D07 – AUDI DRIVING SCHOOL – A DAY ON THE SKIDS

We returned from Salzburg to another of Astrid’s typical Bavarian meals. I guess that’s true if spinach quiche is really Bavarian. Never got a picture because we ate it all.

On the following day she surprised us again with another typically Bavarian dish based on potatoes. We asked the name she said, “It’s Astrid’s Special Kitchen Secret,” but also typically Bavarian.  Astrid’s son, Ludwig, said, “It’s true.  Only she knows what goes in it.”

Another surprise was a brief drop-in visit by Oliver Rudolph, Alex’s brother. We last saw him many years ago in Los Angeles when he was helping Audi introduce their new concept model, the TT.

Oliver is a professional driver for Audi and on his way to Italy to join customers for a custom tour of Alpine country in Audi R8’s. He was driving a brand new Spyder model and demonstrated how the automatic top cleverly folds away. He stopped by to say he’d alerted the staff at the Audi Driving Experience of our impending arrival. “You’ll have a great time,”he promised.

The 1 1/2 hour drive gave us more road time in our Q5 and the loaner Garmin GPS led us right to the Audi Driving Experience center which is only 16 miles from the factory but right in the middle of nowhere.

This facility was constructed explicitly for Audi customers who want to know more about how to get the most out of their new cars…safely. It is barely a year old and contains not only a road course but a very large skid pad to hone handling skills in slippery conditions. I know, I know…who needs that in Southern California? I learned that skid conditions on wet or dry cement are the same but it’s the speed you’re traveling that makes them equal.

No detail has been overlooked in the design and construction of this center. Audi is very much into design and it shows in the exterior and interior. All the previous paperwork was validated when they called me by name and handed over the lanyard with my ID.

Louise made friends with the staff very quickly (surprise, surprise) and asked all the questions that usually get by me.

The location of the food and drink center is one of those. It’s vacant now because all the customers were on the track putting cars through their paces. By lunchtime these tables would be full. In the meantime the room was ours for a coke, latte or whatever.

I was slated for the afternoon session and my group met in one of the classrooms. It was quickly evident that I was the only English speaker enrolled today. Audi was prepared and I was quickly escorted from the room for individual instruction.

My instructor was a South African named Mark Allison. Audi sends him to all parts of the globe where they have driving instruction centers. “I’ve traveled the world for Audi and can’t imagine a better job,” he said. We asked if he’d ever been to Southern California. “Oh, yes,” He replied. “Even lived there for a while.” We expected it would be Orange County or one of the beach cities but asked where anyway. “I lived in Woodland Hills,” he said. “Used to sell time shares there in the ’80’s.”

What a small world is this! Can you imagine our surprise? Oliver Rudolph told me he’d alerted the Driving Center but I didn’t think he’d gone into such detail to make sure I was taken care of.

We were escorted to a fleet of Audi A5 4 door sedans on the apron…a model not sold in the U.S. The car bears great resemblance to the Audi A7 sedan which is sold in the states. This was to be my “mule.” I shared the cockpit with a German national named Dirk Zumioh from Cologne. Fortunately his English was better than my Coffee-Break German so it was our language of choice.

Our instructor’s car led us to the skid pad, shared with a class of R8’s where we would spend the entire afternoon. We gathered around head instructor, Ludwig, as he described our first exercise, in German, for about three minutes. Then Mark repeated it to me in English. Took about 30 seconds.

All the cars had been rigged with a light system just above the steering wheel on the dashboard. When a red light appeared on the right side you swerved left to avoid an imaginary truck. When the light appeared on the left side you swerved right. Sounds easy, right? For the next 3 hours we practiced accident avoidance with pedal-to-the-floor acceleration followed by a swerve left or right followed by a correction to avoid spinning out followed by a hard slam on the brakes to a full stop. This was all timed. They recorded your speed at the time the light came on; your reaction time from red light to turning the wheel and the time it took to a complete stop.

This was followed by a brief critique from the instructor before lining up to do it again. After a switch of drivers you got to feel the panic when a guy you barely know floored the accelerator, twisted the wheel and then mashed the brakes to a stop…or spun out. Most embarrassing was stopping the car to fish out the stuck pylon you had run over…especially after a spin out.

Near the end of the day our treat was to drive through a slalom course as fast as you could using all the techniques you had learned. We were all eager and tired…not a good combination for accuracy and precision.

We all ended up in the same room for some goodbye jokes and awarding of certificates for top speed, avoidance handling, reaction time and the most spin outs. I didn’t expect, or receive, any of these awards…even for coming the longest distance.

Mark Allison must have felt I deserved some sort of recognition so announced my one distinction. “The fastest 80 year-old on the track today,” was the verbal declaration. I can’t wear it around my neck but memories of the moment will last a long time.

We left the group and pointed our Audi toward Nidda, Germany. We’d been invited to a party and were going to be late.

Stay with us for the ride.

Louise and Ray