Too Many Cars Are Too Fast

[Muleski]

My brother has an RS6 Avant.

He is a real knowledgable Audi guy. Very experienced driver. We're not kids. Big long time fans of Audi avants. His two “vintage” cars? An Audi RS2, and a tweaked C4S6 {among other things converted to a six speed.} He brought the RS2 into the country as soon as it turned 25. He had it stored in Switzerland waiting. The S6? He’s the only owner. Bought new in 1995.

I've driven it a couple of times. It’s pretty amazing. He took delivery of it with the smaller 21” wheels, with a separate set of wheels, and has now sorted a 19" Audi wheel. Summer, shoulder season and winter/snow tires.

I think that car is probably too fast in the hands of many. He obviously knows his local dealer well, and they have delivered quite a few., He mentioned to my brother that he’s not convinced that the owner-car match is right on each, but he's not turning buyers away. He quietly mentioned that one is with a 23 year old Chinese grad school student in Boston. One of 4-5 cars that the kid keeps in his downtown Boston garage. Hmm. That sounds bad, but no surprise. Classic wealthy foreign student in Boston. Been like that for 40 years. Street racing exotics in the city at night. Good customer for this dealer.

The car has almost 600 hp and 600 lbs of torque out of the box. 0-60 under 4 seconds. Could be dangerous, IMO. His is optioned with some safety intel stuff, and a brake upgrade. He ordered it the minute he could, exactly as he wanted it.

He first drove one in Europe about 4 years ago. Younger buddy of ours, in the ski biz, had one to borrow for a month or so. My brother came back saying “as soon as Audi NA brings this into the country…….”

There are more avants now coming on the used market. Strong prices. I’m surprised to see as many. Autotrader shows over 30. All seem to be $130K plus. Selling, or asking, prices close to original MSRP's....or more.

Certainly not in my wheelhouse, right now, or close! My brother runs this through his business. We'll see what he wants for it in a couple of years, but my hunch is that he'll keep it. I would love to buy his C4S6. My son and I have owned three. We both want to buy again, but my brother will NEVER part with his. It's probably the nicest one that I've seen in the last 15 years.

The RS6.....just wow. And yep, pretty dangerous, maybe. We have no Autobahn in this country, and here in the Northeast, our road surfaces tend to absolutely suck. Better have the pot hole alarm out with those wheels! About 10 years ago, my wife hit a pothole almost the size of out the S4 Avant, and ruined all for tires while bending and ruining three wheels. At about 40 mph. Also did about $2K of suspension damage. No warning. None.

Point being that road conditions, road surfaces, roads in general could make that car a lot more dangerous. And I would not want to hit a large animal, like a moose, at 100 mph. Nope. I have hit one nailing the brakes and slowing to about 50mph at impact in a 6000 lb Land Cruiser and it was awful. No injuries. But when I dream about just cruising at on winding roads at night.....reality sets in.

 

[cantunamunch]

I am wondering if "Hot Rodders" will start modifying ICE cars with electric motors. So, you know, adding a couple of e motors to a 700hp Dodge Charger.

Already a thing.

Tesla Model S Drive Unit - Starter Kit - EV Controls T2-C Controller, EV West - Electric Vehicle Parts, Components, EVSE Charging Stations, Electric Car Conversion Kits

Or use an e motor to turn a 2wd car into 4wd?

This is called a "through the road" or TTR hybrid - Dodge did this in their Durango 20 years ago; most of those patents are expired.

 

[François Pugh]

Love the RS6. Except the wheels. What's up with giant rims and no rubber? I don't understand it.

Plus: less rubber stretching and more precise steering.
Minus: More damaged rims (from hitting potholes and from curb rash).
Even replacing my 205 60 R16s (stock on the 2015 Mazda 3 Sport GS) with 215 45 R18s (Stock on the 2015 Mazda 3 Sport GT) made a very noticeable difference in handling.
I'm not too worried about potholes with the 45s, but I have curb phobia; I may have to call a cab soon to get from the car to the curb. Maybe next time I'll get wider tires to protect the rims, even if it's not an exact diameter match.

 

[François Pugh]

Believe it or not, there are fewer gas stations in Los Angeles than there were when I moved here in ‘88.
The reason? The cost of building/maintaining a gas station but mostly, the real estate ( corner lots)has just become too valuable.

Here in Ontario Canada the main driver is the cost of fuel contamination environmental clean up, and it's effect on insurance costs. Hint: do not buy an old gasoline station.

 

[doc]

Talked to a salesman at Audi Glenwood Springs (western CO) and his view was the even the wide open roads of western CO aren't enough to accommodate the performance envelope of the RS6 Avant, and that much of the benefit of that car is wasted in the US. This from a guy in the business of selling them.
@martyg might have a different view, though.

