[s-cars] W8 (NAC)

[bob.rossato at att.net]

A couple of weeks ago I stopped by Langan VW and took a W8 w/6spd out for a
drive.  Overall it was a nice car but it didn't WOW me.  The suspension was way
too soft, even though it supposedly had the sport suspension.  Like a lot of
the new VW/Audis, the brakes are digital in feel.  They're either off or full
on.  Just touch them and the you'll be scraping the nose of the car on the
pavement and sending yourself through the windshield.  Modulation is apparently
not in the brake engineers vocabulary.  Speedwise the car is quick but the car
is heavier than ours and it just doesn't have that ohh so satisfying kick in
the butt that a chipped S4/S6 has.  It definitely didn't feel as quick as a
chipped S-car, though the car only had 300 miles on it so I'm sure the engine
was still a bit tight.

The salesman was yacking about all the features so I was tuning him out most of
the ride.  Blah, blah, blah.  Though I got a chuckle out of his statement that
the VW 4-motion was a more "pro-active" AWD system than the Audi quattro
system.  Ya, right.

Suspension can be fixed, after all our stock suspension (US/Cdn cars) was even
worse.  But the brakes...man I hated those brakes and I don't know if the boost
assist can be dialed back easily.  Maybe if the front end were stiffened up a
bit it might help.

Bob

>
> From the files of 'duh, you all likely already knew that'...
>
> So I'm commuting in this morning and had my first "ontheroad" sighting of
> the Passat W8.  One word:  *wow*.  That is a very sharp looking car, great
> stance, lines, etc.  Must live right near me, too, we ran the whole way in
> together.
>
> The thing boogies, cool!  Well, boogies in that I wasn't bored with him, and
> was fun to see it in action.  Maybe had aftermarket wheels, as they cupped
> way out, accenting the muscular shoulders, and showed off the sizeable
> brakes.  We traded back and forth, it sounded very unique when he blew by
> me.
>
> That's all, felt compelled to share.  Too bad no stick, I'd consider one
> down the road some day.
>
> -P back to your irregularly scheduled programming K.