Gauteng Chapter
Lunch Drive
To Valley Lodge, Magaliesburg
(30 June 2002)
Participants: André (Nemo blue S6), Philip & Elna (Silver S6), Alan & Alice (Silver TT), Arno & Anika (Nogaro blue S3), Berthus & Tessa (Imola Yellow S3), Christophe (André's new Nogaro blue S3), Julian (Silver S3) and Kevin & Dani (Silver A3 1.8T).
Temporary participants: Anthony (A4 1.8T Avant) and Paul (Silver S3).
Click on thumbnails for larger image.
By the time André and his son Christophe arrived at 10h55, nearly all the members were already at the meeting point, Jackson's Diner in Bryanston, sipping coffees and drinks on the terrace. Paul, who could not come to the drive due to a wedding he had to attend, came and joined us while we were at the meeting point. We also meet Anthony (a new prospective member) with his mean looking A4 1.8T Avant.
We waited until 11h30 for Stefo, but unfortunately he never showed up. By that time Paul and Anthony went their way and we proceeded to our drive.
Coming out of Bryanston there was a lot of traffic, as well as from there to the R512 T junction near Pelindaba, which kept us well within the speed limit.
André was leading the group and he reckons that the view on his review mirror, with all these Audi's, was outstanding.
4 km after the T junction we joined a secondary road, which is 25 km long and joins the R563. As there was absolutely no traffic on that road, we were able to "open-up" our cars (the road is very safe and hardly ever frequented). André vanished forward, as he knew the road well and as if wanted to (re) check his car's top speed. Christophe and Bertus were pretty quick too, followed by Julian. However, officially no one exceeded the speed limit J . The only incident was Christophe who made the mistake of just tapping his brakes in a curve at some speed. This made the tail of the S3 come out, but fortunately he was quick to react, hit the accelerator and with a bit of counter steering, put the S3 back straight. We stopped for a while at the junction with the R563 and everybody seemed very exited with the last 25 km fast run, except Christophe who complained that André went too fast and thus pushed the others to go faster. Well it was more that he got a fright and was a bit upset, as frankly not everyone went that fast, so if he was uncomfortable with the speed he could have tapped off J .
We then proceeded, at a slower pace, on the R563 then joined another secondary road which leads to the R24, which is the road to Magaliesburg.
We arrived at the Valley Lodge before 1h00 and all seemed to have enjoyed the drive thoroughly.
We sat on the terrace for drinks before lunch, then we moved to our table and had an excellent meal. It was a buffet, with plenty of choices for starters, main course and dessert.
All members had plenty to talk about, including Brazil winning the World Soccer Cup and of course their cars, to the extent that we only left Valley Lodge around 5 p.m.
We went our own way, after what could be described as one of the best meeting this club has ever had.
André who is a member of the Ferrari club reckons that our Audi Club meeting was every bit as good as the best drives/meetings he has ever had with the Ferrari club!
This kind of club meeting has to be repeated in a few months, that's for sure. Now what about a club week-end in the Eastern Transvaal (Mpumalamga) ?