Saw a Mercedes test mule... with "Audi rings"!

[Tim Hoffman <tim@isnetwork.com>]

Hi-

Earlier today I was driving in my '94 90S near my house, in the Twin
Peaks district of San Francisco, when I saw coming in the opposite
direction a small convoy of Mercedes, including a very disguised test
"mule" car.

Curious, I turned around and followed them up Twin Peaks Blvd to the
tourist stop. The Merc contingent stopped in an upper parking lot, I
suppose not to be conspicuous in a parking lot full of about 100
camera-toting tourists. 

I got out and took a good look. The light blue mule looked to me to be a
future E-class (W211?), considering its size and the 4 round headlamps
on the car. The car was well disguised, and had absolutely no Mercedes
badges on it. Hell, I wouldn't have guessed it a Merc at first if it
weren't for a current C-class and SLK with Distributor plates following
it around. 

But what made me smile was the back of the mule: right above the license
plate was not a Mercedes "star", but Audi "rings"... but not 4 of them
all in one row. The rings were rearranged to look like the 5-ring
Olympics symbol. Obviously, without calling the mule an Audi, they
likely made many passers-by think it was!

M-B probably does this all the time with their test cars, but I got a
kick out of it!

Tim