Did any do the helicopter flight over the circuit last year?
JPC, I very nearly did. A friend of ours, who is a big supplier to Audi in NZ, came over for the race on the 'Audi Hospitality' ticket, - a nice number if you can get it. Anyway, him and his mate decided on Sunday morning they were going to go into Paris for a look around, and they had two complimentary tickets for the Audi sponsored helicopter ride. He first checked with the girl on the Audi desk that it would be ok to pass these tickets onto me and one of the lads, handed them over and shot off to Paris. Dave and I went along to the pick up point, and I have to say here and now that I have never been so rudely addressed by anyone in my life than I was by the Audi team. The chief guy seemed to take the greatest pleasure in being the most insulting obnoxious tw**t I have ever come across at LM (totally unprovoked I have to say). Needless to say we didn't get the chopper ride, and needless to say neither Dave nor I would ever buy an Audi. (This years money went to Subaru, so you can stick that up your ar*se, Audi)
H
We had a similar experience with Audi at the Go-Kart track in 2001 when we were camped on Karting Nord. Having to suffer the noisy little feckers whizzing round the track night and day we reckonned we ought to have a go at karting too. On venturing over to the track we were told by a very rude Audi PR twat that the track was not open to the public as Audi had booked it up for three consecutive days for corporate entertainment purposes. Of course I pointed out that I considered this to be a somewhat greedy and ill-mannered stunt on behalf of Audi but that were they to allow us in we'd behave ourselves.
Despite my very reasonable offer, I was advised that if I knew what was good for me I should clear off post-haste before they had me ejected from the curcuit. I pointed out the Karting track wasn't actually in the curcuit, and being under the influence of strong drink, I invited him to go f*ck himself in pretty unequivocal terms. On reflection I simply couldn't understand his stance. I admit we were looking a bit dishevelled, 2001 was the wet year to end all wet years, I was wearing a knee-length yellow rain poncho which had some sick down the back of it, oh and a blond frizzy wig for some reason, but even so I still can't see what harm it would have done to let us in. We hung around outside the gate for a bit and gratuitously insulted a coachload of Audi dealers from Dortmund with some internationally recognised hand gestures. I too vowed never to buy an Audi and I never have.
Harry, my money (again) went to Subaru this year. Trust you've got a turbo model? Great traction eh? But if you manage to work out why it's deemed necessary to have a "Bright" switch that size, do let me know.
