Vorsprung Derp Technik (newish-shite collection thread)

[RichardM1]

Evening all! I hope posting newish shite is not frowned upon, I figure a collection thread is a collection thread, right?

Today I've been on an epic trip to pick up dink's '96 Audi A4, posted on here a few days ago. Please be kind as it's my first collection thread (hopefully the first of many)!

 

Here goes;

 

 

The wonders of our modern rail network mean that there are never-ending engineering works on Sundays, so I had to drive to Peterborough first to catch a train onwards; cue one trusty Avensis.

 

 

Obligatory blurrycam shot (from passenger seat of course). Smooth journey so far, save for the A47 kamikaze overtakers!

 

 

Leg one of the journey...passing through beautiful stations such as...

 

 

Big up to AS members in Doncaster, I'm sure the rest of the city is lovely!

 

 

...and two hours later, on to the next train for a quick hop to the final destination...

 

 

Arrived at last! It had seemed like a pretty epic journey so far (especially for a Norfolk boy). One very gratefully received lift from Mr. D later...

 

 

ta-da! Quick look around before signing my life away and I'm on my way home, but not without;

 

 

You can see by the queue that I had to be quick with this shot!

 

Then the long drive home, interspersed with a couple of stops for coffee, screenwash and fuses (of course)!

That's all folks, got home after a brief five hours. If you all fancy it I'll post more pics soon.

 

Cheers!

[eddyramrod]

It's the same age as my Volvo, and I did a thread for that, so AFAIC you've got away with it.  But what do I know?

[Skizzer]

Very fine.  This appears to comply with all the collection thread rules: pictures of railway infrastructure, improbably complicated journey, mention of coffee, photo of car at petrol station.  Job done.

 

You could have said what it's like to drive, but with it being a 90s A4 you may have forgotten by now  I had a 98 1.8T saloon for a while, which was a very comfortable way of covering long distances.  These are the last Audis I like, before they started to be popular with Clarkson fans.

[Justin Case]

This Audi is no older than a green Peugeot. I,m wounded, this site is not what it used to be

[RichardM1]

Thanks guys!

 

The car was overall nice to drive considering it's on the brink of 200k, the engine pulls nicely with no smoke out the back and the gearchange much nicer than my Toyota despite the linkage feeling a bit loose.

 

I forgot to mention in the original post about my favourite pic that I wanted to take but couldn't as I was on the outside lane of the A1; a shot showing me being stuck behind one lorry overtaking another, but more importantly the view in the rear view mirror of a white 11-plate A4 KEEPING IT'S DISTANCE! Audi owners' camaraderie and all that...

[HMC]

Red 90s car thats not pog pink shock!

 

Looks pretty tidy for 200K, whats the interior like? I had a similarly used b5 passat (same platform i think) which similarly had a tired gearlinkage (not uncommon) mine drove like a bag of shit until some of the front suspension links were thrown away and replaced.

[RichardM1]

 

Ta-Da!

 

The interior seems solid so far, in the the driver's seat made it through the journey back! It needs a good clean but luckily that's my forte. I seem to remember from the ad that some front control arms or some such had been changed in dink's ownership.

[Dave_Q]

The only pogweaseling on the car is on the bumpers that could do with a spray, otherwise it's survived quite well for a red car.

 

I did have a couple of half hearted attempts at shampooing the seats but cleaning is not really the sort of thing I can be arsed with, it should come out well with a bit of time spent on it.

 

I replaced the right lower rear and upper front and the left lower front suspension links, the suspension design on these is well planned out but poorly executed. It seems that the lifespan on the links is only a few years and was the same when they were new.

 

If you need to replace any in the future, avoid the cheapest ebay kits like the plague. £100ish for all 8 arms seems like good value, but according to my local factors they're made in Thailand and you might as well make your own out of paper mache.

 

They got some of the cheap kits in to sell to taxi drivers, they had a lifespan of about 3 weeks!