Tuesday of this week saw the first month/1000 miles of the RS4 in my hands.
It is, in Audi's best RS tradition a fabulous mile-eating road car, effortless, refined and quiet with the Jekyll & Hyde personality the many of it's predecessors have also possessed. So the flip-side being that it's bonkers quick - I'd go as far as to say that I've overtaken a couple of vehicles in the last month week (safely) and properly frightened myself. It's isn't that the RS4 is in any way scary in such manoeuvres because it isn't - super solid, stable and twitch free but rather the rate that the horizon suddenly gets gobbled up - instantly, no lag, no hesitation - simply gone with a lovely soundtrack too. This RS, despite being Postman Pat red is understated and no one gives it a second glance (unlike the RSQ3 perhaps surprisingly).
Of the many options that this car has - spec'd by Audi UK, is DRC, I've come to realise that DRC is both a blessing and a fun detractor. Blessing because the RS stays flat and stable literally no matter what you do on a twisty back road, no pitch, roll or dive, in conjunction with the Sportdiff that we all have it just gets on with it. The downside is that it actually robs the driver of some of the sensation of the 'drama' of a hot car on a good road. Does that make sense?
Misano red wouldn't have been my 1st choice but it continues to grow on me, careful inspection of the paintwork reveals that it would benefit from a machine polish which I'll get done professionally in a couple of weeks (it will be a week long job including a wheels off polish of the alloys and calipers too). Red seems to disguise the result of crappy dirty roads at this time of year quite well which is a plus.
Other things on the to-do list - headlamp washers Grrrr! The front of the car get's a bath when they wake up, the previous RSQ3 had fabulous LED headlights too, but no headlight washers and I never missed not having the feature once. Back in the days of Xenon headlamps washers were part of the Construction and Use regs here in UK, I don't think LEDs had to have them? I have an OBD11 and there is an option to disable the RS4 headlamp washers. The OBD11 menu says that we have one of those Soundaktor devices for synthetic engine noise - I don't like false or fake things so if it's possible to turn it off I will.
I'm acutely conscious that RS4s are high on the list of desirable motors for thieving scumbags to pinch - mine is garaged and out of sight but I'd still like to make if more difficult to steal so have been eyeing up a Ghost Canbus security device https://autowatch.co.uk/products/security-solutions/autowatch-immobiliser-systems/68-ghost-product , right now of no use to me as it is Apple iOS only, however in January they are introducing Ghost 2 which has an Android capability.
And lastly, mentioned in another post I'd like the blingy silver plastic front and rear vinyl wrapped along with the black extensions in the sills though that'll probably be a new year task.
I have but one grumble (that I can't fix) - the 58 litre fuel tank is a tad small, even the Q3 had a 64 litre capacity. Had a couple of 100 mile motorway runs this week and it looks like a legal cruising fuel economy of about 30mpg is achievable (not that I much care other than out of curiosity).
It is, in Audi's best RS tradition a fabulous mile-eating road car, effortless, refined and quiet with the Jekyll & Hyde personality the many of it's predecessors have also possessed. So the flip-side being that it's bonkers quick - I'd go as far as to say that I've overtaken a couple of vehicles in the last month week (safely) and properly frightened myself. It's isn't that the RS4 is in any way scary in such manoeuvres because it isn't - super solid, stable and twitch free but rather the rate that the horizon suddenly gets gobbled up - instantly, no lag, no hesitation - simply gone with a lovely soundtrack too. This RS, despite being Postman Pat red is understated and no one gives it a second glance (unlike the RSQ3 perhaps surprisingly).
Of the many options that this car has - spec'd by Audi UK, is DRC, I've come to realise that DRC is both a blessing and a fun detractor. Blessing because the RS stays flat and stable literally no matter what you do on a twisty back road, no pitch, roll or dive, in conjunction with the Sportdiff that we all have it just gets on with it. The downside is that it actually robs the driver of some of the sensation of the 'drama' of a hot car on a good road. Does that make sense?
Misano red wouldn't have been my 1st choice but it continues to grow on me, careful inspection of the paintwork reveals that it would benefit from a machine polish which I'll get done professionally in a couple of weeks (it will be a week long job including a wheels off polish of the alloys and calipers too). Red seems to disguise the result of crappy dirty roads at this time of year quite well which is a plus.
Other things on the to-do list - headlamp washers Grrrr! The front of the car get's a bath when they wake up, the previous RSQ3 had fabulous LED headlights too, but no headlight washers and I never missed not having the feature once. Back in the days of Xenon headlamps washers were part of the Construction and Use regs here in UK, I don't think LEDs had to have them? I have an OBD11 and there is an option to disable the RS4 headlamp washers. The OBD11 menu says that we have one of those Soundaktor devices for synthetic engine noise - I don't like false or fake things so if it's possible to turn it off I will.
I'm acutely conscious that RS4s are high on the list of desirable motors for thieving scumbags to pinch - mine is garaged and out of sight but I'd still like to make if more difficult to steal so have been eyeing up a Ghost Canbus security device https://autowatch.co.uk/products/security-solutions/autowatch-immobiliser-systems/68-ghost-product , right now of no use to me as it is Apple iOS only, however in January they are introducing Ghost 2 which has an Android capability.
And lastly, mentioned in another post I'd like the blingy silver plastic front and rear vinyl wrapped along with the black extensions in the sills though that'll probably be a new year task.
I have but one grumble (that I can't fix) - the 58 litre fuel tank is a tad small, even the Q3 had a 64 litre capacity. Had a couple of 100 mile motorway runs this week and it looks like a legal cruising fuel economy of about 30mpg is achievable (not that I much care other than out of curiosity).
