The Toys for Tots drive and Reeve’s Cars and Coffee was the largest attended yet for their monthly gathering. It was also quite the success as two big boxes were filled to the brim with toys. Thanks to all who participated and brought a gift for some of the younger ones who are not so fortunate.

January of course brings our annual Board of Directors (BoD) meeting plus the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. Check the race dates and be sure to make your hotel reservations now as rooms near the track are going fast. If I am lucky enough to score a ticket, once again I plan to pull an all nighter. The BoD meeting date is January 4, 2014, the same day as practice for the Rolex 24 Hours. We will be holding a joint BoD/members meeting and luncheon at a Red Lobster, just a mile or so from the track. All active ACNA members are invited to attend but please RSVP with Trish at tkeller@chsmedical.com by noon Jan 3, in order that she can give the restaurant a head count.

Andy Sattler has been working on Daytona and Sebring; once again make sure you have made your lodging reservations. No word yet on what or how extensive the motorsport experiences will be, but I believe that it can safely be said with regards to Sebring and a land claim to the “old school” area on Turn 17, it is presently occupied and not by Audi. The Four Rings will be at Turn 1 Club in honor of Audi’s first emblem.

2013 has been quite the year for this chapter, two drives, which consisted of True North to Jacksonville and Savannah, Dieseling to Dora, two races, Daytona and Sebring, open house at Audi North Orlando, the dropping of the flag for the 24 Hours of Le Mans at Reeves, our annual visit to the Audi Technical Center in St Pete, and a logistics presentation at the Audi distribution center in Jacksonville. A few of us did a drive by the Brunswick Port of Entry where most of our Audis first hit dry land after their cruise from Emden. There was the discovery of a great German restaurant in Mt Dora; and of course the obligatory pounding down of a few good meals.

On a monthly basis, David Loppert now regularly sends out welcoming notes to new members and follow ups with those whose membership is about to expire. An important activity and one of the reasons our membership continues to grow. The ACFL web site has been standardized, aligned, and in conformance with AoA/ACNA looks and GUI. This was developed by Andreas Dharmawan, ACNA President and implemented by our Tech Meister, Walter Moore. Our newsletter continues to improve and the difference has been clearly evident over the last 18 months.

We also reached the goal line, which had the goal post moved in raffle tickets sold. Because of our membership increase, it was now required to sell over 100 tickets when our membership surpassed 250. On all fronts, 2014 should be even better as we all join in, participate, and help make it happen.

Bob Greving December 23, 2013.

Table of Contents

Down the Road
ACNA & Chapter News  
Other Items in the News
Classifieds and Audi Tradition
As Seen/Members' Photos
...but then there's more

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January 4, Daytona International Speedway, “A Day at the Track”
BoD and ACNA/ACFL members meeting and lunch 11:00 AM at Red Lobster 2526 W International Speedway Blvd, 32114

Please RSVP with Trish at tkeller@chsmedical.com by noon Friday January 3.

June 26-July 1 Summer Breeze Dieseling durch Deutschland
http://www.audiclubna.org/2014-audi-club-summer-breeze
For additional information contact Bob Greving at bob@audiclubfl.org

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(Photo courtesy of Jakub Hanus)

In conjunction with Elite rent-a-car of Zurich and the ACNA, more than just a couple of you who receive this newsletter have signed up for the drive of a lifetime, Audi Summer Breeze 2014, Dieseling durch Deutschland. There are also ACNA members from CA, WI, MI, SC, and IL who will be meeting in Munich to start six days and five nights of touring the land of the Four Rings. All will be driving and rotating seat time behind the wheels of Audis, which for the most part will be diesels plus models and body styles not available, this side of the pond.

There will be the obligatory visits to Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm. I should add and it has just been confirmed that in Ingolstadt, we will be visiting the storage facility where Audi maintains their collection of “Old Timers” that are not presently on display around the world. This facility is never open to the public, but we will have our own guided tour in lieu of the factory tour. The following day, we will visit the Audi Forum in Neckarsulm for lunch then drive along the Neckar past medieval Bad Wimpfen, (pictured above), Hirschorn castle and on into Heidelberg, the setting for the musical Student Prince.

February Monthly Meet Date and location TBD.
A Cracker Barrel breakfast or Woody’s shore luncheon?

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Welcome Aboard

Welcome to our new ACNA members. Our membership numbers continue to grow; we are now well over 270 members, which mean additional critical mass in different regions of the state and hopefully more events and greater 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 David david@audiclubfl.org. 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.

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And now for the numbers

 November Sales Report

The boys from Ingolstadt had a good month in November. In 2012, BMW sold 2.46 of their cars for each Audi sold. In 2013 that figure went down to 2.33 BMW’s sold per Audi. The year to date figures in 2012 there were 1.96 BMWs sold per Audi and in 2013, 1.92 BMWs per Audi. This lower ratio is due to a number of months that despite Audi touting record sales, so were the other “Boys from Bavaria” achieving record sales. Unfortunately, not much market share gain there. At that rate, the millennials may be long retired when Audi finally surpasses BMW in the all-important US market. Audi Sales   BMW Sales

A3

The sale figures for this new A3 Audi should be barn-burners A3 Roll Out

Q1

It is too bad we will not even see the A1 this side of the pond. Q1

RS Q3

This is in German but click the arrow for some views of one fast machine with 310 horsepower. For those who participate in the Summer Breeze program of 2014, we are planning to have one of these vehicles in the fleet. RS Q3

A4

Here is a link to an artist’s rendition of the new A4. 2015 A4

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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.

Here is an informative article in Hemmings about the NSU Spider

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Have a picture of your car or some Audi-related news of your own you'd like to share? Send your photo to Walter Moore  walter@audiclubfl.org

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 Jerry Stutzman sends us this picture of his Audi TT visiting a winery. Motoring con brio!

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Now for one last penning, it seems more than just a very long time ago that the role of guiding the ACFL was to unexpectedly land in my lap after a dinner interrupting call. This was promptly followed by an email to the members before I even agreed to anything. Unfortunately, I could not turn back the event. Fast forward about seven years and a great deal has been accomplished. This included three MPG rallyes, one of which was a drive to the Conch Republic and this was before MPG was such a hot item. I for one, will never forget the photo fly over the Seven Mile Bridge. There were additional drives to Anna Maria Island, Osprey, Sarasota, Savannah, St Augustine, numerous trips to Sebring, for practice, grass painting, historic races, and of course, the 12 Hours, tour of the Audi distribution center in Jacksonville and the annual presentation and tour at the Audi Technical Center in St Pete. With respect to governance of the club, the strengthening and a control of the club finances, the establishment of a BoD, and writing of By-Laws. One year we even ran our own Sebring event catered by the Zajac brothers in the AoA Suite # 7 above the Corvette and BMW pits. Great spot to see two of them smack into each other, thankfully no harm no foul. With Walter Moore’s hard work, we now have a very professional looking newsletter, though the writing (that has been my part) continues to be a challenge and in addition, a great web site. There have been Le Mans meets, Toys for Tots, Tech Sessions; a few may remember a personal safety and awareness session in Sarasota, and many breakfast gatherings at the Barrel. Along the way, we have also chowed down a fair number of shore diners at some great places.

None of this would have been possible without the help and hard work of a number of folks many of whom started out with the first provisional BoD and running regions, some of which have successfully endured. I would like to give a shout out to Ian B. formally with AoA/Audi AG and presently with Nissan in Hong Kong, and Kirk P., and Ryan M. of AoA. There has also been a long list of Audi dealerships, which supported events, Audi Pembroke Pines, Audi Coral Springs, Ft Myers Audi, Suncoast Audi, North Orlando Audi, Jacksonville Audi, Melbourne Audi, Crown Audi, and Audi Tamp. Finally, had it not been for the following individuals who and in no particular order were and are presently part of the BoD and or Regional Leads, Bill F., Frank O., Pete Z., Andreas B., David L., Jim V., Walter M., Gena C., Michael B., Patrick A., John L., Jon R., Shannon T., and Trish and Kim K., we would not be where we are today. I am sure I have left someone out, my sincerest apologies but then I am also growing older.

The club is significantly more viable then it was back in 2007-2008 and It will remain so and become stronger as it moves forward. Walter Moore whom many of you know has done more than Yeoman duty on the newsletter and website is one, actually our only nominee for the position of President. The club’s By-Laws state that the BoD determines who is president and this will be decided at the 2014 BoD meeting. I am sure there will be many new and needed improvements in the club’s operations, increased Board of Directors involvement, and newsletter. Frankly, I expect that who ever the board chooses, that they receive the same support you so willingly provided me. There are many new initiatives from National and AoA through the dealerships, all centered on Kundenbegeisterung. Concerning Kundenbegeisterung, in the short term I will continue to help and be involved. It is an exciting time to not only be a member of the ACFL, but also driving an Audi. I plan to remain involved with the Gulf Coast Region, share the treasurer’s responsibilities (in other words finish the 2013 taxes) then turn it over to David Loppert who is replacing Peter Zajac as treasurer. By the way, thank you Peter for your help over the years. David’s financial experience will be a big asset as we continue strengthening the club’s finances.

In addition and as a number of you know, for almost the past two years, I have been working on the planning for an ACNA Audi Driving Experience in Europe, Dieseling durch Deutschland. To date it has taken a lot of time and will continue to do so during the foreseeable future. Ironically, as one workload is shed another is picked up. But going forward, the mantle and responsibility of the day-to-day operations, monthly newsletters, membership, club activity reports for the Quattro Quarterly, interfacing with national, event planning, event execution, Daytona, Sebring, monthly chapter leadership calls and the whole host of items, which are required to effectively run the club will be under the next presidents capable leadership, direction and execution.

I now look forward to not just driving my Audi but also sitting back and enjoying more of the ride. It also affords me the opportunity to spend additional time on a few of my other pursuits. There comes a point in all endeavors that before one becomes meaningless and the future smokes us in the passing lane, one needs to make a steering correction or two, prior that final turn into the junk yard to be parted out or rust (for the last 30 plus years, hardly anything on an Audi rusts).

Thanks again, it has been more than just a lot of fun, but also a great opportunity to meet many fantastic folks all with similar common denominators, the owning, enjoying, and driving of cars and in particular our Audis.

Bob Greving
President
Audi Club of Florida, Chapter ACNA