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Hi all,

I've recently sold my RS5 and am seriously considering an RS6. Even more so after seeing all the great pics and reviews on here.

I Just have a couple of questions I'd be grateful if someone could help me with...

Firstly, I'm really liking the panther black and the 'all black' & carbon look I've seen in a number of pics on here. To achieve this look would I be right in thinking I would need to spec the carbon pack and then replace the remaining few standard matt aluminium parts with OEM sourced black ones?

Secondly, i'm lead to believe (might be wrong), that the tiptronic box in the RS6 isn't as quick at changing gears as the Stronic whilst using the paddles, is this the case and is it really noticeable? Also, what are the real world differences between the 2 gearbox types?

Many thanks in advance for all your help

Jim

Carbon pack comes with carbon and black bits - but pricey at £4500. Wing mirrors stay silver.
Black pack much cheaper at around 1k. Carbon does look good though.
S tronic is great box and quicker than 8 speed auto in RS6 but latter very good box and suits the car well - drive a RS4 and then try a 6 and you won't want to go back. Brutal.

Markp wrote:Carbon pack comes with carbon and black bits - but pricey at £4500. Wing mirrors stay silver.
Black pack much cheaper at around 1k. Carbon does look good though.
S tronic is great box and quicker than 8 speed auto in RS6 but latter very good box and suits the car well - drive a RS4 and then try a 6 and you won't want to go back. Brutal.

Black pack is not available in the UK on either the mythos or Panther blacks.

But as Mark says, if you get the carbon pack everything will be either black or carbon other than the wing mirrors which will be Matt alu (can't get them in black on a black car either). You can spec these as carbon but that will cost you another 1.5k. You can buy aftermarket covers too, see Almo with the Riviera blue car for more details.

Also, if you go for the performance edition then the carbon pack is about 1k cheaper at approx 3.5k.

The box on the RS6 is fantastic, very responsive up and down shifts in manual, particularly when transmission is in dynamic mode. I drove a carrera S with pdk the other day and personally preferred the transmission in my RS6.

The RS6 box is so fast you would not believe its a auto. I had the M5 with double clutch, GTR R35 and my son ran a cupra dsg for a while. The RS6 is equally as quick as them all, ask for a gear and less than a blink of an eye its there.

The C6 was an auto and a bit slow the C7 is so fast it makes no difference what its called you would never know.

KikapuRS wrote:The box on the RS6 is fantastic, very responsive up and down shifts in manual, particularly when transmission is in dynamic mode. I drove a carrera S with pdk the other day and personally preferred the transmission in my RS6.

The ZF8 is good but it's nowhere near PDK good. PDK is genuinely fast, the ZF is still a slush at the end of the day.

Paulm wrote:The RS6 box is so fast you would not believe its a auto. I had the M5 with double clutch, GTR R35 and my son ran a cupra dsg for a while. The RS6 is equally as quick as them all, ask for a gear and less than a blink of an eye its there.

The C6 was an auto and a bit slow the C7 is so fast it makes no difference what its called you would never know.

The RS6 box is fast but I wouldn't agree with it being as quick to shift as the M5 (F10) in its fastest mode... although it is smoother. PDK, to me, feels about the same shift speed as the M5 but a fair bit smoother.

DragonRR wrote:

Paulm wrote:The RS6 box is so fast you would not believe its a auto. I had the M5 with double clutch, GTR R35 and my son ran a cupra dsg for a while. The RS6 is equally as quick as them all, ask for a gear and less than a blink of an eye its there.

The C6 was an auto and a bit slow the C7 is so fast it makes no difference what its called you would never know.

The RS6 box is fast but I wouldn't agree with it being as quick to shift as the M5 (F10) in its fastest mode... although it is smoother. PDK, to me, feels about the same shift speed as the M5 but a fair bit smoother.

I tend to agree as although a good box & very capable in the RS6, it isn't as quick as the M5 or GT-R. Not had enough time with the PDK to compare it to that.

As mentioned above, the ZF8 is a regular auto box with some clever software to speed it up, it isn't Dual Clutch so has none of those traits & as such would be hard pushed to change at the same speed & with the same effect. When the M5's in it's most aggressive gear change setting, other than the blips, alteration to the revs & a massive shove in the back you'd be hard pushed to know a gear change took place as it's immediate.

It does surprise me that Audi didn't put the S-Tronic box into the RS6 as it's available pretty much everywhere else in the range including the R8's.

