IanH's 955hp V10 Audi RS6 - Another Car Diary!
Discussion
That is absolutely crazy, an estate which will give a Veyron a serious scare. Pistonheads at it finest. And you are happy to share the experience with other people that is great.
I hope you do not have dogs, putting them in the back and ticking the throttle will have them splattered against the rear window wondering, WTF just happened.
I hope you do not have dogs, putting them in the back and ticking the throttle will have them splattered against the rear window wondering, WTF just happened.
Edited by QuantumTokoloshi on Saturday 23 April 12:10
IanH755 said:
Mezzanine - I'd say a stage 2 map is the best "Performance vs Cost" mod I've ever done to a car - 735hp and 740lbs/ft for under £2000 - you have to be pretty dedicated (or mental) to go much further as the costs ramp up hugely (minimum of £2500 for the next 50hp).
I would feel guilty I was somehow under paying them at that price 
My only measured mile time was 29.something seconds at 187mph when the car was 735hp (measured on a 20hz GPS VBox type thing). I'd be nice to crack 200mph in a mile but VMax is now extremely expensive (£700+) just for a top speed test and I don't think it'd be healthy for my lovely new gearbox to be torture tested with a 900hp+ launch 
IanH755 said:
My only measured mile time was 29.something seconds at 187mph when the car was 735hp (measured on a 20hz GPS VBox type thing). I'd be nice to crack 200mph in a mile but VMax is now extremely expensive (£700+) just for a top speed test and I don't think it'd be healthy for my lovely new gearbox to be torture tested with a 900hp+ launch
With that power I doubt you'd need a full-bore launch!Whilst it was MRC being tuned I also took the opportunity to have a bunch of other small jobs sorted.
Replace water pipes behind the arches - These are now a known point of failure for corrosion so I replaced them.
Remove secondary air injection and blank the combi valves - I've had the cold air start mapped out which removes the need for this and it's valves.
Replace all 4 Wheel Bearings - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but at 95K miles I felt they should be replaced.
Replace rear track rods - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front upper arms - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front lower arms - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front track rod ends - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Engine oil change - Went from OEM Audi oil to Fuchs Titan Race Pro S 5w-40 which is a fully ester based oil.
Brake Fluid Change - Went from ATE SuperBlue to Castrol SRF. The ATE was fine but I felt the new power levels needed a better fluid.
Update the MMi to 5570 - Something I was going to do myself but never got around to. Can't tell the difference to be fair
Fix the "Brake Pad Low" warning - Traced the fault back to a dodgy loom but, as my pads don't have a wear sensor, we removed the loom rather than replacing it as it isn't being used and a Pad check is part of my monthly maint check list.
Engine Carbon Clean- whilst I know that the TFSI engine suffers much less from carbon fouling than our poor B7 brethren, as mine had done 96k miles and never been touched I thought it'd be interesting to see how bad it was and get it cleaned. Turns out that there was some carbon there but nowhere near the levels that the B7 boys get so even if you're approaching 100k miles it's not a necessity to get it cleaned, however I still got it cleaned off anyway - Hmmmmm Shiney!!!!
Replace water pipes behind the arches - These are now a known point of failure for corrosion so I replaced them.
Remove secondary air injection and blank the combi valves - I've had the cold air start mapped out which removes the need for this and it's valves.
Replace all 4 Wheel Bearings - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but at 95K miles I felt they should be replaced.
Replace rear track rods - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front upper arms - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front lower arms - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front track rod ends - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Engine oil change - Went from OEM Audi oil to Fuchs Titan Race Pro S 5w-40 which is a fully ester based oil.
Brake Fluid Change - Went from ATE SuperBlue to Castrol SRF. The ATE was fine but I felt the new power levels needed a better fluid.
Update the MMi to 5570 - Something I was going to do myself but never got around to. Can't tell the difference to be fair
Fix the "Brake Pad Low" warning - Traced the fault back to a dodgy loom but, as my pads don't have a wear sensor, we removed the loom rather than replacing it as it isn't being used and a Pad check is part of my monthly maint check list.
Engine Carbon Clean- whilst I know that the TFSI engine suffers much less from carbon fouling than our poor B7 brethren, as mine had done 96k miles and never been touched I thought it'd be interesting to see how bad it was and get it cleaned. Turns out that there was some carbon there but nowhere near the levels that the B7 boys get so even if you're approaching 100k miles it's not a necessity to get it cleaned, however I still got it cleaned off anyway - Hmmmmm Shiney!!!!
