January TBD, Board of Directors meeting

Palm Beach Region
david@audiclubfl.org 


Citrus Region (Orlando)
patrick@audiclubfl.org

ACFL Events in Florida 

Driving Events with Performance Driving Group
Contact David at david@audiclubfl.org for additional information and dates.

ACNA S5 Raffle

On behalf of the ACFL BoD and me, a special thank you for those who supported the chapter and the ACNA by purchasing a raffle ticket. As I close the books, we sold 104 tickets, enough to attain a significant pay out from the ACNA. Your purchase of a raffle ticket afforded the chapter some needed income. As of this writing, our average membership is 254 for the year and we have grown from over 230 members in January to around 275 in November. We have not only met, but also exceeded the sales goal for chapters with over 250 members.

Thanks again and hopefully one of you will be a winner, your purchase of a raffle ticket helped make the chapter a winner. I need to mention that David, Frank, and Andreas all BoD members played a significant role in the chapter reaching its goal of over 100 tickets sold. Thanks, gentlemen.

I have just learned of another Audi family, which has recently taken advantage of this fabulous program. If you have been an ACNA member in good standing for six months, you will be eligible for a 6% discount from MSRP on the purchase of certain Audi models. Yes, a few of the usual suspects have been excluded, the R8, RS5, TTRS, and a few others, but check out the details at ACNA Membership Benefits. If you plan to be in the market for a new Audi, it literally pays and saves to be an active member of the ACNA. Just do the math on the Audi of your dreams.


Welcome Aboard

Welcome to our new ACNA members. Our membership numbers are growing, which means additional critical mass in different regions of the state and hopefully more events and participation. Those of you who are new to the ACNA will receive an on boarding note from David Loppert, if you have; any questions feel free to drop either David david@audiclubfl.org or me bob@audiclubfl.org a line. I also suggest that if you have not had a chance yet check out both the ACNA website, and the Audi Club of Florida website. There is a great deal of good information plus some excellent photos of member’s cars.

If you have a special Audi such as one of the S or RS models or a pre 2000 that you would like to sell, we will list it once in the newsletter. I will need the year, model, color over interior color, and your email address. Longer and non-member postings can be placed in the website. We will also list DKW, NSU, and Wanderer motorcycles. If you are looking for a particular car, once again S, RS or pre 2000 model plus a bike, we will also try to accommodate you here.

For Example: Wanted: Wanderer or DKW motorcycle of motorbike pre 1950 bob@audiclubfl.org  

You can also use the Classifieds Forum on the Audi Club of Florida web site.

 
Recently, there has been a great deal of discussion and reporting in both the general auto and Audi centric media regarding diesels. A group of TDI’s showed up in front of the Capital one weekend this Fall, a new twist on the sit-in but this time a diesel drive-in. Another group piloted by “Professionals” made a cross country run turning in some amazing MPG figures while shattering the EPA projected highway mileage numbers. As mentioned in a previous ACFL newsletter, there is that not so false urban legend of one of the new A3 TDI’s attaining over 55 MPG for over 500 miles at speeds averaging in excess of 60 MPG. Those are numbers one would like to take to the bank and in the not too distant future, that will be possible. One of the latest news releases from the Audi Newsroom is a survey regarding drivers’ perceptions of diesel cars, the government vise-a-vie electrics, and diesel fuel pricing. Now any survey funded by those who may have a vested interest in its results can and should be somewhat suspect. We see this all the time, as some elected officials seem to govern and or take stances on issues based upon their internal polling metrics and popularity polls. I am sure we all can name at least one example and should leave it at that regarding not just the fickle breezes of public opinion, but how quickly they can change. As John Ehrlichman of Watergate, notoriety once stated regarding an individual (let him) “twist slowly, slowly in the wind."

