(Previously published in the Fall 2010 quattro quarterly)

THIS IS A STORY THAT BEGINS LONG  
before our current Audi. When my wife and
I were engaged, we discussed things that
we enjoyed with our families and hoped
to continue with our own family. Camping
had been a family activity and we both
had wonderful memories of those times
and hoped to continue together. One
nonnegotiable, however, was that there would
be no tenting, I had to have a camper.

There are certain things one cannot live
without, like a bed off the ground and a
solid level floor not made of dirt or mud.

For the past two years we had enjoyed
a week in Calabogie, Ontario, Canada,
at a cabin on Norcan Lake, while I spent
two days at the driving school. These were
wonderful weeks together as a family, but
in doing the math for this little adventure
we realized we could buy a very nice used
pop-up camper for what we would spend
in three or four years at a cabin one week a
summer.

Photos by Jim Eckel

2010 seemed a good year to start the
camping adventure. Our daughter turned
four and was enthusiastic about camping.
I could combine track events during the
summer and bring the family along as
the tracks are all in beautiful areas with
campgrounds nearby. Now we had to figure
out what to do to make this happen — a
vehicle to tow with, a hitch and a camper!
This sounds easy, but we had one issue
that was going to make the first step more
difficult — my wife and I have never had
any interest in owning a truck, although it
would make towing easy. But the trade offs
in handling, comfort and gas mileage when
compared to a car was not acceptable.

My wife’s family had pulled their pop-up
camper from Maine to the Midwest in the
1980s behind a Chevy Celebrity station
wagon (shudder), and my family hauled
our 15-foot camper behind a 1973 Volvo
145 station wagon. We were sure the DOT
would not approve of such tow vehicles in
today’s world, and it seemed that no one
was towing behind a car these days. Our
current vehicles (1999 Audi Avant 2.8, 2003
VW Passat station wagon and 2006 VW
GTI track car) were all capable of towing
and could be equipped with a small receiver
hitch, but the max tongue weight for any
of them was 175 lbs. and max tow capacity
2000 pounds. The Audi had actually had,
prior to my ownership, a hitch on it and was
wired for a small utility trailer. However,
although a wonderful car, it was not a ball
of fire and would likely have a 0-60 time
downhill with a trailer. So the first step of
our journey clearly meant a new vehicle.

We have owned several Audi/VWs at
this point and have a fabulous mechanic;
the choice would be something in the VAG
family. I also knew from the Internet (and
watching the Tour de France for years)
that Europeans regularly tow all sorts of
campers behind their cars. I happened
upon a website extension of OEMparts.
com, Eurohitches.com that carried European
hitches for nearly all VW and Audi vehicles.
After extensive research and consultation
with Art Mayhew of Salisbury Motorcars
we decided that a D2 Audi A8 was the first
choice and a manual or 4.2 allroad was
second. I checked with Eurohitches.com
and they could do a hitch for either and the
50mm ball on the European hitch would
work fine with a tongue that mated with
the U.S. 2 inch ball. The car had to have less
than 60,000 miles on it so we could use it
for a long time. So, in January, Art started
looking for the car. I also spent time looking
on the Internet to see how common this car
was to have an idea of how long it might
take to find. As it turned out, it was VERY
uncommon.

The search was on, but nothing seemed
to be coming up. There were some A8s for
sale, but they all had too many miles. Time
was running short and we wondered if a car
could be found. We had given the A6 to
my car-less sister-in-law in March and I was
driving the GTI daily.

Finally in April a 2001 A8L with 53,000
miles on it in Roanoke, VA, appeared on
Cars.com. The price was excellent and the
distance was not unreasonable. Although
the car purchase would be long distance,
Art encouraged us to check it out. After
speaking with Dan Damrell at Duncan Audi
who was very helpful, the purchase was
set in motion. I bought a one-way ticket
from Albany, NY, to Roanoke, VA, and Dan
would meet me at the airport with the car
and let me drive it back to the dealership. If
I liked the car, I would purchase it and drive
it home. If not, he would bring me back to
the airport to find a flight home.

I met Dan in the airport and parked right
across from the entrance was the beautiful
black Audi A8L, nearly stock except for
upgraded Kenwood sound system with
navigation and wooden shift knob from a
4.2 allroad (I love it!). The ride back to the
dealer’s did not raise any doubts. I never
put much stock in the “southern car”
description in used car ads before, but this
car encompassed all that that phrase is meant
to engender. It was so clean and could have
been a nine month old car not nine years.
Dan and all at Duncan Audi got me through
the paper work quickly and even fed me
lunch. Then it was time to get underway for
the long trip home. I had a choice either to
go barreling up route 81 to route 88 and
home, or I could take the scenic and reputed
great drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway and
Shenandoah Park. I decided on the latter.
Gas first. At the station just up the road I
gathered a small crowd who admired my
new Audi. What a great start.

