TechNick's Twin Turbo R8
Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 7:01 pm
Before I introduce the car, I feel the need to explain a bit about the journey that has lead me here...
In short, I seem to have become addicted to the Audi brand (and 'fairly unique' examples of it).
It started in 2009 when I bought the RS6 - the most unique feature of which being the 'exclusive' colour.
At that point, we'd consolidated down to the more usual 2 cars in our household (with the other car being my long-term daily Seat Leon Cupra, now taking on full family runabout duties).
Circumstances changed a bit which meant I no longer got lifts to/from the station, and didn't fancy leaving the RS6 there (especially as the spaces are so small and everyone's in a hurry to be somewhere else)... so, I bought a very cheap (c.£500) runabout, as figured it would easily pay for itself against money I'd otherwise be spending on using the RS6 for that task.
Circumstances changed again, and my wife decided she needed a much larger (7-seater!) vehicle instead. I sold the cheap runabout and repossessed the Cupra.
Eventually, I decided 3 cars was a bit excessive, so starting considering options on how to 'merge' the RS6 and Cupra into something in-between... the widebody S4 was the result.
Circumstances changed again, which meant I was now going to be doing a 140+ mile commute everyday. It made more sense to hold on to the Cupra and use it for that task.
The RS6 I just couldn't let go of. The S4 proved a great car and was also now doubling as a promo vehicle for the sideline business I'd stood up off the back of interest in the custom parts fitted to it.
So, we'd ended up with 4 vehicles... and this remained the case for a few years...
At the tail end of last year, I started getting my annual urge to look for another car - an urge that had been suppressed for a few years, due to the circumstances.
I'd been craving getting back into a 2-seater and/or convertible, so was looking at everything from (modified) S1s through S5 convertibles to high-end supercars... eventually setting my heart on an R8 V10 convertible in sepang blue.
Then reality kicked in again and I realised that I just couldn't justify the costs I was looking at (even if I could somehow make the funds available), plus I was looking for something with a more 'unique' edge...
Although very early V8 R8s were within reach, the power would be less than either the S4 or the RS6, so I'd be spending a lot of money on something less powerful than 2 cars I was already fortunate enough to own...
I guess this lengthy explanation is to try to justify (probably just to myself!) how we've now ended up with the very extravagant total of 5 cars in our household!
So... in February, the deal was struck on the 5th stead, an early V8 R8 manual that had already had a few modifications to make it a bit more 'unique' from when it left the factory, all those years earlier.
It already had several factory options (full carbon pack, mag ride, B&O, heated seats, folding mirrors, alcantara headliner, etc.), and the modifications included: GT rear wing, RNS-E Gen 2, satin black wrap, 380mm front discs, V10 clutch... and the twin turbo conversion.
The turbo conversion had only recently (less than 10 months/900 miles earlier) been completed by Ricky Elder, so turbos/clutch were still pretty fresh.
Several bits of work were to be carried out, covering cosmetic, mechanical and a few other bits and pieces (including new tyres, TPMS, uprated coolant lines) which meant it was Easter before I really got to use it (and by which time it seemed to be raining every day!).
Regardless of the weather, I was then able to get better aquainted with what we'd nicknamed "the batmobile"
Unfortunately, during this bonding period, it developed a bit of a teething problem so had to go back to Ricky for some TLC.
As such, it was only very recently that I even got to take it on it's first tunnel run (decent speakers required!):
https://youtu.be/2IzKfqoarUQ
Plenty more to be done to the car (including some more TLC from Ricky), but I have at least been able to enjoy it a bit with the improved weather this month.
A few more random pics:
It's a bit tight in there!
In short, I seem to have become addicted to the Audi brand (and 'fairly unique' examples of it).
It started in 2009 when I bought the RS6 - the most unique feature of which being the 'exclusive' colour.
At that point, we'd consolidated down to the more usual 2 cars in our household (with the other car being my long-term daily Seat Leon Cupra, now taking on full family runabout duties).
Circumstances changed a bit which meant I no longer got lifts to/from the station, and didn't fancy leaving the RS6 there (especially as the spaces are so small and everyone's in a hurry to be somewhere else)... so, I bought a very cheap (c.£500) runabout, as figured it would easily pay for itself against money I'd otherwise be spending on using the RS6 for that task.
Circumstances changed again, and my wife decided she needed a much larger (7-seater!) vehicle instead. I sold the cheap runabout and repossessed the Cupra.
Eventually, I decided 3 cars was a bit excessive, so starting considering options on how to 'merge' the RS6 and Cupra into something in-between... the widebody S4 was the result.
Circumstances changed again, which meant I was now going to be doing a 140+ mile commute everyday. It made more sense to hold on to the Cupra and use it for that task.
The RS6 I just couldn't let go of. The S4 proved a great car and was also now doubling as a promo vehicle for the sideline business I'd stood up off the back of interest in the custom parts fitted to it.
So, we'd ended up with 4 vehicles... and this remained the case for a few years...
At the tail end of last year, I started getting my annual urge to look for another car - an urge that had been suppressed for a few years, due to the circumstances.
I'd been craving getting back into a 2-seater and/or convertible, so was looking at everything from (modified) S1s through S5 convertibles to high-end supercars... eventually setting my heart on an R8 V10 convertible in sepang blue.
Then reality kicked in again and I realised that I just couldn't justify the costs I was looking at (even if I could somehow make the funds available), plus I was looking for something with a more 'unique' edge...
Although very early V8 R8s were within reach, the power would be less than either the S4 or the RS6, so I'd be spending a lot of money on something less powerful than 2 cars I was already fortunate enough to own...
I guess this lengthy explanation is to try to justify (probably just to myself!) how we've now ended up with the very extravagant total of 5 cars in our household!
So... in February, the deal was struck on the 5th stead, an early V8 R8 manual that had already had a few modifications to make it a bit more 'unique' from when it left the factory, all those years earlier.
It already had several factory options (full carbon pack, mag ride, B&O, heated seats, folding mirrors, alcantara headliner, etc.), and the modifications included: GT rear wing, RNS-E Gen 2, satin black wrap, 380mm front discs, V10 clutch... and the twin turbo conversion.
The turbo conversion had only recently (less than 10 months/900 miles earlier) been completed by Ricky Elder, so turbos/clutch were still pretty fresh.
Several bits of work were to be carried out, covering cosmetic, mechanical and a few other bits and pieces (including new tyres, TPMS, uprated coolant lines) which meant it was Easter before I really got to use it (and by which time it seemed to be raining every day!).
Regardless of the weather, I was then able to get better aquainted with what we'd nicknamed "the batmobile"
As such, it was only very recently that I even got to take it on it's first tunnel run (decent speakers required!):
https://youtu.be/2IzKfqoarUQ
Plenty more to be done to the car (including some more TLC from Ricky), but I have at least been able to enjoy it a bit with the improved weather this month.
A few more random pics:
It's a bit tight in there!
)
)
lovely stuff. 