 

[François Pugh]

Talked to a salesman at Audi Glenwood Springs (western CO) and his view was the even the wide open roads of western CO aren't enough to accommodate the performance envelope of the RS6 Avant, and that much of the benefit of that car is wasted in the US. This from a guy in the business of selling them.
@martyg might have a different view, though.

You may feel perfectly safe drifting a 110 mph sweeper when you can see around it and there's nobody else to be seen on the road, and you could very well be right (depending on your driving experience and skill), but the police will see that as dangerous driving, guaranteed.

 

[Don in Morrison]

All I want is to be able to get from Silverthorne to the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 at the speed limit in high gear all the way up, and to be able to accelerate from 50-70 on that hill without downshifting.

 

[bbbradley]

Talked to a salesman at Audi Glenwood Springs (western CO) and his view was the even the wide open roads of western CO aren't enough to accommodate the performance envelope of the RS6 Avant, and that much of the benefit of that car is wasted in the US. This from a guy in the business of selling them.
@martyg might have a different view, though.

IMO that is a clever sales tactic that plays well in that part of the country. Play the car as forbidden fruit and that "The Man" can't take away your rights to own it! He's a sales rep, trying to elicit a response and boost interest.

Remember, just because the car can go 130+ MPH, it doesn't mean it *has to* go 130 MPH. An RS6, I imagine, is a great place to spend time no matter the speed.

 

[dan ross]

Here in Ontario Canada the main driver is the cost of fuel contamination environmental clean up, and it's effect on insurance costs. Hint: do not buy an old gasoline station.

Note to self: abandon plans to buy old gas stations…
The EPA regulations/toxic site cleanup here are another reason and there are numerous sites where the station has closed but remains undeveloped despite the intrinsic value due to oil/benzene/etc present in the soil due to leakage from underground tanks.

 

[DanoT]

Note to self: abandon plans to buy old gas stations…
The EPA regulations/toxic site cleanup here are another reason and there are numerous sites where the station has closed but remains undeveloped despite the intrinsic value due to oil/benzene/etc present in the soil due to leakage from underground tanks.

Wouldn't city officials want old gas station sites to be excavated for future building foundation/garage with the soil sent to a recycle/treatment/containment facility?

 

[scott43]

Note to self: abandon plans to buy old gas stations…
The EPA regulations/toxic site cleanup here are another reason and there are numerous sites where the station has closed but remains undeveloped despite the intrinsic value due to oil/benzene/etc present in the soil due to leakage from underground tanks.

This all depends on land value and zoning regulations. There are some VERY valuable gas stations around...

 

[scott43]

Wouldn't city officials want old gas station sites to be excavated for future building foundation/garage with the soil sent to a recycle/treatment/containment facility?

The question is, who pays? If the land is of little value for development, nothing happens. We have numerous sites where petro co's have closed sites and left them vacant for decades rather than clean them up. There is peril even with the best intentions. There are sites in Canada where oil co's have remediated land to a certain level, sufficient for industrial use for instance, and sold the property for developers ostensibly for industrial development. The developer turns around and develops residential, the home owners find out and sue the oil co. They have lost very expensive cases because they were the originators of the pollution despite having legal verification on title regarding contamination. Which leads oil co's to say, why bother? Cheaper for them to have a steaming toxic heap in the middle of nowhere. Now this does change where high dollar values come into play and developers provide better assurances as to use.

There are very very serious issues with toxic waste in Canada and the US...and one day there will be a reckoning. Look at the Hanford Nuclear site or the oil sands in Alberta...or any of the abandoned oil/gas wells out west. I mean, read this..and think about how this went down....

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/orphan-wells-alberta-aldp-aer-1.5089254

 

[Muleski]

One gas station in my town is now the site of a very deli and food store. I can think of four that are high end small office buildings, and at least three that are restaurants.
In some cases there seemed to be a lot of excavation and remediation….removing all contaminated soil. In others I believe they were capped, now parking lots. I believe there are stiff regulations for that.

25 years ago I was on a private school board, and one thing we desperately needed was more acreage in town for sports playing fields. We were offered 14 acres for $1. It had once housed a lumber yard where they cut and treated both railroad ties and telephone poles.

Turns out that is nasty stuff which goes deep, crystalizes and never leaves. Highly toxic.

We hired engineers and figured out what the plot plan looked like. We could cap some spots for parking. But to make soccer, baseball and soccer fields we would have had to dig as deep as 12 feet as I recall. Would have cost a fortune.

Even at $1…..a non-starter.

