[s-cars] RS6 & pikes Peak (mis)Concept(ion)

[Robin St.Clair]

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Guys

This list is as giddy as a barby doll swap meet. Somebody confuses a race c=
ar project, a safety car and some smoke - et voila! a 6-speed gearbox with =
a whiff of garlic.

There is no 6-speed manual gearbox for the RS6; the Champion Racing cars ar=
e RACE cars, not street cars, they are special one-off productions built in=
 England for a low intensity race series. However, anybody with $20,000 can=
 have a manual gearbox installed in the car. However, after you have driven=
 one for a few thousand miles I doubt that many will bother, there is nothi=
ng wrong with the paddles or manual gear shift.

In serious testing, the RS6 is beating the M5 and the E55 AMG. Anybody buyi=
ng one will soon learn what it feels like to be a supercar owner. The serie=
s brakes are fit only for use as boat anchors, and whatever a few listers s=
ay, you need to upgrade the rear ones as well, the under bonnet wiring is c=
hocolate, it melts, the outside temperature probe faithfully records the he=
at from the transmission oil cooler, the sun-roof sucks out at speed, you h=
ave a 50 minute fuel range and no readily available auxilliary tank solutio=
n, the tyres are too skinny for the rims, the factory wants the car back in=
 Neckarsulm for a make-over, the quattro GmbH exhaust violates legal noise =
restrictions...... I could go on, however all you Supercar owners will be f=
amiliar with this litany of problems, it goes with the territory, you have =
paid for the privilege!

The race series which uses the RS6 as a pace car is the DTM or German Touri=
ng Masters. A three make (Opel, Mercedes and Audi) series of enormous cost.=
 The TT is a British made carbonfibre tub with a look-a-like TT body thrown=
 over it. I was fortunate enough to be driven round the Nordschleife of the=
 Nuerburgring in the DTM pace car itself by no less a pilot than Walter Roe=
hrl, very smooth, no drama and very quick. I was grinning so much they took=
 one look at me and pushed me back into the car for another lap, thanks Wal=
ter, I owe you one!

Another lister suggests that the Cayenne Turbo is in the top ten production=
 cars around the ring. The reality is that it is probably in the top 50, fr=
om Porsche alone, there are 4 models which are faster. If you put WR, Sepp =
Haider, Dirk Shouysman or their like into almost any car, they will post a =
fast time round the ring, it might not be pretty, but it will be fast enoug=
h for the marketing department to cut down another forest.

Just as we are forgetting that Dr Frankenstein came from Ingolstadt Univers=
ity, along comes the Pikes Peak Project car to remind us. The designers hav=
e obviously confused the Dog's Dinner (Bad) with the Dog's Balls (Good). 'N=
uff said, down Fido.

R+C



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