I was driving about 60-65 mph when I noticed a burning oil smell, then I noticed smoke inside the vehicle. I looked behind me and there was a huge cloud of billowing smoke following the car. The car seemed to be running fine as I slowed down to pull over. Then the car was running strangely when I accelerated across into the parking lot, but once stopped and idling it seemed to be running fine, and still starts as if there is no problem. When I stopped there was a trail of what I'm assuming is oil where I pulled into the lot. I turned the car off pretty much immediately. Once stopped there was fluid dripping into a puddle below the engine. I'm guessing all the smoke came from oil being blown back onto the exhaust, because it was dripping down the entire bottom of the car, and had blown onto the back of the trunk also. When I looked inside the hood there was a lot of oil splattered onto the driver side of the motor below the oil filter also. There wasn't really anything on the passenger side of the motor.

Any similar experiences and possible causes? Hopefully it's not too major, but I'm no mechanic and have only done minor DIY so I have no idea.

 

Oh, I guess I should have said it's a 2001 1.8T Quattro with about 140k miles.

 

You assume its oil or it is oil?

Have you had time to look at the block? Check right around the oil filter.