Had an unexpected chance to photograph a practice session of the July 24th race of the Motorcycle Roadracing Association at Second Creek Raceway, in Denver.

These are my first automotive related photos with my new Olympus E-1 digital SLR. Deno & I have been talking about photographing his car ever since he helped me with the S4 Cabriolet shoot a few months ago and last night we were finally able to get it done, or at least part of it.

Note: This story first appeared in the Audi Club North America Winter 2004 issue of the Quattro Quarterly magazine.

S4 Confessions

I have a confession to make: I’ve never been a big fan of the outgoing S4.

My first experience with the B5 S4 was at the press launch in the fall of 1999 just after the Monterey Historics when Audi was the featured marque.

Note: This story was originally written as a counterpoint to a longer article by another author for use in the Audi Club's Quattro Quarterly magazine. Unfortunately, my section of the article was never published, this is the first time it has appeared publically.

Let’s get one thing straight up front – the newly redesigned A8L is a big car. Slightly longer than its predecessor by about an inch, this A8L has also grown in weight by 245lbs, thanks in part to all the new gadgets that Audi has thrown into it. Inside things have grown as well, with more head and shoulder room for all passengers and another inch of legroom for the rear passenger. Interestingly, the luggage capacity shrunk by .1 cubic foot, meaning you won’t be able to fit that extra shoe in the trunk on your next vacation. To combat the extra heft, Audi saw fit to increase horsepower and torque to 330hp and 317 ft. lbs. (from 310 and 302 respectively). The higher engine output has more than made up for the extra pounds and brings the 0-60 time down from 6.8 to 6.3 seconds.

The truly remarkable thing with this new A8L is that it doesn’t appear to be a nearly 17 foot long vehicle. The long sleek design, reminiscent of the new A4, portrays something smaller and more nimble. Behind the wheel is where you start to notice the size, when you notice how much room you have all around you. If you’re the type that likes to rest your elbow on the windowsill while driving, you’ll find just the tip of your elbow resting on the very edge. The front seats offer seat heaters (Cold Weather Package, w/ heated steering wheel & ski sack) and power adjustments in almost any direction. The rear passengers have it even better, with over 42 inches of leg room and their own creature comforts such as individual vanity mirrors in the head liner (part of the Convenience Package), an array of lighting options, and seat warmers for the two outer seats. Power lumbar adjuments are also an available option for the rear outer seats as well.

Note: This short overview of the Touareg was orginally written for the Audi Club's Quattro Quarterly magazine, but was never published.

I’ve never owned a SUV and have never spent any significant time driving one, so driving this $52k Volkswagen was an entirely new experience for me. This particular example was equipped with the 310hp V8 engine, 6-speed Tiptronic transmission, adjustable suspension, navigation with full color screen, and a host of other goodies.

Note: this story originally appeared in the Winter 2003 issue of the Audi Club's Quattro Quarterly Magazine.

I'm not Walter Röhrl and the car isn't the S1 Sports quattro, but I couldn't help but imagine myself as that racing legend while piloting a new 2002 A4 3.0 Avant up Pikes Peak. What had it been like to race this road going triple digits and with nearly 600 hp to play with? Should I give the Avant a try and see if I can beat Röhrl's then record-breaking run of 10:47.85 (or should I go for the current record of 10:04.06 set by Rod Millen in 1994)? I'm sure this new Avant would be up to the task - ABS, ESP, Tiptronic, airbags everywhere conceivable, these are features that were lacking in the S1 15 years ago - they were sure to keep me on the road. Right? Sliding around corners that appear to drop off to nothing seemed like a fairly fun thing to do on this day, plus there wasn't that much traffic leading up to the Peak, surely I could pass all of these cars and still beat that record.A wayward potato chip and the cries of my fighting daughters snapped me back to reality. I guess it wouldn't be too responsible of me to attempt to break a world record with my children in the back seat… plus, we didn't even have our helmets.