W8PMC wrote:It does surprise me that Audi didn't put the S-Tronic box into the RS6 as it's available pretty much everywhere else in the range including the R8's.

They don't have a box that'll handle the torque.

I have owned all 3 in the last 2 years and say the RS6 is as fast as the others easily. just because the GTR and M5 bang into gear when changing fast does not make them faster, just harsher. Anyway it doesn't really matter as we are talking fractions of a second and unless you are in F1 it makes no real difference other then the fact the auto is smooth where as the dsg's and the like tend to be a bit harsher.

doodlebug wrote:

W8PMC wrote:It does surprise me that Audi didn't put the S-Tronic box into the RS6 as it's available pretty much everywhere else in the range including the R8's.

They don't have a box that'll handle the torque.

Fair enough. I guess the new R8 V10 is still quite a way down on torque compared to the RS6. Saying that, plenty of other manufacturers can fit DCT boxes to high torque output cars so how come Audi haven't followed suit.

W8PMC wrote:

doodlebug wrote:

W8PMC wrote:It does surprise me that Audi didn't put the S-Tronic box into the RS6 as it's available pretty much everywhere else in the range including the R8's.

They don't have a box that'll handle the torque.

Fair enough. I guess the new R8 V10 is still quite a way down on torque compared to the RS6. Saying that, plenty of other manufacturers can fit DCT boxes to high torque output cars so how come Audi haven't followed suit.

ZF8 nearly as good and no other cars in the range that need it The ZF8 is also lighter, given the RS6 is a fat barsteward, every little helps!

I guess Bentley uses the ZF8 too, so nothing else in the wider family either.

Paulm wrote:I have owned all 3 in the last 2 years and say the RS6 is as fast as the others easily. just because the GTR and M5 bang into gear when changing fast does not make them faster, just harsher. Anyway it doesn't really matter as we are talking fractions of a second and unless you are in F1 it makes no real difference other then the fact the auto is smooth where as the dsg's and the like tend to be a bit harsher.

It might feel it Paul & perhaps the smoothness is masking the shift time, but believe me their is a noticeable difference, albeit in the grand scheme of things hardly great. IIRC BMW state the F10 M5 is 10ms & i think the R35 GT-R is 20ms (don't quote me on these).

Also disagree with smoothness as i felt little difference in the smooth transition between gears between the RS6 & the M5, other than when you selected the more aggressive setting in the M5 it did give you more of a wallop. This harsher you mention is possibly attributable to the change speed, the sharper it is the more noticeable it would probably be, the slower it is perhaps could equate to smoother.

As you say though, these are fractions of fractions of a second so on paper no noticeable difference whatsoever. The GT-R is noticeably more clunky than either the M5 or RS6 & thus very hard to calculate how fast the gears are changing. This is not a natural trait of a dual clutch box however, or at least not in my experience. Can't wait to see what the PDK is like.

W8PMC wrote:It might feel it Paul & perhaps the smoothness is masking the shift time, but believe me their is a noticeable difference, albeit in the grand scheme of things hardly great. IIRC BMW state the F10 M5 is 10ms & i think the R35 GT-R is 20ms (don't quote me on these).

and that's exactly my point they feel more or less the same. driving is all about feel. if someone tells you it does something better unless you actually can feel the difference where is the improvement?. In comparison the C7 feels quicker than the C6 in terms of gearbox response so there is an improvement I can feel.

so you saying the m5 in the fastest mode is a smooth change it was too violent for me, I felt like it was going to rip the gearbox apart. I never used it.

Paulm wrote:

W8PMC wrote:It might feel it Paul & perhaps the smoothness is masking the shift time, but believe me their is a noticeable difference, albeit in the grand scheme of things hardly great. IIRC BMW state the F10 M5 is 10ms & i think the R35 GT-R is 20ms (don't quote me on these).

and that's exactly my point they feel more or less the same. driving is all about feel. if someone tells you it does something better unless you actually can feel the difference where is the improvement?. In comparison the C7 feels quicker than the C6 in terms of gearbox response so there is an improvement I can feel.

so you saying the m5 in the fastest mode is a smooth change it was too violent for me, I felt like it was going to rip the gearbox apart. I never used it.

The gear change speed was the first thing I noticed with the RS6. They felt very different to me (M5 vs RS6). The RS6 felt lazy especially when going down the gears. I do agree that the M5 in it's fastest mode didn't feel exactly silky smooth tho But try the older M5/M6... now they were aggressive!