Edited by IanH755 on Tuesday 26th April 21:47
IanH755 said:
Whilst it was MRC being tuned I also took the opportunity to have a bunch of other small jobs sorted.
Replace water pipes behind the arches - These are now a known point of failure for corrosion so I replaced them.
Remove secondary air injection and blank the combi valves - I've had the cold air start mapped out which removes the need for this and it's valves.
Replace all 4 Wheel Bearings - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but at 95K miles I felt they should be replaced.
Replace rear track rods - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front upper arms - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front lower arms - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front track rod ends - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Engine oil change - Went from OEM Audi oil to Fuchs Titan Race Pro S 5w-40 which is a fully ester based oil.
Brake Fluid Change - Went from ATE SuperBlue to Castrol SRF. The ATE was fine but I felt the new power levels needed a better fluid.
Update the MMi to 5570 - Something I was going to do myself but never got around to. Can't tell the difference to be fair
Fix the "Brake Pad Low" warning - Traced the fault back to a dodgy loom but, as my pads don't have a wear sensor, we removed the loom rather than replacing it as it isn't being used and a Pad check is part of my monthly maint check list.
Engine Carbon Clean- whilst I know that the TFSI engine suffers much less from carbon fouling than our poor B7 brethren, as mine had done 96k miles and never been touched I thought it'd be interesting to see how bad it was and get it cleaned. Turns out that there was some carbon there but nowhere near the levels that the B7 boys get so even if you're approaching 100k miles it's not a necessity to get it cleaned, however I still got it cleaned off anyway - Hmmmmm Shiney!!!!
When it's time to sell, give me a call! I know when I had one I said it didn't feel quite right for me but:Replace water pipes behind the arches - These are now a known point of failure for corrosion so I replaced them.
Remove secondary air injection and blank the combi valves - I've had the cold air start mapped out which removes the need for this and it's valves.
Replace all 4 Wheel Bearings - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but at 95K miles I felt they should be replaced.
Replace rear track rods - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front upper arms - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front lower arms - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Replace front track rod ends - Nothing "wrong" with the originals but I felt they should be replaced anyway.
Engine oil change - Went from OEM Audi oil to Fuchs Titan Race Pro S 5w-40 which is a fully ester based oil.
Brake Fluid Change - Went from ATE SuperBlue to Castrol SRF. The ATE was fine but I felt the new power levels needed a better fluid.
Update the MMi to 5570 - Something I was going to do myself but never got around to. Can't tell the difference to be fair
Fix the "Brake Pad Low" warning - Traced the fault back to a dodgy loom but, as my pads don't have a wear sensor, we removed the loom rather than replacing it as it isn't being used and a Pad check is part of my monthly maint check list.
Engine Carbon Clean- whilst I know that the TFSI engine suffers much less from carbon fouling than our poor B7 brethren, as mine had done 96k miles and never been touched I thought it'd be interesting to see how bad it was and get it cleaned. Turns out that there was some carbon there but nowhere near the levels that the B7 boys get so even if you're approaching 100k miles it's not a necessity to get it cleaned, however I still got it cleaned off anyway - Hmmmmm Shiney!!!!
Edited by IanH755 on Tuesday 26th April 21:47
a) I'm missing my old one more and more;
b) With the work you've listed as having done as you thought you may as well I'd love to be the next owner of a very well looked after RS6!
c) Mine at 700 was mental fast....
Now I've had some time in the car I though I'd post my my impressions and explain why I spec'd the parts I used when there are a few options available in each area and why I’ve missed some things out.
Turbos - I like the work that TTE do, they hit the power I wanted as proven by dyno results and Doug at MRC said they are now getting better results from them than before which why I went with TTE in the end.
Gearbox – I’ve put a separate thread up about this but long story short, finding out I could get one for under £4k was the single reason I decided on 900+hp. As mentioned above originally I was going to go 830hp-ish with DP’s and TTE turbos only while I tried to find a gearbox and at exactly the right time Ricky Elder pops up and within 24hrs of hearing that he could supply the same GB that is fitted to Classba/Trups and Brett’s car, both of which made 1200nm, I was sold!
