Member: Mark Bednarz

Location: Enfield, CT

Member Since: September 2000

(For this first Featured Member, I threw myself under the

wheels so if it isn't well received, I also ran out of time due

to the holiday season. I've only shared information about

myself, but all future Featured Members will be randomly

chosen.)

Wasserwerks: How long have you been involved in the VW/Audi hobby?

Mark Bednarz: I got my first VW, an ’82 Rabbit Convertible in 1991. Within that first year I had started making improvements to it (bodywork/paintjob, new wheels, etc.) and one of my friends recommended that I take the car to the VW show at Limerock Park and put it in the show. I did and it took 3^rd in its class. I was hooked for good at that point.

WW: What first got your interest in these types of cars?

MB: Towards the end of high school, my friend Jack had decided he wanted to get a Rabbit Convertible. His friend Bill had one and had been really happy with it. I helped Jack find the one that he bought and the three of us worked on making improvements to the car. It was fun and easy. At that point I decided that these were cool little cars and I wanted one.

WW: What cars do you presently own?

MB: The current fleet includes an ’80 Scirocco, my newest acquisition, a 2000 Passat GLX Wagon, which is my daily driver, and an ’81 Rabbit Sportruck, which I have owned the longest of the three.

WW: What cars do you wish you owned?

MB: I would literally need a 6-story parking garage to house all of the cars that I would like to own. Among the many would include several more Rabbit Pickups (I have several projects in mind), an Etienne Aigner Edition Cabriolet, an A1 Jetta, a nice A2 GLI, Corrado SLC, and probably a GTI from each body style. By no means is this comprehensive, but a good start none the less.

WW: What cars do you wish you still owned?

MB: I can’t say that I’d want back either of the two domestic vehicles I had before my first VW, but I would have liked to have been able to keep the ’82 Convertible in good condition. I also would have liked to keep the yellow ’80 Rabbit Pickup, but I was chasing too much rust on that one. I also loved the hell out of my '93 Passat GLX. It was a sport sedan right out of the box and the few things I did to improve on it didn't hurt either. I would still have them all if I had an unlimited supply of money…

WW: What do you like to do with your car(s) (show/race/etc.)?

MB:The Sportruck is almost entirely for show only. It occasionally sees use as a truck, and never gets used for overly-spirited driving. I’m a bit worried about wrecking something this rare. The Scirocco will end up doing shows as well as hopefully getting me involved with some cone racing. As I stated earlier, the Passat is my daily driver, but it has hit the shows when nothing else was ready.

WW: What are your future plans for your car(s)?

MB: The Sportruck is a rare vehicle and with that in mind, my plans for it are to keep it as original as possible. The Scirocco is going to be my “handle great, go fast” car. It will be undergoing work from every aspect: engine, suspension, braking, interior, etc. The Passat is my daily driver, so nothing too radical will be happening to it. I’ve done a few things to it, but nothing that would hamper its reliability, and with a baby on the way, I'm going to need a reliable car handy 24x7.

WW: What other hobbies do you have?

MB: I also like to work on scale model cars & trucks. This takes me beyond VW & Audi, which I don’t consider to be a bad thing. I also mess around on the drums, something I had been heavily involved with when I was younger, and something I have recently starting re-acclimating myself to during the past year. I also administer the club's website, although I would not consider myself by any means a website expert or professional.

WW: What is your best personal VW/Audi story?

MB: Although Chris loves the vegetarian steak & peppers story, the one I like is my trip down to El Paso, TX in my '82 Convertible. I was going to visit a friend down there and was going to drive down. I had the car checked out before going and just had brand new tires put on, so in theory "nothing should go wrong". An hour from home, the amp for the stereo blew, so no more music the rest of the trip. I'd gone down the east coast and started southwest from Virginia. After two and a half days on the road, I was about an hour outside of El Paso and the car just dies. Turned out it was a bad batch of gasoline, so it would start and die randomly until I burned it up. Fortunately, it only took the next couple of hours of starts/stops to burn it all up and get some good gas in there. My visit was fun with no more issues with the car.

I decided I would come back a more northerly route, passing through Utah to see another friend and heading east from there. As it was March, I'd packed clothes to stay warm, but it was a really mild winter so I figured I wouldn't need them, but as I headed north, the weather did get cooler. Outside of Utah I started smelling melting plastic. The heater fan switch had melted, so I no longer had heat unless the car was moving. In Wyoming, the car went completely dead electrically, but the battery was fine. After some wire wiggling under the dash, the car was able to come back to life. Nebraska proved to be a challenge as well. About 10 miles outside of Sidney, NE a rear wheel bearing let go and my left rear wheel came off, passed me, crossed the oncoming lanes on the interstate, and went down into the grass. (There will be those of you who will be thinking "didn't he realize something was wrong prior to this?". The short answer is no because the car was all over the road due to how windy it was and the road was in need of repairs, so it would have been near impossible to catch). I downshifted and dragged the car (no brake now) to a stop and was immediately helped out by a trucker. We went to Sidney and I went out with the repair show tow truck to get the car. We couldn't find the wheel, but they called the highway department to look for it. The rest of the parts needed would not be available for two days (the day I'm supposed to be back at work). The next day, the shop was able to find all the parts they needed locally (some used, but if I got home, who cares) and the highway department found my wheel an hour's walk from where the car came to rest. I was back on the road that afternoon and the rest of the trip went off without a hitch.

While it is true that several things went wrong with the car on this trip, it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. None of the problems were expensive to resolve either. I would love to just hop in one of my cars and hit the open road again. It was a great way to see the country and I would recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity.