East coast road trip, 4500 km later (photos, Nogaro S4, ASP Stg 3 content... long)

[davecheng]

(N.B. I posted this on another forum, but I thought I might give some of you guys here a read as well.)

My friend was having a wedding in New Brunswick, and rather than spend $500 to fly and rent a car, I thought this would be the best opportunity to test out my ASP Stage 3 and take it on a small road trip.

The route? Toronto to St Ignace, NB, about an hour north of Moncton:



Because the road trip was on relatively short notice, I travelled alone and elected to retain my social sanity by stopping in to visit friends in various cities along the way.

The car: Nogaro, ASP Stage 3, STaSIS Streetsport (aka Koni) coilovers, BBS LMs, and APR DPs, test pipes, exhaust, snub, and bi-pipe.

First stop was in Ottawa:



I came out of a Canadian Tire store in Kanata to find my evil twin parked beside me. A4, BB5 wheels, stock ride height... I had to turn away in shame.



Through Montreal and on to Quebec City, a town that was celebrating its 400th year anniversary and preparing for a free Paul McCartney concert for which 250,000 people would eventually show:



Parked in front of the Chateau Frontenac hotel:



And in the lower town:





The car was actually causing quite a stir driving around the streets of Old Quebec. I don't have a particularly loud exhaust or turbos, but parked in prime locations for photos like this, tourists actually stopped to take a picture of the car! B5 FTW.



While setting up for this shot, I talked with another B5 S4 driver from the US for a bit. Funny how they pop up in the oddest places:



And I'm done for the night. Camping with a Wi-Fi connection. WTF?

[davecheng]

The next morning, I set off to New Brunswick. The Trans-Canada highway through the province is four-lane divided, fresh pavement, and stretches for obscenely long, straight sections. Needless to say, my fuel economy was at its absolute worst here making full use of the Stage 3 by cruising at, uhh, Stage 3 speeds:





I call this one "Death at 280 km/h":



A fishing port in Richibucto, NB:



Signs like this make me happy:



I stayed in the town of St Ignace, NB, for a few days while partying it up at the wedding. They had a covered bridge in town:

[davecheng]

After the wedding weekend was over, I took the really long way back home by heading even further east to Prince Edward Island.

Crossing the Northumberland Strait on the 12 km long Confederation Bridge:



Obligatory self-portrait:



The, uhh, spectacular view while crossing the bridge:





On Prince Edward Island, I found Stompin' Tom Rd in the town of Skinner's Pond, where the iconic Canadian musician grew up:



Checking out the red sand beaches:



Then, I continued my coastal drive to the northernmost tip of the island, where the Canadian government has a federal wind energy research centre:

[davecheng]

Arriving at North Cape, I precariously placed my car on a soft sandstone cliff and waited around for the sunset:



Magic hour arrived, and the photos began:





But this is a car forum, right?



One more:



Tropical storm Cristobal brought pretty grim forecasts of rain for the next several days. I decided to cut the trip short and skip Nova Scotia. I had been to the province several times before, and driven the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island, so I turned south to the US instead.

[davecheng]

This Motel near Bar Harbor, ME, wanted only $20 more per night than the campground. With heavy rain in the forecast, the choice was obvious:



Bar Harbor at low tide, first thing in the morning:





I saw two R8s in Bar Harbor the few hours I was there. One blue, the other white/carbon. What a contrast in display of wealth from the Canadian Maritimes, where my S4 was the practically the only luxury car I saw the entire time:



I stopped for a break at the Screw Auger Falls in Grafton Notch, ME:

[davecheng]

The drive through New Hampshire caught me off guard. I never realized the state was so beautiful. These few kilometers reminded me of the west cost:



My continuing love affair with parking on boat ramps:





Crossed the border and onto Montreal, QC, which always has interesting tunnels. This one was along Autoroute 13:



Along the westbound 40, also in Montreal, I came upon these two fully decked-out motorcycle riders with EU plated bikes:



The pannier case reads: "For Sue. The True Spirit of Adventure. Alaska to Patagonia 2008". I don't know the full story behind these guys, but I had to give them a thumbs up:



I arrived back in Ottawa for a fat burger at The Works:



And one of my best tanks of gas, ever:



676 km/423 mi on a 57.5 L/15.1 gal (US) fillup. Calculated 8.5 L/100 km or 28 mpg. And this included rather aggressive driving through ME, NH, and VT with plenty of WOT passing on two-lane highways.

[davecheng]

Now, 4500 km, 7 days, and many, many gas receipts later, some thoughts:

GAS, FUEL ECONOMY & CAR STUFF
** Best mileage was on the final 400 km trip from Ottawa to Toronto, cruising at 100 km/h on two-lane highways: 8.1 L/100km or 29 mpg, calculated.
** Not only is gas in the US cheaper than Canada, it's easier to find high octane, non-ethanol enhanced fuel. Much better gas mileage.
** The ASP 93 octane program did its job when I didn't have the fuel for it. Logs on 91 show 6 to 9 degrees of timing retard on full-throttle pulls, which isn't ideal, but reassuring when you can't fill up with the good stuff.
** Cruise control on downhills is kinda rough. I think the instant-torque of a 3000 rpm cruise combined with the excessive tranny movement in my car make the subtle throttle inputs of a downhill-with-cruise-engaged really jerky. I only have the APR snub; no DTS or diff mount. Maybe that will help?
** I swear that my K04s are louder now, even with the occasional faint siren. Nowhere near the K03 Turbo Lady police sirens, but spend 30 or 40 hours listening to anything, and your mind starts to hear things. Ahh, the wonders of S4 Paranoia.

ROADS
** Quebec roads suck, but you probably knew that already. Montreal has broken two (aluminum) oil pans in the time span of a year on my GTI 1.8T, and on this road trip, probably bent a BBS LM (or two). A truly remarkable accomplishment, because these LMs have taken ridiculous abuse and have stayed round for several years.
** Memorable drives: the Bay of Fundy coastline in NB, Dixville Notch in NH, anywhere near Bar Harbor in ME, western coast of PEI.

I thought after a week of intense driving, I'd be sick of the S4. In fact, quite the opposite: I'm already planning my next trip out to the West Coast.

Forget the 12 second quarters and highway pull supremacy—this car really shines in distance driving. I know I'm preaching to the converted, but a Stage 3 S4 is the ultimate road trip machine.

[KareemA4]

nice summary of your trip
and nice car!!

[Speedshaq]

Great stuff!

[bunnn]

So brave to do that with a stage3 haha..goes to show it's reliable.. awesome trip with nice pics!

[alzilla300]

Sounds like an amazing adventure! Thanks for sharing your story and pics! Your Nogaro Blue S4 is beautiful!

[AudiRS]

great post!

[PorscheAudi]

Awesome. Great pics.

[RSAudi]

Great pics,
I live in Maine, and though there most of the state is pretty bland (trees for miles), some of the southern coast is beautiful. Not much for cars there, except around Portland/Cape Elizabeth during the summer.
I also still have some of that red sand in a jar from a trip to PEI over a decade ago.

Cool post!

[VioletM3]

Great pictures and trip. I did something similar going from Arizona to Oregon and back in my M3. Didn't quite detail it as much as you did though.

Those BMW bikes were possibly part of a TV series on the National Geographic channel where they rode, obviously, from Alaska to Patagonia (South America). If they rode all the way back to Montreal... whew, that's brutal.

Anyway, thanks for sharing.