Now it's my turn to post my review!!!

**chewy496** · November 12th, 2003, 16:28

Hi all... I've just got back from an amazing day with Audi at Oulton Park here in the UK.

A friend won a competition to drive the RS6 around a track but unfortunatly for him he wasn't able to do it, so I did instead.

Today I got to drive the RS6 (Avant), TT (some new one the bloke said, something about two clutches), S4, A4 1.8T, A single seater Audi car (looks something a little like F3000) and got to sit inside a new A8!

I will be posting my review (from the perspective of an 18year old

) here later on tonight or tomorrow along with some nice photo's of the cars that were there.

**chewy496** · November 12th, 2003, 20:36

My day at an Audi Event:

Today I went to an Audi event that my friend won a ticket to in a competition with 30 other lucky winners.

The day started early and we had to arrive at Oulton Park in Cheshire for 0815 to register, which meant an early start for me.

After Tea and Coffee we were briefed about the track and the rules they have etc. At that point we got onto a coach and travelled a few hundred yards down the car park to the paddock.

Parked up were some of the cars we would be using that day and was an amazing sight. 5 Avus Silver (I think, there may of been a Daytona Grey there too but I’ll see when I get my pictures back tomorrow) RS6's, 4 were saloon and 1 was the Avant model. Also parked up was the new A8, which looked very stunning I must say! Adding to the list of cars parked up looking nice and clean were 2 S4's, one of which in the Brilliant Red colour, which I think, looks real smart. Also parked with the S4's were 2 A4 1.8T's. TT's were littered all over the place as well in various colours but looking just as smart as the rest of the cars.

After being split up into groups we got on with our first activity for the morning. My group was first on the track with the RS6's and the new TT 3.2 Quattro. The group got split between RS6's and TT's but we all went on the track together.

I was paired up with the instructor in the RS6 Avant, which was quite happy about, as I was desperate to see how the Avant actually drove.
The instructors drove everybody around for one lap demonstrating the track with a commentary showing breaking and turning points yada yada yada! I was just itching for my go!

So he pulled into the pits along with everybody else and we changed seats, I was now sat in the driving seat of the RS6

!!!

First thing that I noticed was that the car actually felt quite comfortable, I was expecting the car to feel massive but thankfully wasn't and everything was within good reach.
Having never driven an automatic the instructor gave me a quick talk on how to use it and away we went, (in drive mode not sport

)

After the first lap of getting to know the car and course we slowly got faster around the track although the track was damp/wet so the instructors weren’t letting us go past 80mph. But still the journey up to 80mph was most certainly a quick one.

Now I’m no expert on driving high performance cars, infact I’m no expert on driving so how the car responded to me was most certainly different to anybody else who has driven for some time and have experience of such a quick car.

I found that when I was accelerating through/out of a corner it would kick down to a lower gear giving me sudden jolt of extra speed. I found this most annoying, probably because I have never experienced anything like this before but it seemed to make my driving very jerky. But what was most annoying about this though was that it never happened immediately, (I don't know if this is the lag people sometimes refer to) the car would keep it's speed in the gear I was in when applying the power gently but as I slowly squeezed the accelerator it would suddenly kick down ruining my line through the corner.

But when it came to the start/finish straight the RS6 could go!!!
To me it seems that people always write that they felt pushed to their seat. Now I’ve driven my dad's A4 1.9TDI and I thought I kind of knew what you meant, that it just feels like you're going pretty fast and you can feel that acceleration slightly on your body and organs. But in the RS6 you don't feel like you're being pushed to your seat, you feel like you're being pushed INTO your seat. It really is quite powerful and took me a little by surprise first time.

The brakes are of course amazing and unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before, the only thing I can say about them is that they do what they do VERY well!

When it comes to cornering I can only agree with what everybody else has said, that it sticks to the road! I never experienced any under steer or over steer, but then I guess I wasn't pushing it like other people with experience would!

After about 15/20 minutes it was time to change over to the TT's with their new Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG®) (not that that actually means anything to me

. All I was told that it had two clutches or something so it would never have to think about the next gear, it would already have it selected and could just drop straight into it)

So again the TT was automatic (tip tronic or whatever) and we got straight out onto the track.
First thing I noticed compared to the RS6 is that in the TT you actually feel like you are going some speed, where as in the RS6 80mph felt like 50. Doing 80 in the TT certainly felt like it.
Inside the TT was a lot more noise compared to the RS6 also, this made it feel like much more of a sports car.

One thing I didn't like was the choice of gear the computer made. Travelling at a particular speed the computer would let the car keep high revs in a low gear instead of changing up, this annoyed me as it was rather loud and didn't sound very nice so by using the stick (is that it's proper name?!?) I found myself changing up a gear quite frequently.
What was nice though was that when braking for a corner the TT would actually cycle down through the gears, which to be honest didn't really affect how I drove it, but it did make the drive much more enjoyable.

After another 15minutes or so we went back to the pits where we once again changed seats with the instructor so that we could be shown what the car could really do! The TT handled pretty well but one corner in particular had the instructor on his toes, first there was over steer, then under steer and it finished off with some more over steer!
Unfortunately we only got the one hot lap so I never got to be taken round really fast in the RS6, but I do know that the TT I was in was keeping up with the RS6 in front if not gaining on it.
Also one of the RS6's was 360'd on the grass by one of the instructors as he screwed up a corner and thankfully it was not damaged.

