Six years of RS ownership but just had first drive of C5 RS6

[neckarsulm]

I've just sold my (unmodified) B5 RS4 but spent a whole week driving it to Switzerland and back less than a week before I did 120 mixed miles in a C5 RS6 Avant so my memory of it is fresh enough for a fair comparison.

First impressions are good - it still feels way superior in quality to the C6 (and B8 A4), inside still looks reasonably modern apart from RNS-D screen - leagues ahead of 996 911.

Straight away the C5 feels much quicker bottom end, the B5 can be a bit flat until 4000 rpm but RS6 seems to get up and go much sooner - surprising for a heavy old thing but that's 4.2 litres for you.

I was surprised even more by the fact that it keeps this amazing acceleration well beyond 100, it really is a licence buster (lucky I was in Germany at the time!).
100 mph really is no big deal at all, bit like 80 in the B5. Likewise 120 is like 100 and so on. In a nutshell it makes a B5 RS4 feel slow - it may not be any quicker but it feels it maybe due to seamless surge due to auto box plus I can't be 100% sure the C5 is stock (though no Milltek).

My memories of a B7 are a little more distant (it's been 2.5 months since I drove one) but I can't imagine how one can live with a C5 RS6, in a straight line anyway.

The standard suspension is pretty poorly resolved - my DRC is fine, tyre pressures checked and I found the ride rather fidgety probably due to the Porsche 911 tyre pressure settings (42 PSI) which on 19s is going to be like this I guess. Wouldn't mind if it handled well but it never feels nimble and you can feel the shell flex.

The brakes are superb (thank god!), much closer to B7 than B5 in feel and peformance - probably because they are similar.

I'm not a fan of automatics but I was getting on OK with the C5 one apart from its eagerness to kickdown regardless of which mode it was in.
In a DSG car you can press the up paddle while on the motorway which will not change gear (because it's already in top) but go into manual mode in top gear, this means if you mash the throttle it doesn't kickdown however hard you press it. Unfortunately the C5 kicks down and it's not subtle when it does! I thought I'd try it in Tiptronic mode by pulling lever over to the right and use the paddles but it still kicks down in this mode which is just so annoying! I know this can be mapped out or can it be done with Vag Com?

But my biggest surprise was it's thirst, £40 of V power consumed in 120 miles, OK I did drive it hard when I could but that was really only a small part of the journey, I didn't even look at fuel range because I didn't think I'd be close to empty! What made this worse was the erratic nature of the fuel gauge (previously mentioned on here).
When I got back home it was just under 1/4 tank (started on half a tank). Parked it overnight and light came on next morning saying 25 miles. Did 5 miles to work and it went down to 15 miles, left it during the day and started it up and it said 0 miles and the gauge barely moved - not impressed as I am not that near to a filling station, parked it up and took another car home.

Overall, an excellent car, that engine is insane but would get me into big trouble in the UK I think and I don't just mean financially!

[chunky79]

They are stunning cars. Took a couple of mates out over the weekend and they cannot believe how much power and grip it has. The fuel fairy can be a pain but mine very rarely goes below 1/4 before i fill her up.
I'm suprised you think the brakes are superb coming from a 911 cause many think the oem c5 brakes are poor, i think they are pretty good but i drive a van every day!

Glad you like the car. You going to keep it for a while now?

[Mr Footlong]

I was just going to say, glad you enjoyed it but I don;t want to know what you think are bad brakes if you think these ones are good! Also, only £40 for 120 miles is good going imo, I never get near that.

I too try to never run it below a quarter of a tank unless I specifically want to drain the tank for as much fresh fuel as possible, or I get caught short with no Tesco 99 pump or V-Power pump in the area.

[Shoppinit]

Have you bought one then?

Sounds fair. I think it's hard to know when you DRC is working properly. It has to be comlpetely kaput before the symptoms become obvious. If you are running at 12bar then the system can still ''work" but not brilliantly. There should be pressure gauges and rapid connectors on the system to be able to monitor it and top it up.

You need to get the TCU modified to stop it kicking down in tiptro. That used to drive me insane. It's soooooooooo much better now. Also it doesn't unlock the TC as soon as you lift off like the OE TCU does so you get much more engine braking and a more "manual" experience.

[neckarsulm]

True 911 brakes are perfection but they are light cars .
Specifically compared to b5 rs4 the c5 brakes feel stronger although I am talking for road use, I'd imagine they smoulder on track within a few laps.
I am not keeping the c5, well not unless mpg improves . Average was 25 when I started the trip, last owner saw 27 driving sedately so not bad.
Might keep a can in the car and see if it's really used all that v power . It was 144.9 ppl btw

[Mr Footlong]

Don't get attached then, I average the high 11-low 12's when not motorway cruising, not that I tend to actually cruise when on the motorway I don't think I get much over 20 when on cruise at 70-80 or so but I just don't ever bother looking at the MPG, I just leave it on range.

[Mr V10]

Nice write up, I can't believe you find the C5 interior better than the C6 one. I had a C6 loan car for a month, then back to the C5 and the interior felt crap, really cheap and dated. Took me a while to adjust.

[mik15]

nice write-up though i too think that the C6 interior looks very good and the quality is top end but i do also find the C5 having a great quality interior compared with even newer cars from Merc, BMW and even Audi...in the past years looks like the quality of the materials has gone down hill...the fuel gauge i guess it's a common issue, mine does the same thing, mostly when it drops below 2/3, this is why i got to fuel up very often, i hate when it's doing this...

the gearbox kickdown, i guess you're referring to shifting on gear down, and not to the actual kick-down button under the pedal, mine it's not so sensitive to down shifting and it doesn't downshift in tiptronic unless i hit the kickdown button under the pedal, otherwise it will just go with the gear it's in, regardless how much gas i give her...

[Mr Footlong]

Sounds like you have a different TCU mapping style to me then as when in tiptronic, the car WILL NOT kickdown, even if the foot is planted to the floor. This is exactly how I like it and how it should be imo with driving by paddles.

[mik15]

could be, mine has the ABT kit so it might have a different TCU map, i am not sure....but i have only noticed this when doing 50mph and floored it, didn't try while in other gears as i downshift using the paddles when in tiptronic so i don't need to push the pedal as in D...

[Shoppinit]

when in tiptronic, the car WILL NOT kickdown, even if the foot is planted to the floor. This is exactly how I like it and how it should be imo with driving by paddles.

+1

[Mr Footlong]

I could somehow be wrong but I am 99% certain that on my MRC map it disables it. Anyone with a MRC map tcu map like me, feel free to correct me.

[Shoppinit]

You need to get the TCU modified to stop it kicking down in tiptro. That used to drive me insane. It's soooooooooo much better now. Also it doesn't unlock the TC as soon as you lift off like the OE TCU does so you get much more engine braking and a more "manual" experience.

[neckarsulm]

What I meant was that it feels like better quality materials have been used in the C5 than the later cars - my wife commented how the doors felt heavy and she perceived this as reassuringly solid - the dash looks "hewn from granite" - on the C6 & B8 the dash plastics are inferior especially centre console area and I think the binnacle housing plus I always found the climate switches a bit cheap looking. I think C6 had a mild mid-term facelift to improve this which the C6 RS6 probably got.

Good news is I let it idle for a bit while washing it and the gauge went up a bit and range went to 25 miles which is bit more palletable!

Mik15 you are correct, in auto mode it will shift down a gear before kick down if you are trying to accelerate briskly but not WOT
In manual mode it wont shift down until you go WOT and hit kickdown

[Shoppinit]

Mik15 you are correct, in auto mode it will shift down a gear before kick down if you are trying to accelerate briskly but not WOT
In manual mode it wont shift down until you go WOT and hit kickdown

You can't go WOT without kickdown. The kickdown signal is sent when the accelerator position is at 85% or higher. Either your TCU is modified and it ignores the kickdown signal in tiptro or you have a standard TCU and if it's not kicking down then you are not requesting maximum power from the engine or the revs are too high to kickdown.