 

[scott43]

That's typical for these old sites. There is a 75 acre site in Mississauga, on the waterfront, that was a petro refinery and storage facility, highly contaminated. It would be very expensive to remediate the site for houses with yards so it's basically going to be a very large underground parking garage with trucked in soil above for grass and such. And the units will all be townhouses and condos. The concrete parking structure is basically a cap for the contamination. That site sat vacant for 20 years before someone managed to come up with a plan to make the $$ work in terms of remediation and density to allow a profit. I do wonder though...how much contamination has migrated off-site via groundwater.

Port Credit: 72-Acre Imperial Oil Site Slated for Development | UrbanToronto

Transforming a 72-acre brownfields site, the newly announced 'West Village' development could bring some 5,000 new residents to Mississauga's Port Credit.

urbantoronto.ca

 

[François Pugh]

There is a lot of financial incentives in the form of tax holidays for cleaning up some of those sites in Ontario. https://www.ontario.ca/page/brownfields-redevelopment
The legislation is quite complicated though.

 

[bbinder]

In Massachusetts, it is the responsibility of the owner of the property to clean up any toxic waste, even if the waste originates from an adjacent property. Banks will require an environmental survey, and a buyer of a property should want one. It is possible to get authorized exemptions for cleanup if you follow very strict guidelines. But the state can retroactively change the guidelines and require the owner of the property to go through the application/certification process repeatedly and require new environmental surveys. Ask me how I know.

 

[dan ross]

I think that car is probably too fast in the hands of many. He obviously knows his local dealer well, and they have delivered quite a few., He mentioned to my brother that he’s not convinced that the owner-car match is right on each, but he's not turning buyers away. He quietly mentioned that one is with a 23 year old Chinese grad school student in Boston. One of 4-5 cars that the kid keeps in his downtown Boston garage. Hmm. That sounds bad, but no surprise. Classic wealthy foreign student in Boston. Been like that for 40 years. Street racing exotics in the city at night. Good customer for this….

One gas station in my town is now the site of a very deli and food store. I can think of four that are high end small office buildings, and at least three that are restaurants.
In some cases there seemed to be a lot of excavation and remediation….removing all contaminated soil. In others I believe they were capped, now parking lots. I believe there are stiff regulations for that.

25 years ago I was on a private school board, and one thing we desperately needed was more acreage in town for sports playing fields. We were offered 14 acres for $1. It had once housed a lumber yard where they cut and treated both railroad ties and telephone poles.

Turns out that is nasty stuff which goes deep, crystalizes and never leaves. Highly toxic.

We hired engineers and figured out what the plot plan looked like. We could cap some spots for parking. But to make soccer, baseball and soccer fields we would have had to dig as deep as 12 feet as I recall. Would have cost a fortune.

Even at $1…..a non-starter.

Creosote, applied under pressure is nasty stuff. They likely treated those railroad ties with copper sulfates prior as well. There was likely lead and a bunch of other toxic stuff as well in that soil. I can’t imagine how many cubic yards of soil would have had to have been removed/replaced . So what is this lot now? I’m guessing your on the north shore so someone must have done something with it….

 

[mdf]

Creosote, applied under pressure is nasty stuff. They likely treated those railroad ties with copper sulfates prior as well.

Years ago our house had a patio which was basically a ground-level wooden deck. It got full of termites, so we pulled it up. I don't remember what all the layers were, but most of them were in pretty bad shape. But at the very bottom we found old railroad ties -- which were immaculate.

 

[bbbradley]

How about cars that should be fast, but are driven slow? Stuck behind a 911 GT3 that could never find north of ~25 MPH on roads with 30 MPH posted limit and sightlines to support 32-35 MPH.

 

[Muleski]

Creosote, applied under pressure is nasty stuff. They likely treated those railroad ties with copper sulfates prior as well. There was likely lead and a bunch of other toxic stuff as well in that soil. I can’t imagine how many cubic yards of soil would have had to have been removed/replaced . So what is this lot now? I’m guessing your on the north shore so someone must have done something with it….

Nope, actually that was in Maine. To the best of my knowledge that land still sits as is. Big, big price tag to do something with it. My guess is that it may end up as a retirement/assisted living community at some point. With a lot of asphalt capping. I really have no idea, though.

We were just shocked at how “dirty” the land was. Filthy in a non-complementary way!

We do live on the North Shore of MA. That much land here would get repurposed in a minute here, regardless of cost.

I have to “up” my former gas station number for our station-less town. At one point it was 20+. Some say 24!

Evidently there will almost certainly never be another. The town fire chief, town engineer and the planning board agree that literally two spots in town could get permitted and work, and neither of them would go that way. I guess the biggest issue is not the tanks and infrastructure. It’s the physical distance to homes, condos, wooden structures, etc. Fire, explosion, etc.

I can’t recall the exact number but I was shocked at how big a distance it is. Talk about change over 100 years.