So, not only being blessed with a wonderful coop as our daily driver, I'm also lucky enough to have an RS4. However, I say lucky because although we've had it 7 years and it's been all around Europe it has now blotted its copybook by suffering V8 indigestion.
The problem manifested itself pulling way from traffic lights - we were suddenly in a V7-engined motor !
Initially, the thought was that a coil-pack had packed up but sadly no - a sparkplug gap had closed and no prizes for guessing that something hard and metallic had decided to enter that cylinder and have a little baz around.
Sent the car to Unit20 near Chester and Martin has confirmed our worse fears - a manifold flap screw had made a bid for freedom and in doing so,has not just done for the piston and head but scored the bore lining and thus totalled the engine.
The hunt is now on for a good secondhand engine in order to resurrect it from the dead - Ebay will hopefully be our salvation.
This is not the first such calamity to hit the family's fleet - my son's Alfa Romeo GT experienced the same issue but in that case the engine could be rebuilt - sadly, a year or so later some idiot pulled out of a junction and T-boned it into oblivion.