The cars of Infineon's parking lot

A glorious day was had in Sonoma today.  Everyone had their babies out.  On the way to the track, I saw TWO 500Es (one with a weird integrated whale-tail like spoiler), a Rolls-Royce Ghost, and a ruby red Suzuki Swift GTi.  As you can see, there was something in the lot for everybody.

P.S. There will be a full write-up on Hooniverse.

Audi 100 Coupe S and Audi A7

Via Jalopnik Opposite Lock

Audi Quattro Moby Dick ad

This reminds me.  Moby Dick has gone unread in my Kindle for almost a year now.

Corruption in China, a case study

Chinese sanitation worker pay stub.  Monthly net income: 1,061.08 RMB = $168.14.  Source.

Chinese government and Communist Party officials are a bit extravagant with their car purchases.  For example,

• a $560,000 chocolate-colored Bentley registered in Beijing to the CCP,
• the People's Liberation Army has a $330,000 black Maserati, and
• about 20,000 Audi A6s are owned by government officials.

So the well-meaning central government wants to curb excessive spending by limiting the cost of the cars and their engine sizes.  So what happens as a result?  There is a run on "2.0 liter" badges to downgrade the luxury cars.  And what's worse?  The corrupt officials demand inflated receipts on these badge purchases to pad their expense accounts.  Un-f'ing-believable.

Source.

VW Phaeton oil filter/cartridge

Phew, what a relief.  The Phaeton's cartridge is actually sort of normal (although I am more familiar with the spin-on filters) and easily obtainable.  It basically fits most (but not all) Audis and VWs with the 4.2 liter V8 or 6.0 liter V12.

Detailed oil change instructions for the Phaeton here.

Carspotting: Christmas Porsche and blue Audi Allroad

Nice 912 in the foreground and a rare blue Allroad in the back.

Carspotting: Audi 5000 wagon

This is by far the most exciting (and potentially dangerous) Carspotting post.

I've had my iPhone 4 for a few months now.  Tonight, while taking this picture with the phone, I learned that it has an automatic flash.

So I'm at a stop sign and I see the Audi wagon.  I whip out my phone and snap a shot.  And the flash goes off.  At the exact same moment, three toughs in a melee literally roll out of a liquor store that is immediately outside the frame of this picture.  Within milliseconds, they get up in unison, turn towards me and my flashing camera phone, and glower.  They then start walking over to me, menacingly.  I floored my car and got the heck out of there.  The spinning front wheels on the rain slicked road even activated the Vehicle Stability Assist function on the car!

Insensitive Audi ad

The first draft of this post was an angry rant.  It discussed class warfare, our crumbling infrastructure, and douche nozzles who frequent Neiman Marcus.   I've since cooled down.

Top Gear Audi S8 train versus Jaguar TGV12