Just before the mapping started on mine (it may have been the day before) I found out from Trups that his GB had sheared a shaft and I wasn’t sure what caused it (torque/design/other) so I asked MRC to map the torque low while the failure was investigated just in case it turned out to be a weakness in the uprated box. Subsequently we’ve found out that the issue wasn’t with the gearbox but by then MRC had finished the map (I only found out the actual issue the day I picked it up). Chatting to Doug he thinks there’s another 50nm-ish in there so I could ask for it to be re-mapped higher now but it come down to cost vs benefit (unless Doug does the map for free).
Bigger Injectors Vs HPFPs – Originally I didn’t know that bigger injectors were available so I bought a set of Loba HPFP’s to use with the OEM injectors (injectors open for the same amount of time but higher rail pressure means more fuel in the cylinder). On the day I dropped my car off MRC mentioned that, if I wanted, they now sell a bigger set of injectors (same rail pressure and same open time but wider bore means more fuel) so I bought them and expected MRC to use a combination of both. However, I didn’t realise that you only need to use one or the other, not both so when I picked my car up the Lobas were sat in the boot unused and they’ll be for sale soon.
KWE Intercoolers – Again, I’ve done a big thread about these so long story short – Cost & no-one else had done it to prove one way or another that these are good/bad.
Exhaust – The non-res KWE was cheap (£700) but it was well made if a little thin and makes a great noise, it really does, but it’s been a pain to fit and it was a little droney at 2k rpm. With the De-Cat the volume has now gone up to a potentially “unacceptable to my neighbour” level so I’ll look at swapping to a custom resonated exhaust in the future. I’ve also got a couple of spare cats for the MOT which I need to look at making removable/re-fitable.
Zircotek – I knew I was going to be fighting heat issues from day one and keeping the intake temps down was a priority so when I found that Ziroctek has released a “new” coating specifically to prevent radiated heat soaking into intake pipes I thought I had to give it a try. TBH it’s been a pain dealing with them as a company (10 days took 20!) and I really don’t know if there is any measurable benefit as the outside of the intake pipe still gets hot to the touch once the engine has been off for 5 mins (maybe the inside is still cool?) although they are very cold straight after engine shutdown.
So then, what’s it like to drive? -
After being so used to a stage 2 car there’s a few “me learning the car” things which are interesting, like the car now loves to follow the camber of the road at full throttle leading to some interesting “where’s the car going now at Mach 10” moments. It’ll now break traction in 2nd and 3rd if you’re not aware of the road surface when accelerating and the poor traction control is having a nightmare keeping up, so much so I’ve now found it safer to switch the whole ASR and ESP off and just allowing the Quattro system to find the best grip which is a much better idea (traction was killing power just as you pulled out for an overtake!) which is something I never had to do while the car was at stage 2.
Maybe it’s because I was in MRCs loan S4 for 3 months and had forgotten how fast the RS6 is but I swear it doesn’t “feel” like there’s 200hp extra, it feels like there’s much more. I’m now aware of the G-force pulling at my face and arms as I bury the throttle, which is fun every…..single….time!
One thing I haven’t mentioned is the brakes! I’m running AP racing 390mm discs, Ferodo DS2500’s and Castrol SRF fluid and, so far on the road, they’ve coped better than I’d expected. They’d be limited on a track though (and I do a few track days a year) so for my own safety I’m still upgrading the AP 410mm setup but I’m very surprised how well the OEM sized AP’s have coped.
So what’s next? Well even though I’ve only got a week in the car there’s a few “niggles” I want to get sorted – A knocking from the RH downpipe (I think), less droney exhaust and the bigger 410mm AP racing brakes, all of which costs even more money so for the time, as the car doesn’t suffer any issues on the road I’ll be sorting the exhaust/DPs first (noisy neighbours) and then moving onto the brakes at a later date while I find out more about the Sportmile IC’s from Doug and look at a the cost vs benefit of another re-map for full torque.
Anyway, thats the story on mine so far, if you made it through my wall of text so far then congrats!!!!
Turbos - I like the work that TTE do, they hit the power I wanted as proven by dyno results and Doug at MRC said they are now getting better results from them than before which why I went with TTE in the end.
