From: Phil Payne 

> There's an ad in the tv here about a new VW Passat, saying it will go 1140
> km on one tank (of diesel). That's quite a long way.

That was the classic story about the Audi Type 44 - known in the USA as the
5000 and in the rest of the world as the Audi 100 or 200.

Piech stated - in around 1979 - that he planned to build a luxury car that
would travel from Hamburg to Munich without a fuel stop.  Stern - Henri
Nannen's magazine, based in Hamburg - responded with a cynical cartoon of
an old Audi and a huge gas tank on a trailer behind it.

Came the day, and a delivery driver turned up at Stern's offices (famously,
Alsterufer 1 in Hamburg) with three cars - a diesel, a carburettor and an
CIS injection.  All with the tanks full and sealed.

To its eternal credit, Stern took on the challenge.  All three got to
Munich - the carburettor got nearly to Budapest and the diesel got there
and turned around.

I drive one today - a 260 bhp inline 5 that will do - if I'm extra careful
- 40 mpg on a motorway.  And it weighs two tons.

--
  Phil Payne
  http://www.isham-research.com
  +44 7785 302 803
  +49 173 6242039

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