Presidential Notes:

Once again, I am late with this month's Audi Club Newsletter.  Between my committments to and participation in several car shows, Street Survival, getting ready for this weekend's PCA HPDE, Cars & Coffee, an out-of-town wedding, my business and now the purchase of a new furnace and air conditioner for my home, I have been somewhat busy.  Luckily, the other members of the Audi Club board have stepped in and helped in many ways.  Thanks to all of you for that help.

If you had been keeping track of upcoming Audi Club events, you may notice some changes in dates and tour destinations in articles below.  Be sure to update your calendar so you don't miss a thing!  

We've got some great events coming up:  Our bimonthly Social Night this month will be at the historic Big Chief Roadhouse in Wildwood and our last Membership Meeting of the year will take place in December at Mike Duffy's in Chesterfield.  Many thanks to Pam Browning and Jerry Hogan for making arrangements for these locations. The final St. Louis Metro Cars & Coffee will be held at Westport Plaza this month.  Pam Browning had planned a tour to the Farm Heritage Fest and a lunch at the Hawthorne Inn in Labadie, but due to the cancellation of the Farm Heritage Fest, She'll lead us on a scenic road tour to the Hawthorne Inn followed by a visit to Purina Farms.  Gail and I are leading a tour to Cedar Lake Cellars for great food and drink and a great time at a beautiful facility.  Last years biggest event, the Gimmick Rally is back.  Now being run by Ted Richardson, I expect another great drive (This time, I actually get to compete!!!).  John Palumbo has arranged for us to celebrate the holidays in style at the Country Club at the Legends Golf Club.

Our chapter membership continues to grow thanks to the efforts of your board and all of you.  Lets keep up the good work!  With more membership and more participation, we will see more diverse and interesting events and activities.  We have even begun work toward hosting future track events including high performance driving schools and teen clinics.

My thanks go out to eveyone in the chapter for your support and a special thanks to the board members for your hard work.  I'm looking forward to an even better 2015.

Steve Warren
President
St. Louis Audi Club
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Upcoming Events
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The fifth Cars & Coffees of the 2014 Season was held at Starbucks in Rock Hill on the morning of Saturday, August 19th.  Only about 50 cars showed up on this extremely rainy day.  With the cool, wet weather, Starbucks had a very good morning as everyone bought plenty of warm food and drinks.

This was the last Cars & Coffee to be held at the Market at Mcknight in Rock Hill.  The last two St. Louis Metro Cars & Coffee will be held on the south parking lot at Westport Plaza.

We all had a lot of fun racing each other and everyone got faster each race. We even had the opportunity to race the winner of Pole Positions King of Kart from 2013. At the end of the day everyone had a great afternoon racing and enjoying their time on the track. Everyone was around a second off of the employee’s fast times during the week.

If you have not had the opportunity to try out the karts at Pole Position I would recommend you try it out.

Scott Warren


Audi Club Trap Shooting - September 6th

A small group of chapter members gathered in at St. Louis Skeet & Trap Club in Pacific on a clear Saturday morning to enjoy the shooting sports.

Audi Club Membership Meeting at The Civil Life Brewing Co. - September 9th

September 9th saw another great meeting at Civil Life!  The bar was unusually croweded for a Tuesday so we chose to sit under the tent in the biergarten.  A few highlights of business conducted included the setting of the price and selection of a menu for our Christmas party and the formation of a committee to research our options to host future driving schools.

The Audi Club has been accused, by some jealous members of other local car clubs, of holding our socials and meetings at the best places in St. Louis.  Seems that statement may actually be true;  Civil Life was recently named St. Louis Best Craft Brewery by the Riverfront Times and won a gold medal for their Rye Pale Ale at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.


St. Louis Metro Cars & Coffee - September 20th

Meeting at Westport Plaza for the first time, the September St. Louis Metro Cars & Coffee was a great success.  Although competing events held down attendance of British cars (The British Car Show at Creve Couer Lake) and Corvettes (Corvette Fun Fest at Mid America Motorworks in Effingham), we still had over 200 cars in attendance. 

Although Audi Club members were present, we joined up with the Deutsche Bags car club to display many of our Audis together.  The Deutsche Bags are an active group of younger German car owners who share our enthusiam for Audi in addition to Mercedes Benz and BMW.

With the support of management of Westport Plaza, Starbucks, McDonalds and Panera Bread, in additon to other local businesses and Maryland Heights Police, we feel very welcome at our new location.  The last Metro Cars & Coffee of the season will again be held at Westport Plaza on October 18th.

Autos on Valhalla - September 28th

In it's fourth year, Autos on Valhalla continues to grow into a great car show.  Unlike the 2013 show, weather was in our favor and the show took place on a beautiful day.  With unusual trophies and an eclectic mix of cars in attendance, great food provided by Maggiano's Italian Grill, the inclusion of car club sponsorships, and participation by Ameren and Tesla, attendees had great fun while raising funds for Ride On St. Louis.

Beautiful cars, demonstrations of equine-assisted therapy provided by Ride On St. Louis, a Tesla Model S 24-hour test drive give-away and even tours of Valhalla Cemetery's historic mausoleum were highlights of the day. 

For more photos from the show, visit Ryan McNamara's website at rollingstockphoto.com



BMW Street Survival Teen Driving School - October 4th

Several chapter members again participated as instructors and volunteers for the both the BMW Tire Rack Street Survival Teen Driving School. Thanks to the efforts of this program and these volunteers, there are now an additional 35 young drivers in the St. Louis area that better understand the dynamics of car control in emergency situations and are safer drivers.

If you wish to help with this great program, the SCCA, BMW and PCA plan to host schools again in 2015 and our Driving School Committee is looking into the feasibility of our club hosting Teen Clinics again.