Don't tell my wife...

[K Simmonds]

I'm really glad to see you've gotten the car home safely, I reckon it was worth the hassle to get such a nice solid unmolested example.

Found an email from you in my junk folder yesterday, will get back to you soon.

[LucheS2@20v]

Awsome

[andy10v]

Nice addition and road trip.

Gabe is big! Should be able to help you out now!

[Nj]

must have picked up a virus when I was away because I was flat out for a couple of days there. So anyway...
Sandy, wise words as always I'll bear in mind to keep the shiny side up when out driving.

Yes, I did tell the missus at one point and she was actually quite happy for me. When I turned up in it she heard the noise and went "oooh, is it as fast as our old car?" (meaning the S2) and I had to tell her no, there's no turbo. Her response was to stamp her foot on the driveway whilst reciting "turbo, turbo, turbo...." so I'm taking that generally to be a thumbs up. Think she wants an S2 though. I'll need to keep my eye out for one

Thuppu - Things always get colder and darker as I get nearer Kajaani Although the worst was just before Kuopio. It was a slushy mess and quite a lot lying on the road.

I'm going to list the jobs needing sorted in my other thread...

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=882628&posted=1#post882628

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

^^^^ When he does she's she will

[Nuvo]

Great to see you finally reunited with your coupe Noel. Nice one.

[newsh]

Did you tell the wife yet?

[_ShurikeN]

It seems that driving a French car into Finland right now caused a bit of interest so I was taken to the side and a spaniel had a good old sniff around.

Rather common procedure sometimes for random cars when getting off a ferry, at least in Turku out of my experience.

[Thuppu]

Nice! Havn't seen snow here yet though.

[diesel des]

That's not a garage it's a warehouse! Cool.

Sent from my LG-H955 using Tapatalk

[John.]

Superb!!
What a great road trip and introduction to your new car.
Cheers for sharing the pictures.
What are the issues/jobs to do?

[bunyoch]

Weel weel noo its yersell thets a haappy maan Noel, an ye didna hae tae cum baak ower fur a bite tae eat ! Ah,m jist nae richt sure if yersell wull manage tae wurk oan the brute wi the wild amoont o space thet ye hae ower ther ----Ye can ACTUALLY waalk richt roon it !!! -- MAAN ye wull be loosin haulf yer tools the furst time ye try touchin the beast ! maybes ye cood jist be tying them tae yersell wi a wee biiy rope an then aw wull be weel - - -
Richt gled yer hame safe

an mind ---- Its tae stey shiney side up an durty side doon whin awa oot oan the rooads !

[Nj]

Well finally the black beastie is in Finland. I arrived on Monday evening after doing a few km across Germany and Finland.
Kit has been amazing in prepping the car before it left the UK. It ended up being trailered to Germany and then after a few jobs in my friend's workshop there I drove it from West to North Germany (about 4.5 hours in the pissing rain doing at least 120km/h because it would actually have been dangerous to be the only idiot going less than 120).
Arrived in Travemunde around 23:30 on Saturday night, boarded the ferry and chilled out a bit for a while.

In the workshop
image by Miss Cooper Audi CQ20V, on Flickr

In the ferry
image by Miss Cooper Audi CQ20V, on Flickr

29 hours later (after a very calm Baltic crossing) I was in Helsinki. It seems that driving a French car into Finland right now caused a bit of interest so I was taken to the side and a spaniel had a good old sniff around. It was about that time that I started wondering about the previous owners and whether they may have been into anything "interesting". Maybe it was for the best that the old seats stayed in Wales.
I then went in to get a set of Hakkepelita 8 studded winter tyres fitted because I knew I'd need them as I got further north. A quick stop at the neighbouring service station for a cuppa and a sandwich before I left. Found this notice in the bathroom, which I found kind of interesting.
image by Miss Cooper Audi CQ20V, on Flickr

The drive started off wet, got wetter, and then slushy, snowy, back to slushy again... and the car handled it all amazingly well. The combination of quattro and those tyres is just amazing (I have the same on my A4).
image by Miss Cooper Audi CQ20V, on Flickr

It ended up taking me about 7 hours to do the 560km, which was good going in those conditions, plus 80km/h limits for a large proportion of the way. There are no speed cameras for the final 100km or so, and the snow was a bit firmer, so I was able to open it up a bit. I have to confess that I was grinning like an imbecile at the sound as I overtook each truck (of which there were plenty).

And here's Gabe, one of my boys, who has been asking me for a black "racing car" for years now and immediately asked if it will be his when he's 18. erm... yeah. we'll see.
image by Miss Cooper Audi CQ20V, on Flickr

I have a whole bunch of issues to sort out so I'll start a new project thread and ask for input there.

[Nj]

No problem There's a tyre place near the ferry terminal so I'm going to book in there for some new hakkapeliitta 8's. I'll get a couple of pictures en route to post. Hopefully they don't feature my CQ post head-on collision with a moose (disturbingly common enough to have moose collision on insurance policies)

[John.]

.......t as I head north I'm almost certainly going to be driving in snow.

Pictures of this please or know-one will believe you!