After that we got to do some carting whilst the other groups did their things. Nothing much to say about this as carting is carting! But bloody good fun when the track is wet and the carts are all fitted with slicks :MTM:

After that it was our turn with the A4's and S4's on a little circuit designed to test the driving aids and what not. All it consisted of was a small slalom which we had to drive through as fast as possible and on the last cone slam the brakes on to test the driving aids etc.

Basically we were slinging the cars between the cones at about 50mph (in the S4) and slamming on the brakes around the corner of the 3rd and 4th cone.

Me and somebody were put into one of the S4's first, I really wanted to be in the A4 first so I could feel the difference but this is how it worked out.
The S4 was amazing, it accelerated well, changing from 1st to 2nd was easy enough (I was worried about the clutch from that dreaded video that was posted up here once) and it flew around these cones and stopped in an instant.
I found the A4 a lot harder to change from 1st to 2nd. Unlike the S4 the revs didn't drop as fast when changing gear, which made for some rather disturbing sounding shifting.

Lastly we got to have a go with some single seat racers (Audi engines apparently) around the track, which was quite fun but I personally was a little worried about spinning off in them and ripping the wheels off. Guess I’ve been watching too much F1!!!

After that was done we were given Lunch as the 2nd half of winners arrived.

I quickly ate up and left with somebody so we could get back over to the paddock to take some pictures of the cars parked there before the next set of people came and took them all out.

An Audi woman came down in her TT and gave us both a gift set as we had left without collecting them. It contained some mags and some car cleaning stuff, but best of all.... a 1:12scale remote control TT each!

Audi really did do everything to make my day one I’ll never ever forget.

Thanks Audi and thanks RS6.com for reading this. (Sorry it's not written well as I for sure am no journalist)

Pictures to come!!!

Oh.... Also..... I'm 18years and 10months old! Does that make me the youngest person to drive an RS6?!?

**Erik** · November 12th, 2003, 21:03

Thanks for the story! I'm surprised by the kick-down in the curve, not sure how that happened. There are ways to avoid it however.
The difference between D and S mode is not that big, so don't worry they didn't let you use it. But on track I'd probalby use the S mode or 'manual'.

**JAXRS6** · November 12th, 2003, 21:25

IIRC the S mode will reduce unwanted downshifting, and the manual mode should end unwanted downshifts altogether. I've also read here that when in the manual mode, the paddle shifters will keep the tranny in whatever gear is selected.

Can anyone confirm?

**chewy496** · November 12th, 2003, 21:27

Originally posted by Erik
I'm surprised by the kick-down in the curve, not sure how that happened.

Like I said though, i'm no expert when it comes to driving things like this. I just explained my experience as best I could, as that's what it was, just an experience.

But perhaps it could be due to my style of driving, or rather, my lack of lol:blush:

**Bauer** · November 12th, 2003, 21:37

Chewy,

thanks for the write up...a very entertaining read. Sounds like you had a good time even though they did not let you push the cars.

P.S. ....yes you are probably one of the youngest to drive the RS6.

**Artur Costa** · November 12th, 2003, 22:57

Seems like you had a nice time!
A looks like you drove the TT with DSG gearbox with doble cltuch...nice!

**Ra5a** · November 13th, 2003, 01:36

the kick back could be the driving style of drivers before you..
meening, audi automitc gearboxes (as other brands) "learn" the drivers driving style and adjust to that..
if the car has been drivin by alot of different people it may do things it's not supposed to do..
ofcourse that's what I think, it can be something else..
good to hear you had a good time

**rs6w** · November 13th, 2003, 04:56

Originally posted by Erik

The difference between D and S mode is not that big, so don't worry they didn't let you use it. But on track I'd probalby use the S mode or 'manual'.

The difference between D and S are far more noticable than what the S6 did. In the S6 S mode was quick to upshift when crusing along at highway speeds. The RS6 holds the gear even when at 70mph. You either have to shift it to 5th or put the gear selector back into drive to get the transmission to shift.

**Mal** · November 13th, 2003, 07:31

The S mode is hugely different IMO, particularly in that it holds the gears better through corners and anticipates the downshift when decelerrating. But for track work the paddle shift would be favourite. It will automatically downshift (only based on low reves, not kickdown) if you dont but it hold the gears on acceleration and would eliminate any problems with downshift in corners.

**Erik** · November 13th, 2003, 08:14

There is some function in the tip that will hold the gear when you are turning. Not sure if it goes both D and S mod or just S?

**TheBrit** · November 13th, 2003, 08:15

The aim in S mode is to keep the engine in it's peak power band wherever possible, so the revs are generally held higher than in D mode, where they will be dropped to the lowest possible once a steady speed has been acheived (within the current dynamism parameters of the DSP).

Chewy, it's a shame they had you driving in D and didn't have you changing yourself using the paddle shifters, sometimes I think it feels more natural for somebody not used to an auto gearbox, and you could have had your gear pre-selected as you entered each corner.

I must admit, driving to work through the rain yesterday , I thought of your track day and wondered if it would be any drier at Oulton. I bet the instructor that lost it in the RS 6 got some ribbing from the others later...