Of all my cars my favorite was my 1991
Audi V8; I could have driven that car to
the moon happily. This car had clear V8
influences, but with ten years of upgraded
technology, 60 more horsepower and 170k
fewer miles. The drive home was fabulous:
beautiful weather, great roads and a car
that moved with great comfort and aplomb;
the handling belies its size and weight. This
is now the nicest car I have ever owned.
The moon is nothing; I could drive this car
to Mars!

Once the car was home in the garage,
we began the second part of our journey,
getting the hitch. That seemed like it would
be the easy step. I had contacted eurohitch.
com earlier so I knew that I could get one
in the U.S. However, after getting the car
home, Art and I tried multiple times via
the website, phone, and email to contact
eurohitch.com, and there was complete
silence. We had found the perfect used
pop-up in town being sold by my barber,
but it might slip away because now we
couldn’t get a hitch.

Time was running short for our original
plan of camping near home over Memorial
Day weekend to try the whole system out,
with plans to go to Camden, Maine, the
last week of June. However, I had not come
this far, with this much work, to fail now.
Back to the Internet, much to my wife’s
chagrin, as she had hoped to see more of
me once the car purchase was complete.
I finally found a site in Germany (towbareurope.
com) that would ship Audi hitches
to the U.S. Unfortunately the website said
the D2 A8 hitch would not work on the
long wheelbase even though the installation
instructions, also available online, showed
the hitch on an A8L.

Neither I nor Art could see why this
would be the case, thus began many emails
back and forth with the very efficient,
helpful Corinna Prummer at towbar-europe.
She spoke to someone at the company
who makes the hitch who said it wouldn’t
be a problem — although if it didn’t work
I would have to pay to ship it back to
Germany for a refund. I hadn’t expected
I would be able to return it at all, so I
ordered it. When I first found the website
the Euro was at $1.13. After this delay it
had dropped to $0.73 the day I ordered it,
ca-ching! Three days after the order, Fed
Ex pulled up in front of our house with
the hitch. I restrained my desire to open
the package, and the following weekend
drove the hitch and the A8 up to Art’s to
be installed. By this time, Memorial Day
had come and gone and we were setting
our sights on the Maine camping trip. We
had purchased the camper and a Yakima
roof rack to carry all our bikes including my
daughter’s tag-along bike so we would have
lots of wheels heading for Maine.

Art and the crew at Salisbury Motorcar
were thrilled with the hitch quality and
the ease of installation. European hitches
do not have a place to attach the safety
chains required in the U.S., so some creative
custom fabrication was done to make the
hitch DOT compliant. Art then wanted to
check how the whole thing would work
with the wiring harness and electronic
brake control installed in the A8. A friend
volunteered to tow the camper to Salisbury
with his SUV and I was able to examine
the excellent work Salisbury Motorcar was
doing to put all this together. It was very
impressive, up to the high standards set by
the A8.

Three days before we were scheduled to
leave for Maine, I went up to Salisbury and
picked up the car and trailer. The connection
between the two was perfect and the ride
home was smooth. The motor has plenty
of power for towing, but the transmission,
being geared for 160+ mph, did require
downshifting for anything other than the
slightest rise. The tiptronic handled this
without any complaint. This brief test met
all my expectations — it was on to the real
thing!

Friday evening I hitched up the trailer,
installed the bike rack and bikes, and our
caravan was ready. The drive to Maine
was more stressful than usual, being in
uncharted territory, but the car and hitch
performed flawlessly. After an overnight
stop at my inlaws to pick up our niece (and
more luggage), we arrived the next day in
Camden, Maine, without any problems and
enjoyed our week camping. Our daughter
loved the whole experience. My wife did
have to remind me several times that since
we bought the A8 for the purpose of going
camping, it was unreasonable to expect
it not to get sand on the floor, sunscreen
smears on the door or bird droppings on it.
It was a great road car and the towing
was easy.

We are looking forward to many years
of camping with our A8. Our next trip will
be to the Finger Lakes region in August for
a couple days driving with NEQ at Watkins
Glen and then some family time traveling
around in America’s only (I think) Audi A8L
tow vehicle. Maybe this story will inspire
some fellow Audi enthusiasts to join us in
taking advantage of this aspect of their
magnificent cars.