cornishmoocher
May 16th, 2008, 21:37
Righto then!!
Please remember I am not a "journo" or professional writer, just some bloke who has driven the new beastie!
Firstly, I was also told a string of do's and do not's. The car was a group tester, the display model and shared between 4 other dealerships. It had to be run in and under no circumstances would the car be taken above 100mph or 5krpm. Arse!! The car was retailing at £82k, and was going to be sold. It had to be valeted after every test, so no puddle jumping or muddy lane thrashing, BORING!
Anyhoo, Bollox to all of that, lets drive the thing.
Firstly, I was surprised at how big the car actually was, much bigger than I expected. The squarish boxy arches do add a certain menace to the car, which already has an underlying purposfullnes. The 20" rims and tyres are not just Bling, they are there for a reason, to add to the cars overall being. (also to put down all of that insane power).
The Boot (trunk) was cavernous, bigger than my C5 variant. Which is a good thing, although the space is big in the C5 it needed to be bigger.
On to the interior, this is where you really see the evolution, where as in the old C5, you feel as you are only in the thing because the car likes you and wants you to be there, and the space is well, kind of open plan, which is quite nice in a sense, but when you are being a hoooligan its a bit sloppy. That has all gone in the C6. The car invites you in, wraps around you, and generally welcomes you with your slippers and a cup of tea. Nice. Loads of leg room in the back for the ankle biters and all those hangers on who will want to go for a ride.
The only thing that I was apprehensive of was how dark it was in there with the black leather. I need not have worried, you do not notice it.
You turn the key with something like a bated breath, waiting for the noise of the V10tt, and..... you can hardly hear it, inside it really is a non entity, this will be the subtle "buisnessmans" bit, cruise in silence. They always said the C5 sounded better from outside, but at least you could hear it on the inside, not intrusive but just there like a comforting tick from an old clock. Not this one, but this may just be a personal opinion, but this for me was disapointing. However from the outside at tick over it did sound good, but what is the point of that? Unless you are the type who buys one then just watches it as someone else drives it!!???!!
I din't really get to play with the ICE, SATNAV or DIS, but from what I saw it was pretty bloody good, the dynamic parking system incorperates a TV and shows the rear view, plots your ultimate position and guides you too it- brilliant.
The selectable suspension was a bit of a worry, knowing what we all do about the DRC, the 3 settings, comfort, (wafts along) Dynamic (fuck knows what it did- nothing as far as i could see!) and sport, which turned your £80k car into a block of granite.
There were an awful lot of buttons and switches, all of which i am sure is where the £80k has gone, but I wanted to drive and not bugger about with Knobs and switches.
SO, you select D, and of you go, and the first thing that hits you is the responsivness of the throttle. No lag or thinking about it like the old 6, it just goes, smoothly. (Please remember that this car only had 41 miles on it so it was all very tight and the brakes where not bedded in.) good feedback through the lovely Lambo wheel and the impression of the "big car" disapears. Up to the roundabout and squirt it across the junction, and bloody hell, the thing comes alive, the RS is there all right. the gear changes are seemless and quick, much quicker than the old 6. Road holding is excellent, understeer, whist not a thing of the past is greatly reduced, making the "turn in" a nicer place to be. Plant the throttle on the exit, and it is like hitting the HYPERSPACE button, all hell breaks loose, the howl from the engine invades every sense, including smell, as at this point I let an involentary fart go! Lively but not wayward handling extolling the virtues of the Quattro system. So now we take it from D and slip into S. Not good. At low speeds, forget it, the box was completely confused. It sat there holding the revs up waiting for the deamon in you to plant it and scream of down the road, only to be told that after 3 seconds of excelleration to slow down again, so dropped a gog with a bang and a lurch. Cringeworthy driving. I felt stupid. To counter act this, once on the dual carriage way, it redeemed itself, you really would never need to use the "flappy paddles" (although it is a waste not to, as we all know), the way it changes up is phenominal, and when it changes down the throttle blip is enough to make you wet your pants. 5th gear came up and 4k rpm maintained a speed of 120mph, drpped into 6th and this fell away to just over 3k. That is spectacular in my book. The noise went away, and it reverted back to the fat business mans car. Bollocks to that, into tippytronicnuttermode. Flip the downshift paddle twice and you are off again, this is a paddle box that does as it is told- as long as it says you can, and in everyday use, its perfect. The purist amongst you will want 2nd gear and the car wont let you etc, but I can only ever see that happen on the track. The handling, the responsiveness is excellent, it handles that huge weight very well, and with the CF option will stop in a spleen removing time.
Bearing in mind the thing was running in and we had a cap on the speed we could achieve, I have no hesitation in saying this car will be phenominally quick.
This car IS fantastic, its just not as visceral as the old one, its more refind, an axe murderer in a Tux listening to Vivaldi instaed of an axe murderer listening to people being axe murdered.
Back at the dealers, we parked up, and the car went of to be massaged and pampered, I paid my respects and jumped into my old C5 RS6, an interesting thing happened, A question was answered.
Someone said to me the other day,When the times come, where do you go from your RS6, there is nothing in the world to compare to it. Well there is now. The new one.
Regards
Alex.
Some pics and a video, sorry!