Gearbox – I’ve put a separate thread up about this but long story short, finding out I could get one for under £4k was the single reason I decided on 900+hp. As mentioned above originally I was going to go 830hp-ish with DP’s and TTE turbos only while I tried to find a gearbox and at exactly the right time Ricky Elder pops up and within 24hrs of hearing that he could supply the same GB that is fitted to Classba/Trups and Brett’s car, both of which made 1200nm, I was sold!
Just before the mapping started on mine (it may have been the day before) I found out from Trups that his GB had sheared a shaft and I wasn’t sure what caused it (torque/design/other) so I asked MRC to map the torque low while the failure was investigated just in case it turned out to be a weakness in the uprated box. Subsequently we’ve found out that the issue wasn’t with the gearbox but by then MRC had finished the map (I only found out the actual issue the day I picked it up). Chatting to Doug he thinks there’s another 50nm-ish in there so I could ask for it to be re-mapped higher now but it come down to cost vs benefit (unless Doug does the map for free
).Bigger Injectors Vs HPFPs – Originally I didn’t know that bigger injectors were available so I bought a set of Loba HPFP’s to use with the OEM injectors (injectors open for the same amount of time but higher rail pressure means more fuel in the cylinder). On the day I dropped my car off MRC mentioned that, if I wanted, they now sell a bigger set of injectors (same rail pressure and same open time but wider bore means more fuel) so I bought them and expected MRC to use a combination of both. However, I didn’t realise that you only need to use one or the other, not both so when I picked my car up the Lobas were sat in the boot unused and they’ll be for sale soon.
KWE Intercoolers – Again, I’ve done a big thread about these so long story short – Cost & no-one else had done it to prove one way or another that these are good/bad.
Exhaust – The non-res KWE was cheap (£700) but it was well made if a little thin and makes a great noise, it really does, but it’s been a pain to fit and it was a little droney at 2k rpm. With the De-Cat the volume has now gone up to a potentially “unacceptable to my neighbour” level so I’ll look at swapping to a custom resonated exhaust in the future. I’ve also got a couple of spare cats for the MOT which I need to look at making removable/re-fitable.
Zircotek – I knew I was going to be fighting heat issues from day one and keeping the intake temps down was a priority so when I found that Ziroctek has released a “new” coating specifically to prevent radiated heat soaking into intake pipes I thought I had to give it a try. TBH it’s been a pain dealing with them as a company (10 days took 20!) and I really don’t know if there is any measurable benefit as the outside of the intake pipe still gets hot to the touch once the engine has been off for 5 mins (maybe the inside is still cool?) although they are very cold straight after engine shutdown.
So then, what’s it like to drive? -
After being so used to a stage 2 car there’s a few “me learning the car” things which are interesting, like the car now loves to follow the camber of the road at full throttle leading to some interesting “where’s the car going now at Mach 10” moments. It’ll now break traction in 2nd and 3rd if you’re not aware of the road surface when accelerating and the poor traction control is having a nightmare keeping up, so much so I’ve now found it safer to switch the whole ASR and ESP off and just allowing the Quattro system to find the best grip which is a much better idea (traction was killing power just as you pulled out for an overtake!) which is something I never had to do while the car was at stage 2.
Maybe it’s because I was in MRCs loan S4 for 3 months and had forgotten how fast the RS6 is but I swear it doesn’t “feel” like there’s 200hp extra, it feels like there’s much more. I’m now aware of the G-force pulling at my face and arms as I bury the throttle, which is fun every…..single….time!
One thing I haven’t mentioned is the brakes! I’m running AP racing 390mm discs, Ferodo DS2500’s and Castrol SRF fluid and, so far on the road, they’ve coped better than I’d expected. They’d be limited on a track though (and I do a few track days a year) so for my own safety I’m still upgrading the AP 410mm setup but I’m very surprised how well the OEM sized AP’s have coped.
So what’s next? Well even though I’ve only got a week in the car there’s a few “niggles” I want to get sorted – A knocking from the RH downpipe (I think), less droney exhaust and the bigger 410mm AP racing brakes, all of which costs even more money so for the time, as the car doesn’t suffer any issues on the road I’ll be sorting the exhaust/DPs first (noisy neighbours) and then moving onto the brakes at a later date while I find out more about the Sportmile IC’s from Doug and look at a the cost vs benefit of another re-map for full torque.
Anyway, thats the story on mine so far, if you made it through my wall of text so far then congrats!!!!
Edited by IanH755 on Saturday 30th April 23:16
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