The DoubleM Audi S5: 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Photos by David Newhardt

David Newhardt is a good friend, and quite probably the best automotive photographer in the world.

He has more than 60 auto photo products listed on Amazon.com where he is either the sole author/photographer or a significant contributor with photo and/or text. He's a great automotive writer too.

Lately he has branched out into TV appearances and even cameos in major motion pictures (Ironman 2, for example).

Recently, Dave drove down from Pasadena for a visit, and to take some shots of my continuously improving Audi.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from that session.

Thank you, big time, Dave!

click for bigger image

This last photo, above, is a bonus shot by Dave Newhardt, of another car I used to own, way back when... It is 1 of only 3 hand-built bodies for a 1959 Corvette, built by Scaglietti (Ferrari body builder).

The photo was taken while on display on Rodeo Drive in LA during the recent Father's Day car show.

The car is now in the Petersen museum in Los Angeles.

Read this neat story of the Scaglietti Corvette!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Brembo!

Yesterday was a big day for the Audi and me.

We got Brembo brakes installed, front and rear!

Wow!!

If you're going fast,

you need to be able to stop fast.

Calipers up front have 6 pistons,

calipers in the rear have four pistons.

Drilled, oversized rotors.

Brembo has lots of reasons why

their brakes are the best.

And most racing teams agree.

Ferrari too, of course.

Why would I drive with anything less?

Installation by Michael Kim at PURE Motorsport.

Monday, June 27, 2011

AWE cat-back exhaust sounds for Audi S5

Click Here

to download a sound clip

of the new AWE exhaust system

for my Audi S5

It was recorded on my iPhone,

and the recording is a bit weak,

so turn your speakers UP!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Wheel spacers

Along with the exhaust system improvements, I took advantage of the pit stop by getting the wheel spacers added (20mm rear, 5mm front). Just barely noticeable, but the overall sense of purpose of the car has improved.

Upgraded exhaust: AWE Tuning cat back

After two months of waiting for AWE Tuning to ship what surely must be one of their first of the new touring class exhaust systems for the S5 Audi... it finally arrived.

Totally worth the wait. It's like a whole new driving experience, a whole new machine.

I selected the black chrome tips. I'm thinking the tips could (should) be longer.
I'll post some sound files here soon.

All work done by Michael Kim at PURE Motorsport, San Diego.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Never enough horsepower!

Today I splurged for the APR upgrade to the control chip. It's a minimal increase in horsepower and torque, as shown by the graph above, but what the heck, right? You never have enough (or too much) horsepower. The work was done by PURE Motorsport.

While I was there, I also ordered some wheel spacers and a slightly more aggressive exhaust system. There's probably not a lot more I can do to this S5 while I'm waiting for the Audi RS5 to come to the USA sometime later this year...

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Pinstripe Logo

I never had a car with pinstriping before, so I figured what the heck, go for it. After doing some Googling, I found Manuel Cisneros in El Cajon, who also builds some superfine hot rods. I gave him a photo of the pinstriping that was on my biplane, and asked if he could do something like it, with the wings, but make it a lot more low-profile, and put it on the driver's door just below the window.

I look at almost everything I do as a prototype, because with "continuous improvement" as the over-riding philosophy, you have to start somewhere. I figure this is just a start on a succession of improvements in the development of a logo I can use on business cards, websites, etc. It also goes along nicely with my new interest in "angel" investing. (Angel... wings... get it?)

This is the photo I gave Manny Cisneros to work from:

It shows the pinstriping on my biplane as it was in 1997, in Roskilde, Denmark. The kid in the cockpit was hanging around watching airplanes, and it was kind of obvious he wanted to check out my biplane, so I popped him in the cockpit and took his photo.

The pinstriping on the biplane was done in 1996 by the artist who did pinstriping for Dave Perewitz who builds custom Harleys on the east coast. I stopped there on a flight around the USA and my wingman Art Annecharico introduced us and I got the pinstriping job done late at night, for free! Wow! The job for the Audi wasn't free. :(

The wings are supposed to be similar to the wings on the Waco factory logo: