Neoprufrok's decisions and revisions: Santa Barabara Norcal vs Socal European Car Meet April 10th...

I love cars. Everyone who knows me knows this. If I could, I'd drive a super nice car and live in a trailer park. I used to drive Hondas a lot, as they were reliable and cheap to own. However, they never felt sturdy, luxurious or feature packed. Then in 2002, Chi bought me a Audi S4 (yes she bought me one.. since my salary pays for toilet paper basically). It was an amazing car. 250hp (modified to 310hp) twin turbo v6 with a sport tuned suspension. What got me though, was the details that German cars include for safety's sake and for luxury's sake. For example, my car came with a red triangle (to put on the road to warn passerby's of your being parked to teh side), fog lights both front and rear (rear fog lights are proven to reduce accidents in europe as it is brighter than standard rear lights and lets the person behind you know where you are in dense fog), and a million other little things I can't even begin to describe. Sort of like the difference between the Westin and the Holiday Inn. In terms of standard features, Japanese and German cars match up, on paper. But when you get in a German cars, the details and richness come out and makes Japanese cars seem thin.

Anyways, as some of you know, I totalled the S4 in an unfortunate accident, bought an Acura which I didn't like and ended back up with an Audi A4. The car is amazing and I love it. I've done a few things to it, including an upgraded race suspension, new wheels and tires (lightweight), and a new exhaust that adds power. Ever since I've owned it, I've been actively involved in the Audi events/gatherings learning from others and enjoying talking about our cars. Sounds dumb, but in reality its pretty fun.

On April 10th, there was a big meeting in Santa Barabara, about 1 hour north of LA and 5 hours south of San Francisco. Mainly a large (1000+ cars) gathering of European Cars (Audi, VW, BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Saab, Porsche, Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar, Mini, Aston Martin, Lamborghini) etc.

We drove down on the 9th as a caravan of about 6 cars (Ken, Dawn, Myself, Brian, Pat/Theresa, John, Nelson). We all had the new Motorola FRS Radios (walkie talkies basically) which made for good conversation and interesting chatter. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and woke up to go to the meet the next day. A few of us (John and myself) woke up at 730am to wash our cars in the parking lot of the HI.

Anyways, here are some pics:

My car up to date...