From: Bill Ball [billb_msn@msn.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 8:22 PM
To: 928
Subject: [928] What a car!

At the Gambler's Run open road race in Elko, NV last weekend, Norcal928
buddy and rookie driver Paul Mooradian from Fairfield, CA drove his 82
Euro 928 to first place in the 125 class, averaging 124.929 MPH over the
turn-filled 94 mile road course.  Norcal928'er George Suennen from Albany,
CA drove his 90 S4 to a second place finish in the 145 class, averaging
144.916 MPH.  Both of these excellent results are off only a little more
than a second from the target times.  I took a third in the 130
class.....out of 3 contestants.  Oh well.  I would have done better except
for a rather dumb math error trying to figure if I was ahead or behind
schedule near the end.  Better luck next time.

The course is challenging even at 130 as it is full of turns and elevation
changes which makes hitting a target speed a real chore.  An uphill grade
at the end got a number of people who could not hold their pace.

Although I enjoyed the strung together turns, the best part for me was the
speed trap after a rather fast sweeper.  I was clocked at **158.437 MPH**
over a 1/4 mile electronic trap.  That the fastest I've ever gone in a
land vehicle.  My car is a bone stock 89 S4 A/T daily driver with 113K
miles on the odo, and I was running with **the A/C on**.  I was comfy
cool, and I had revs still left to go.  WHAT A CAR!  Next year I will
floor it and see how close I can get to the tech limit of 165.  :-) George
Suennen was clocked at 163.044 in his stock 90 S4 (although with a
non-working A/C).

This was my third ORR.  Thanks to George for getting me started in ORR. 
The 928 is perfectly suited for this application as it came from the
factory.  The car should be capable of running in the 150 class as it is,
just needing safety equipment, although that's a about it.  You need more
HP to average faster than that.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that cruising along a 2 lane country road at
a hair shy of 160 MPH with the A/C on and the car showing perfect road
manners reaffirmed that I bought the  right car 3 years ago.

Also, althouhgh I appeared to have some significant oil loss via the
crankcase breather in a previous race and asked for and received advice
about that here last week, the car started this trip at 1/2 quart below
full and was not even 3/4 of a quart low 1400 miles later when I got back
home.

What a car!

Bill
79
89 S4