BlueDog

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Just got back from a week in Munich and Austria for the Audi Ice Driving Experience. Man, what an awesome time!

I flew in a day and a half early so I could spend some time in Munich. It's been a good 20 years since I was last there. Did about 8.5 miles of walking of Saturday and actually over 14 miles on Sunday. Saw a lot of the historic areas of Munich, the Olympic Park (site of the 1972 Olympics) and the brand spankin new BMW Welt.

Due to construction the Audi factory and museum were closed, so they took us over for a special presentation at the Audi Forum. We got to manhandle the LeMans winning R10 and the new R8 (not in an area open to the public). Great catered lunch at the forum. I had to really resist not pocketing the fine silverware all etched with the Audi rings! Took away some hard to get brochures and nice huge Audi Sport calendar.

From the Forum, we got on the bus and headed to Austria. Stayed at an incredible spa/resort in the Alps.

Got to spend two and half days putting the new B8 A4 3.2 through its paces. This car is beautiful and very impressive! Motor is powerful and smooth delivery through the powerband. So much of this car is re-engineered, it really can't be compared to the B7.

The cars were fitted with studded snow tires However the studs were very small due to being driving on pavement too, so this made for great sliding on the ice!

We started with some emergency braking and high speed lane changing exercises. Then on to exercises where we induced oversteer and understeer situations and then learned how to use those in ice maneuvers. Ice skid pad was a blast and done right I found that it really doesn't take a lot of RPMs to get a quattro in a drift and actually complete at least two full trips around the circle!

Second day brought some fun slolomn exercises where the car needed to be sliding almost the entire time and the nose of the car barely moved from a straight line. To end the event they set up a race course on the ice where we competed for fastest lap time. I was the 5th fastest with a 1:40. Fastest lap time was a 1:36 set by a woman from Canada (she's also an instructor.)

That evening, after a couple hours to enjoy the spa, we went back to the ice for night time ride alongs with the instructors. The first ride along was a complete blur as it happened so quickly. Then the two guys that were there from Criswell started pitting one instructor against the other for faster times. The final run topped out at 78 mph, sliding sideways, on the ice!

Horse drawn sleighs picked us up and took us to a hidden away Austria resturant for a great meal and presentation of gifts and certificates.

All-in-all, an absolutely awesome time. Many thanks to the folks at ACNA for organizing this event! And if I learned anything at all, as one of the instructors said, "Never, NEVER, try to catch a quattro in the snow!"

(Pics and video to follow.)

Wind-n-Water

Wow!

OLight:TNG

I'm definitely looking forward to any pics/video you were able to get during the Experience. I have something to save up for....

BlueDog

View from the hotel room
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The school B8 A4s
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Slolomn Exercises
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Pre-exercise instruction
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In the emergency braking exercise they had a setup to capture reaction time and speed. We were told that .34 was average, .32 was good, and anything under a .30 was what to shoot for. The instructors on average were doing .28 @ ~58kph. The winning time was done by Will, in the car we were sharing, of .20 @ 62kph. Instructors said that he must have been cheating.
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Since both Will and I had camera setups we got to be known as "The Camera Car." Here's one of the views I captured video from.
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Staging for the next exercise
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Break "room" when we needed time to warm up with coffee and a snack.
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The "graduating" class of 2008!
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Wind-n-Water

What are those white stuff on the ground??

BlueDog

Group with LeMans winning R10. Car was trucked right from track to the forum.
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R10 Cockpit
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For you S3 dreamers
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The R8
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A8L W12 quattro
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BlueDog

Diesel allroad FTW!
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Not sure why, but I NEED one of these!
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2378/2204965000_ca32b18bf0_o.jpg"><ul><li><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/21991302@N07/sets/72157603751004452/">Flickr set</a></li></ul>

Dimi (A6 2.7T)

I was in Munich for my prom Beautiful place!

BlueDog

And really makes you think that what you THOUGHT about driving in the snow and ice, you really didn't know much at all.

bobster4

That sounds like an awesome trip and would love to do it sometime.