Ah but back to this latest Audi survey, it intrigues me, as the answers one obtains are often determined on how the questions are presented. I make no pretenses to being an expert but I figured it just might be an edifying experience to look at the internals, in other words the questions, and possible weighting of survey responses. As in the reporting of all good or reputable surveys, at the bottom of the Audi news release it mentioned an individual’s name and who to contact for additional information. I quickly fired off an email and promptly received a bounce back, even though I did a control copy perhaps there was a problem, I did it a second time, no bounce back, it stuck and got to or was routed to someone who could possibly provide the internals. The following day, Brad of AoA promptly sent me the questions and results, absolutely fascinating material. I will not delve into all of the detail other than to share a few thoughts and comments on two of the questions and their responses.

If you were around at the time, possibly driving a DKW (we could only wish), you may remember these words so stridently enunciated by our 35th President during his inaugural address. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” Interesting, according to the results of this present day survey, folks think that they should be rewarded for making the “correct” decision regarding the purchase of a diesel by receiving a tax credit. A combined 66% of the participants strongly/somewhat strongly agreed with that concept. There have been tax credits on the Volt, the darling of the Greens, the Government, and Motor Trend (COTY Award), but it has been anything but a sales success. I love it when many think you should purchase something and they certainly do not feel the same compunction. In fact, the Volt has been a dismal failure. Will Volt become the new terminology for Edsel? Tesla is another story and seems to be doing well but it plays in a very different league, and at almost twice the price just to join the club.

For most of the country, the burning of coal to generate steam to power generators is the source of electricity and it is electricity that propels these and any plug-in fully electric cars. Logically, I guess there is an argument that they are all indirectly coal fired. Those of us who sat through logic 101 may remember a little ditty that I have taken the liberty to change a wee tad, if A affects B and B affects C, then A affects C. Perhaps there may be more than just a little soot to go around there, as just how environmentally friendly is a coal fired car and what about the entire battery issue? Below is actually a picture of a coal-fired Adler and a charcoal/wood fired Ford Model A Gazogene, sans electrical hookup. The real choker here besides the soot is today, folks expect something from the government for making the “correct environmental decision, let alone what they may think they are already entitled to. Whatever happened with just doing the right thing for the right reasons to begin with and without the reward? Perhaps JFK’s remarks could use a dust off and a few replays today. What a novel idea. No tax credits for electric or diesel cars period. They should stand on their own.

The other question and I may be reading these responses incorrectly regarding the thought process behind the proposed question, is that most survey participants do not know that part of the differential in the cost of fuel between diesels and gas is the higher federal tax on diesel. As readers of this newsletter most of you already know this, the tax is approximately 33% higher on diesel at $.06 cents a gallon. Refining capacity, along with supply and demand, plus a few other variables also make up for the difference. If it were, a level playing field regarding federal and state fuel taxes, than there would be less of a price differential and the government would not be punishing the diesel driver. Less than half questioned, 46% strongly/somewhat strongly agreed that that if the price were the same for fuels (which grade also not asked) they would purchase a diesel. So not only wanting their one shot tax credit, possibly short sighted (government and in reality, the rest of us paying for it) on the purchase of the car, less than 50% either do not understand or consider the price differential of fuel in their decision process. An interesting statement on what we desire that Washington will do and not do for us as opposed to what we will do for our selves in support of the drive to be green.

To date I know of four folks who have purchased new TDI’s, two are A6’s and two are Q5’s. Unfortunately, I missed the boat. When I purchased the A7, the party line was that Audi would never bring an A7 TDI to the US. An A7 powered by a diesel did not portray a sporty image. Of course, it did not take much research to find out that in Germany there is a 3.0 TDI with 313 horsepower that is actually quicker in acceleration than my 310 horsepower 3.0 TFSI. Perhaps I can look forward to possibly driving one of those faster and more economical A7’s during the summer of 2014, as some of us will be Dieseling durch Deutschland, more on that one in the next newsletter.

As promised, a few pictures of directly alternative fuel vehicles, no generators, power lines, and garage hookups. At about the seven-minute point in the video are more pictures of this Adler.

The Adler is in the Munich Transportation Museum. A must visit anytime you are in Athens on the Isar.

.. and here at the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, the Ford Model A Gazogene, built in 1939 in Spain. It ran on charcoal or wood:
http://www.tbauto.org/cars/ford_gazogene.htm

Cheers and Safe Motoring,