"http://www.youtube.com/v/vRGSQLAmuwg"
Please remember I am not a "journo" or professional writer, just some bloke who has driven the new beastie!
Firstly, I was also told a string of do's and do not's. The car was a group tester, the display model and shared between 4 other dealerships. It had to be run in and under no circumstances would the car be taken above 100mph or 5krpm. Arse!! The car was retailing at £82k, and was going to be sold. It had to be valeted after every test, so no puddle jumping or muddy lane thrashing, BORING!
Anyhoo, Bollox to all of that, lets drive the thing.
Firstly, I was surprised at how big the car actually was, much bigger than I expected. The squarish boxy arches do add a certain menace to the car, which already has an underlying purposfullnes. The 20" rims and tyres are not just Bling, they are there for a reason, to add to the cars overall being. (also to put down all of that insane power).
The Boot (trunk) was cavernous, bigger than my C5 variant. Which is a good thing, although the space is big in the C5 it needed to be bigger.
On to the interior, this is where you really see the evolution, where as in the old C5, you feel as you are only in the thing because the car likes you and wants you to be there, and the space is well, kind of open plan, which is quite nice in a sense, but when you are being a hoooligan its a bit sloppy. That has all gone in the C6. The car invites you in, wraps around you, and generally welcomes you with your slippers and a cup of tea. Nice. Loads of leg room in the back for the ankle biters and all those hangers on who will want to go for a ride.
The only thing that I was apprehensive of was how dark it was in there with the black leather. I need not have worried, you do not notice it.
You turn the key with something like a bated breath, waiting for the noise of the V10tt, and..... you can hardly hear it, inside it really is a non entity, this will be the subtle "buisnessmans" bit, cruise in silence. They always said the C5 sounded better from outside, but at least you could hear it on the inside, not intrusive but just there like a comforting tick from an old clock. Not this one, but this may just be a personal opinion, but this for me was disapointing. However from the outside at tick over it did sound good, but what is the point of that? Unless you are the type who buys one then just watches it as someone else drives it!!???!!
I din't really get to play with the ICE, SATNAV or DIS, but from what I saw it was pretty bloody good, the dynamic parking system incorperates a TV and shows the rear view, plots your ultimate position and guides you too it- brilliant.
The selectable suspension was a bit of a worry, knowing what we all do about the DRC, the 3 settings, comfort, (wafts along) Dynamic (fuck knows what it did- nothing as far as i could see!) and sport, which turned your £80k car into a block of granite.
There were an awful lot of buttons and switches, all of which i am sure is where the £80k has gone, but I wanted to drive and not bugger about with Knobs and switches.
SO, you select D, and of you go, and the first thing that hits you is the responsivness of the throttle. No lag or thinking about it like the old 6, it just goes, smoothly. (Please remember that this car only had 41 miles on it so it was all very tight and the brakes where not bedded in.) good feedback through the lovely Lambo wheel and the impression of the "big car" disapears. Up to the roundabout and squirt it across the junction, and bloody hell, the thing comes alive, the RS is there all right. the gear changes are seemless and quick, much quicker than the old 6. Road holding is excellent, understeer, whist not a thing of the past is greatly reduced, making the "turn in" a nicer place to be. Plant the throttle on the exit, and it is like hitting the HYPERSPACE button, all hell breaks loose, the howl from the engine invades every sense, including smell, as at this point I let an involentary fart go! Lively but not wayward handling extolling the virtues of the Quattro system. So now we take it from D and slip into S. Not good. At low speeds, forget it, the box was completely confused. It sat there holding the revs up waiting for the deamon in you to plant it and scream of down the road, only to be told that after 3 seconds of excelleration to slow down again, so dropped a gog with a bang and a lurch. Cringeworthy driving. I felt stupid. To counter act this, once on the dual carriage way, it redeemed itself, you really would never need to use the "flappy paddles" (although it is a waste not to, as we all know), the way it changes up is phenominal, and when it changes down the throttle blip is enough to make you wet your pants. 5th gear came up and 4k rpm maintained a speed of 120mph, drpped into 6th and this fell away to just over 3k. That is spectacular in my book. The noise went away, and it reverted back to the fat business mans car. Bollocks to that, into tippytronicnuttermode. Flip the downshift paddle twice and you are off again, this is a paddle box that does as it is told- as long as it says you can, and in everyday use, its perfect. The purist amongst you will want 2nd gear and the car wont let you etc, but I can only ever see that happen on the track. The handling, the responsiveness is excellent, it handles that huge weight very well, and with the CF option will stop in a spleen removing time.
Bearing in mind the thing was running in and we had a cap on the speed we could achieve, I have no hesitation in saying this car will be phenominally quick.
This car IS fantastic, its just not as visceral as the old one, its more refind, an axe murderer in a Tux listening to Vivaldi instaed of an axe murderer listening to people being axe murdered.
Back at the dealers, we parked up, and the car went of to be massaged and pampered, I paid my respects and jumped into my old C5 RS6, an interesting thing happened, A question was answered.
Someone said to me the other day,When the times come, where do you go from your RS6, there is nothing in the world to compare to it. Well there is now. The new one.
Regards
Alex.
Some pics and a video, sorry!
"http://www.youtube.com/v/vRGSQLAmuwg"