. I'm sure that the officer was plenty embarassed! As a former police officer who has driven many a Crown Vic at high rates of speed, I can tell you that even with the "Police Performance Package", these cars leave much to be desired. Still, despite their "pig-like" handling (I'm an ex-cop so I can say that-oink oink), do you ever wonder why the police almost always get their man? Well, these days the helicopters don't hurt, but it really boils down to driving skill. Police officers have had professional high-speed driving training. Most of the public drives like s**t (even if they don't believe it). That's why I think it's interesting that so many people want to modify the holy hell out of their cars, but they don't do anything to improve their driving skills.<p>

 

This is an excellent example that Q can provide a lot of fun, even in ordinary conditions!